How Control Through Emotional Labour

Although originally written in 1983, The Managed Heart is still an up to date look at an interesting concept: combining emotional feelings with the work one does. At first glance, the notion that emotions may have an impact on one’s work environment seems almost a non-issue. However, Hochschild is not saying that; rather, Hochschild looks at the effect of emotions in the workplace, but also the interaction of those emotions with the work itself. The author’s interest in this topic began at an early age, 12, when she recounts an event in her life: her parents, part of the U.S. Foreign Service, entertained diplomats. Hochschild describes the question that came to her mind as she looked up into the smiling face of a

Emotions of a leader are so important in this aspect of leadership. It is through emotions that the leader will be categorized as ‘toxic’ or

Interaction is an important concept in sociology, and it has been studied from multiple different perspectives. Both Erving Goffman and Arlie Hochschild have made notable contributions to the sociological study of interaction. According to Erving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, interaction can be explained through a dramaturgical model. Within the dramaturgical model, interactions are portrayed as performances, as if a particular social environment is a stage, and the people in that social environment are actors (Goffman). Erving Goffman’s sociological interpretation of interaction is extended by Arlie Hochschild in her piece Feelings Management. Hochschild focuses specifically on performances that are put on in the workplace. Acting in the workplace has become a necessity in the service industry because in many cases, people must act warm and welcoming in order to keep their jobs. This method of acting happy and upbeat in the service industry is called emotional labor. However, as Hochschild explains, emotional labor can cause a strain on service workers, especially when they must act cheerful, even when they feel upset and distressed. The discrepancy between a person’s true emotions and their feigned emotional state is known as emotive dissonance. Continued emotive dissonance can lead to spillover, in which a person’s true emotions come out because they can no longer hold back these emotions. Though emotional labor began in the workplace, Hochschild

In “Exploring the Managed Heart” by Arlie Russel Hochschild and “All the Happy Workers” by William Davies, the authors agree that the emotions of employees are influenced by corporations in order to increase profit, but while Davies suggests workers can resist this phenomenon, Hochschild argues that employees will be affected, even in their private lives. Hochschild uses the term “transmutation,” which is the blending of a worker’s private and public life, to show how corporation’s requirements for “emotional labor” affect the employee’s personal lives (15). To support how corporations are effecting workers personal lives, Hochschild states “transmutation of an emotional system to convey that what we do privately often, unconsciously, to feelings...

In The Managed Heart Hochschild focuses on emotional labour: managing one 's emotions in the work place because it is one 's job to do so. While she touches on some benefits of emotion management, her book focuses on the dangers of losing one 's true self when one 's employer can control how one feels. Her main subjects are bill collectors and flight attendants, both are expected to have extreme (and opposite) emotions on the job.

The workers at the deli chain Pret A Manger is used as a prime example of this by Timothy Noah in his article “Labor of Love.” Noah’s article builds primarily off the work of Arlie Hochschild, who defined “emotional labor,” which is is when employees must "induce or suppress” emotions in order to make the customer "experience a positive feeling" (1-2). According to Noah, Pret’s employees are extreme examples of “emotional laborers,” as they must follow set “Pret Behaviors” at all times. These rules of behavior make positivity and smiling mandatory, and subsequently all Pret workers must not only serve customers food, but also cater to their emotions (2-3). If employees fail to uphold their happy facade they face repercussions, often in the form of withheld bonuses (3). Noah states the stress to perform to these standards at all times makes the employees into “enthusiasm cops,” watching and enforcing these emotional behaviors onto one another, and as Noah puts it, “further constricting any space for a reserved and private self” (3). It is in this way that Pret manipulates its own workers into doing extra work (emotional labor and the enforcement of it) without extra

Employees are one of the stakeholders for McDonald’s. The employees are internal stakeholders because they work inside the company and have an interest and influence the way it is run. All employees that work for McDonald’s are a stakeholder. For a trainee manager, they need to qualify the needs of employee in McDonald's operations. Therefore, the communications interact between employees is the important skills for a manager to manage the working schedule and so on. McDonalds is also providing training to their workers in terms of management skill, customer service skills and so on so that employee's positive attitude toward customers can bring positive image to the public.

