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INDU1111: Org Behav 1: Manag'g Perf of I
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Assignment Organisation Behaviour 1: Managing the Performance
of Individuals.
6.1b Emotional management at the Neighbour- hood Dollar- store
Introduction
In the following essays I will discuss the case study titled above and answer the
following questions which involve evaluating how effective the cases are in using
emotional labour and question the credibility of the cases for how emotional labour is
used. The case study shows three individuals who work in a training business called
Neighbour- hood Dollar-Store located in Halifax, Canada. This is run by Affirmative
Industries Nova Scotia. This is programme offers to people a disability an opportunity
to work and gain experience in a working environment.
Even though emotional labour has been under scrutiny by Sharon Bolton (2005)
(who produced the workplace emotion theory) the theory developed by Hochschild
(1983) ‘The Managed Heart’ still remain the most dominant ideology in emotional
labour.
Emotional labour can be defined as the “process by which workers are expected to
manage their feelings in accordance with organizationally defined rules and
guidelines.” (Wharton, 2009, p. 147). There are two types of emotional labour that
can be expressed, surface acting which is displaying an emotion for the job such as
being upbeat while working in a customer service sector. The other type is deep
acting which is displaying an emotion that the employee doesn’t feel such as being
energetic and passionate while being a mascot for a sports team.
Q1. With reference to the characters depicted in this case, evaluate how
effective they are in using “emotional labour”. In your answer, please make
reference to at least one of the suggested articles and other sources you feel
are relevant.
The First individual which we will be focused on is “Daniel the reliable”. He
expresses genuine emotion of happy and a cooperative co-worker which is an
important aspect in the first role they have at the Dollar store as they are in charge of
“backroom receiving items and pricing” (Emotional Management at the Neighbour-
hood Dollar-store, 2014). The way Daniel is acting is what is required and is the
correct emotion to have in the work environment. Daniel is defiantly experiencing
emotional labour because some of the key features shown by James. N (1989). The
features Daniel is showing are all key to becoming employable such as, Hard work
because he is an eager learner and makes effort to focus on the task he is given.
Action and reaction because he is quick to implicit the rules which is links into
focusing tasks he is set. Another feature is his ability to communicate and interact
with customers as he possesses presentational management (James, 1989). Daniel
also aspires to gain an improved job in the short term future, which shows he is a
hard worker and is keen to master the current role he has undertaken. Daniel also
expresses acts of professionalism due to him being able to successfully manage
frustrations and sacrificing his needs in order to improve which is a very demanding
emotion to show. Daniel can really be seen as employable now as he can surface
act and be professional at the same time. We know this because in the study by
Totterdell and Holman (2003) of emotional labour in a call centre. They discovered
employees who were naturally positive in their work, were less fatigued and able to
be consistent, therefore concluding that people who can surface act rather than deep
act are more employable. (Brookes, 2008, p. 72)
This shows that Daniel is able to surface act as he is a “very smiley person”
(Emotional Management at the Neighbour-hood Dollar-store, 2014) and also controls
his genuine emotions enough so he improves therefore Daniel is successful in
emotional management and an employable individual.
The next individual is “Peter the Grumpy”. From the case study it can be clearly seen
that Peter struggles with covering his emotions while working. His natural emotion
come across as grumpy and aggressive which therefore emotional management is
needed for him. Since Peter seems to be educated well with a “broad vocabulary”
and is a quick learner. However the emotional side of him holds him back from
coming employable. Since Peter’s father passing away it leaves his emotional state
complicated and difficult to contain in the work place. Acting is not a strong point for
Peter as even though he tries to deep act he actually surface acts meaning that
instead of displaying an emotion that he doesn’t feel himself such as being upbeat,
Peter actually tries too hard to deep act that he surface acts because it’s obvious
that he is trying to manage his emotions.
This overall means that Peter is not very effective at emotional labour because even
though he has the skill and potential to do the roles in Dollar-store his emotions
mean he comes across as negative towards co-workers and customer which is what
management would not want from the employees.
The last person is the “Neil the invisible”. Neil emotions at the start of the programme
where considered shy and quiet, since the role he undertook in the Dollar-store at
the beginning was being back of the store stocking and pricing items. This would
mean Neil would not improve as being a communicator because the only interaction
he would have with people are other co-workers. However that does not mean Neil
should have been put on the shop floor because that could of overwhelmed him.
Over the period Neil has been in the training programme he has managed to
improve his emotional management skills and now can surface act, this would be
because when he was cashier he had the most important role in the store which
gave him new found confidence. Since he is exposed to a lot more interaction with
customers he has been able to improve and become more sociable. However since
he is behind a desk and cash register he would still feel some form of protection.
Overall Neil has drastically improved in emotional management and is successful in
interacting with customers and co-workers with his new skill of surface acting that
disguises his shyness and quietness towards people. However he moving to another
job could mean he loses confidence because he not comfortable with his
surroundings, so easing him into employment would be the best solution.
