Emotional labor involves managing one's own emotions and influencing the emotions of others to meet job expectations. This concept requires individuals to skillfully manage and produce specific feelings to fulfill the emotional demands of their roles. Workers are often expected to regulate their personas during interactions with customers, co-workers, clients, and managers. This includes making decisions about expressing emotions, whether genuinely
felt or not, and suppressing emotions that are felt but not expressed. The ultimate goal is to create a particular feeling in the customer or client that contributes to the success of the company or organization.
Defining Emotional Labor and Its Distinctions
Sociologist Arlie Hochschild provided the initial definition of emotional labor, characterizing it as the display of certain emotions to meet job requirements. It is crucial to distinguish emotional labor from "emotion work." While emotion work refers to displaying emotions one doesn't feel within private spheres, such as with family and friends, emotional labor specifically pertains to emotion management within the workplace, guided by employer expectations. Jobs requiring emotional labor typically involve face-to-face or voice-to-voice contact with the public, demand that the worker produce a specific emotional state in another person, and allow the employer to control employees' emotional activities through training and supervision. Hochschild argued that this commodification process can lead service workers to feel estranged from their own emotions in the workplace.
Emotional labor has been identified as a requirement in a wide array of professions, including education, public administration, law, childcare, healthcare, social work, hospitality, media, advocacy, aviation, and even espionage. For instance, a waitress is expected to perform emotional labor by smiling and expressing positive emotions toward customers. Similarly, a nurse in a hospital is expected to convey warmth and compassion to patients. These examples highlight how emotional regulation is not just a personal trait but a job-specific skill that is often monitored and managed by employers.
Surface Acting vs. Deep Acting
Arlie Hochschild's foundational work on emotional labor identified two primary components: surface acting and deep acting. Surface acting occurs when employees display the emotions required for a job without actually changing their internal feelings. This means they might put on a smile or a cheerful demeanor even if they are feeling otherwise. In contrast, deep acting is a more intensive process where employees actively try to change their internal feelings to align with organizational expectations. This effort aims to produce more natural and genuine emotional displays, making the acting feel more authentic to the individual.
While both surface acting and deep acting aim to project positive emotions to influence customers and achieve business outcomes like sales or positive recommendations, research suggests different impacts on employee well-being. Generally, surface acting has been shown to be more detrimental to employee health. Deep acting, while still an effortful process, can lessen the impact of emotional dissonance, though it does not eliminate it entirely. For example, therapists often use deep acting to engage with clients, making their responses feel more authentic and supportive. This approach helps them control their own emotional responses and take on the emotions of their patients through empathy, emotional stability, and observations, even when dealing with their own personal hardships.
Societal and Organizational Influences on Emotional Labor
The demands of emotional labor are shaped by societal, occupational, and organizational norms. For example, in typically "busy" stores, there might be more acceptance for expressing negative emotions compared to "slow" stores, where employees are expected to adhere strictly to display rules. The emotional culture of an organization significantly influences an employee's commitment to these rules. Additionally, individual dispositional traits, such as emotional expressiveness—the ability to use facial expressions, voice, gestures, and body movements to convey emotions—play a role. Employees with a strong career identity, where their career role is central to their self-identity, may find it easier to express organizationally desired emotions because there is less discrepancy between their expressed behavior and their emotional experience.
Supervisory regulation also plays a critical role in defining display rules at the job level. Supervisors directly influence workers' beliefs about high-performance expectations and their impressions of the need to suppress negative emotions. This oversight ensures that employees consistently meet the emotional demands of their roles. The ethical implications of emotional labor are also important; business ethics can guide employees on how to present feelings consistent with ethical values, helping them regulate their emotions more easily and comfortably while working. This framework helps mitigate the potential negative consequences of emotional work on employees, promoting a healthier work environment.