Essentially corporations are treating human emotion as if it were something that can be corrected by regular exercise. Consequently, corporations have their managers be more friend-like to the employees to increase morale, and monitor employee emotion. Although friendly management began with good intent, it extends the corporation’s reach into the employees’ personal lives. With managers as friends the employee is not able to fully detach from emotions associated with work. The only way to avoid a manager that is a friend is to call in sick; this is also one way to resist the control of the corporation (paragraph 22). Both authors agree that emotions generated by an employees’ job blend into their personal lives over time due to the control the company has over its employees. Davies contends that the emotional control stems from overly friendly management, and Hochschild believes the control stems from regulation of certain emotions while on the job. Either view leads to the realization that corporations have exerted an inescapable control on their employees’

If employees are not happy with how the company treats them, that negative energy will be transferred to customers. The company will not always have control over customers, and their reactions to mistakes (which are inevitable), but does have control over how employees deal with mistakes and with the customers. Many fast food employees are reduce their quality to the point of feeling defensive when a manager address them or when a customer challenges them. The strategy is to treat employees as owners, and help them make decisions that benefit

In the Wang (et al 2010) article, the theory is grounded upon several paradigms of existing research. The first analyzes the employee response based upon his or her 'emotion-based' mechanism. The second is one of

For instance, Jason Felix, a Human Resources Technician with College of the Desert describes his thought after having dealt with a rude applicant over the phone, “while physical labor is no walk in the park, dealing with people can leave you just as drained, if not more, and it can take longer to regain your emotional stability” (J. Felix, personal communication, January 30, 2017). After having been cut off, yelled at, and harangued, Jason had to still go about his day as if nothing happened. The use of good customer service in the face of disrespect is reminiscent Karl Marx writes, “the realization of labor appears as a loss of reality for the worker”. It is not the real person who is being polite but the person created for the work environment that is required to be polite. With this in mind, having to create an atmosphere of happiness when one isn’t feeling happy could result in the depersonalization of happiness with the self (Herpertz et al, 2016). The problem then turns into the employee not knowing whether they are actually happy or is only so used to being happy. How does the employee then adjust to the “real world” outside of the workplace? In A Managed Heart by Arlie Russell Hochschild, she speaks with airline attendants who must always create a positive space for passengers, their smiles being of most value to the company. One flight attendant interviewed is quoted saying, “Sometimes I

It is a general understanding that emotions and the workplace do not go along. Nonetheless, emotions are an imminent part of who we are as humans, and emotions are present in influencing our everyday activities and decisions. This makes it highly unlikely and utopic to believe that emotions will not be part of our workplace. The true issue is how to cope with it and how much is in fact too much. Anne Kreamer is a former high executive at Nickelodeon who wrote a book that deals with these issues and concerns, and she wisely addresses them by first defining concepts, and then giving alternatives as to what to do and how to deal with them. She successfully has achieved through her book to reach out to the entire population, and deal with a taboo issue straightforward without affecting sensibilities, and instead opening the minds of millions who have had the opportunity to read her book titled “It’s always personal: Navigating Emotion in the New Workplace.” She manages to incorporate real- life experiences and concerns, as well as biological and scientifically proven facts about emotion, followed by tools and exercises that help people cope with everyday feelings and emotions at the workplace, and even more important, she developed four character descriptions, none of which are mutually exclusive and instead overlap, but all equally important assets to any company. Her book has great impact because she deals with this topic that has

Whatever individuals might be feeling personally should not be taken to their places of work. The emotions which are job-explicit in most cases are the feelings having a place at the place of work. At the same time,

The quality of interpersonal interactions at the Front Desk Department at the Griffith Hotel is poor as evident in the recent complaint by Mr Branson. Other examples of poor interpersonal interaction at the department include ineffective autocratic leadership, weak mentoring relationships, lack of goal congruence, frequent use of formal communication media to admonish subordinates, and a tense working environment. The main problems leading to this situation include a lack of positive downward and horizontal communication, ineffective coordination among various units of the department, such as the night shift and the day shift, and a general absence of empathy among employees. Research shows that empathy can contribute positively to emotional well-being as well as improved levels of customer service by sensitizing employees to the needs, thoughts and feelings of co-workers and clients. It can also promote personal emotional well-being. Empathy is therefore a necessary skill to be developed in managers as well as front-line employees. With a high level of empathy, MS Samantha would have been able to understand the annoyance and frustration of Mr Parsons and would have treated with greater courtesy and concern for his comfort. She would have used appropriate verbal and nonverbal means to satisfy his requirements. The department can avoid such incidents by developing a set of mutually shared values for customer service,

Attitudes and emotions in the workplace are extremely important because they dictate job performance. The emotions that people go through are something that cannot be avoided; however, they can be manipulated. Managers, leaders, CEO’S of companies learn to do this by experience and training. They manipulate employee’s emotions with the purpose of achieving better performance and satisfy an organization’s goals. Although people have always had different emotions, the notion that managers need to care for employee’s satisfaction and happiness is newly implemented in the workplace. In this paper, I will be explaining the impact of attitudes in the workplace, how mood, emotions, attitudes and behavior affect job performance and I will implement the point of view of the CEO of the Defense Commissary Agency, Mr. Joseph Jeu.