2. Do you think that this case presents a credible account of how emotional
labour is used? Again, in your answer, please make reference to at least one of
the suggested articles and other sources you feel are relevant.
The case presents a range of individuals who experience a progression in emotional
management and shows if they successfully use emotional labour in the work
environment.
The case study has good detail into the progression of the workers, for example in
the case of “Neil the invisible” it explains as Neil is given higher roles in the dollarstore he gains more confident which has a positive effect on his emotional
management enabling him to be a positive retail employee. This means that the
reader knows if the individuals can successfully display the corporate emotions
needed in a retail job and if they can supress their own emotions that clash with the
packaged emotions consumed by customers a feature of emotional labour
(Hochschild, 1983).
A critique of the credibility of the case is that there are not enough individuals who
are examined therefore meaning the reliability and success rate of the programme
can be questioned. Only having three individuals’ means there is less variety in
results and therefore any conclusions made aren’t going to be reliable, compare this
to the study made by Totterdell and Holman who studied a call centre which is a
much larger sample size. This led them to find more factors and mechanisms within
the work place that affect interpersonal effects on emotional labour (Totterdell,
2009).
Another reason to why this case is a good example of emotional labour is because
the roles the employees undertake are real roles and the interaction they have with
customers are real. Meaning the individuals are having real experience in supressing
emotion and acting. This can be seen in the “Daniel the reliable” where he learns to
follow management regulation which leads him to be able to supress feelings of
“boredom and lack of social contact” (Emotional Management at the Neighbour-hood
Dollar-store, 2014). This therefore led to the conclusion of Daniel being ready for
employment and being able to successfully surface act.
Another example is in “Peter the Grumpy” who struggles to display the required
emotions that management expects, this is because he has trouble containing his
own anger and negativity in the workplace. This is a good example of emotional
labour because it shows how Peter isn’t ready to be placed in employment for the
reason that he can’t act or use emotional labour. Even though the roles Peter
undertakes throughout the process there is no real improvement in his ability to
supress emotion, there is even more visible weaknesses that Peter shows as he
progresses through the roles for example being a friendly retail employee while
stocking he struggles to supress the overwhelming emotion of rudeness,
aggressiveness towards customers. This showed that Peter during the real situations
and roles couldn’t use emotional labour effectively.
A final critique of the emotional labour case is that the cases are disabled meaning
that emotions that could occur on the workplace might not apply to real life
situations. Even though the programme is specifically designed for people with
disabilities it means that it could be more difficult for the individuals to supress or
express emotions. Another factor that could considered is that the employees are not
being paid therefore meaning that incentive to work for them is only experience. The
main exchange value of emotional labour is a wage therefore to motivation to work in
the dollar-store might be limited, ‘The Managed Heart’ explains the exchange value
of emotional labour and how employees sell their emotions for wage (Hochschild,
1983). Overall the employees could not be putting enough effort to be successful in
emotional labour because there is no wage in the programme.
In conclusion the case presents a credible account to an extant however the limited
amount of profiles and the lack of incentive holds the case back from becoming a
completely successful account.
Conclusion
In conclusion the emotional labour case shows 3 employees, “Daniel the reliable”
and “Neil the invisible” can successfully use emotional management to be control
emotions and express the management emotions needed in a retail store. The most
successful role was the cashier which provided all three individuals with positives in
emotional management because they felt a sense of control over the operations.
However Peter could not control his overwhelming emotions on the shop floor
therefore meaning he could express the required emotions needed. However
through the programme all three made improvements in there controlling of their
emotions: Daniel supressed the feeling of boredom and lack of social contact, Peter
began trying to supress his anger and aggressiveness which led him to deep acting
however it was considered bad acting and finally Neil, who overcome his shyness
while working on the cashier role, leading him to be able to surface act and
becoming employable.
The case itself was limited in the amount of individuals they examined however the
three they did, were detailed and the roles the provided gave a ‘step ladder’ for
employees to progress through. These positives aspects meant that the programme
was successful for two individuals Daniel and Neil. However more employees would
be needed to examine for the programme to be considered successful and effective
in educating people in using emotional labour.
References
Brookes, I. (2008). Organisational Behaviour: Individuals, Groups and Organisations. Financial Times/
Prentice Hall; 4th Edition.
(2014). Emotional Management at the Neighbour-hood Dollar-store.
Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The Managaed Heart. The University of California Press.
James, N. (1989). Emotional labour: skill and work in the social regulation of feelings. Sociological
Review, 37, 15-42.
Totterdell, K. N. (2009). Affect regulation and well-being in the workplace: An interpersonal
perspective. Handbook and Managerial Behaviour and Occupational Health, 218-228.
Wharton, A. S. (2009). The Sociology of Emotional Labour . Annual Review of Sociology , 147.