Emotional Labor in the Workplace - Research Proposal Example

Emotional Labor in the Workplace - Number- 21808952 Organizational Behavior Project number- 06059800 - Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 1.Introduction 3 1.1Research Objective 3 2.Literature Review 4 2.1Research Questions 5 2.2Research Hypothesis 5 3.Research Methodology 6 3.1Data Collection and Analysis 7 4.Findings 8 5.Summary and Conclusions 8 References 10 Appendix 11 1. Introduction Emotional management or work-place related emotional labour has a significant relation to organizational performance and employee motivation. It is one of the vital skills for efficient organizational management, vis-à-vis the emotional strain of balancing career needs with familial obligations. Nowadays, the problem of stress is mounting in workplaces, with a consistent rise in the numbers of stress leave, sick leave and even bereavement loses. On a serious note, this has a serious implication on the human nature and their reaction in a working environment that affects workforce productivity of an organization. The importance of emotional labour is whether feelings determine norms of an organization or vice versa (Ashforth, & Humphrey, 2013) This paper makes an attempt to conceptualize emotional labour from the existing literature of emotional stress and organizational behavioral performance. On the basis of the theoretical constructs, a limited-survey has been conducted to evaluate the relationship of emotional labour with the concepts of workplace-oriented stress, well-being of en employee and organizational work-oriented factors (Brett & Drasgrow, 2002). It is necessary to understand whether the relationship between emotional labour and behavioral performance is linear or dependant on a variety of factors that affect response (Chu, 2002). 1.1 Research Objective The various sectors of service to manufacturing are getting highly competitive. In delivering quality services, the employee behavior is an important determinant in displaying appropriate emotions in the workplace, especially relevant to customer service occupations. Depending on the size and scale of the business, there is a need to understand the importance and various factors involved in emotional labour, as it has a direct relation to customers expectations. 2. Literature Review The proponent of the concept of Emotional Labour was Arlie Hoschchild in her book, The Managed Heart. The traditional concept of Emotional Labour relates to how people control their emotions at work and personal life. Anything other than the exterior feelings comes under the purview of emotional labour. Looking into the deeply ramified concepts of emotional labour in the literature leads us to an understanding that emotional labour is basis for organizational performance. Therefore, managing emotional stress is quintessential to personal and organization growth. Otherwise, emotional labour may create problems of burnout and stress. Hoschchild’s concept of emotional labour stresses on observations as effortless and emotional displays. These expressions impact on task effectiveness, rather than on personal health or even mental stress (Hochschild, 2012). Again, Emotional labour is also defined as the process of making effort, planning, and controlling emotions that is desirable during interpersonal communication at an organization. Emotional labour is found comprise of four important dimensions, i.e., frequency of interactions, intensity level of emotions, through attentiveness and the length of interaction, all sorts of emotions involved and any emotional dissonance. Emotional dissonance creates job dissatisfaction and emotional exhaustion, despite the outcomes and observable expressions. According to Hochschild (2012), emotional labour is expressed either as surface acting or deep acting. Deep acting is beneficial to people as it develops a high-level of emotional reward and over-rule the strain of masking for the emotional stress (Mann, 2004). Surface acting causes emotional stress and results in customer expectations to be left unmet and the job to be go. It is especially difficult to yield in a service sector, as feeling-based rules are written down as policies. This leads to more and more employees displaying surface-acting, that in due course of time, results in stress to build-up. This necessitates the need to look for means to imbibe deep-acting, as the customer will be more satisfied with the work and would not lead to individual to quit. On a long-term perspective, this is a concern to human resources in workplace (Persaud, 2004). 2.1 Research Questions What management factors are responsible for building up stress among employees in a service sector? What is the relation between stress, job satisfaction and organizational commitment? How can improving emotional stress improve employee turnover and customer satisfaction? 2.2 Research Hypothesis This comparative study considers two specific organizations, related to customer services. One is a restaurant business and another is a call-centre organization. The study considers the following hypotheses in the present context: From the literature, it is clear that there exists a linear process between organizations factors, work-stress and job satisfaction. In a service sector, employees it is necessary to maintain high-levels of emotional regulation as a mark of loyalty towards their services. Emotional stress and emotional labour leads to emotional burn-out This could lead to detachment of customers through depersonalization, affecting the concerned organization. This in turn could lead to negativities among employees, creating a diminished sense of professional self. The hypotheses that are proposed as below: H1a. Increases in stress are significantly related to decreases in job satisfaction for employees H1b. Increases in stress are significantly related to increases in intention to turnover for employees. H2a. Increases in job satisfaction are significantly related to increases in organizational commitment. H2b. Increases in job satisfaction are significantly related to decreases in turnover intention among employees. H3. Increases in organisational commitment are significantly related to decreases in intention to turnover for employees. 3. Research Methodology This a s limited-empirical research study to seek comparative information on the factor of emotional labour in two representative business units, a restaurant and a call centre organization. The employees at various levels are interviewed using semi-structured interviews on a total of 50 employees at various levels. For a small-scale and limited study, semi-structured interview is a very flexible technique for seeking qualitative data. This is a very participatory form of research process, which helps in seeking an in-depth and comparable data (Seashore et al., 1982; (Xie, et al., 2008; Ruppel, et al., 2013). 3.1 Data Collection and Analysis Adopting a participatory form of data collection, this research performs an enquiry on specific organizational and personal employee related information (Xie, et al., 2008). The employees are de-identified and invited over a telephonic survey during normal working hours. The measures of Stress (Emotional and Physical), Job Satisfaction, Organizational commitment, and Intervention to turnover are assessed against a conceptual linear model (Tate et al., 1997; Ruppel, et al., 2013). A questionnaire for data collection has been provided at the end of the essay in the Appendix section of the document. Stress - Work stress was measured to collect reactions related to employees experience in their work environment. Emotional stress includes tension, frustration, and burn-out. Physical stress includes loss of appetite, stomach upset and loss of sleep. This is significant as the relationship between physical stress and job attitudes and intentions is not much explored, as the usual findings indicate a dominance of emotional stress, more than physical ones. Job satisfaction- Job satisfaction is the measure of the respondents’ level of satisfaction with their current position. Organisational commitment- The organisational commitment measured employee feelings of belonging and loyalty to their current company. Ultimate motive of this goal is to reduce stressors, improve the employee mental health condition, reduce stress and manage stress through regular trainings to reduce any probable intentions of turn-over. Intention to turnover- This measures an employee’s intention to leave the company in thoughts or in any form of actions to leave one’s position. 4. Findings On the basis of the results, the linear stress-model has been tested. A bootstrapping method validates the pathways for the tested model. The western literature has indicated of the organizational commitment to be prime mediator to employee job-satisfaction and turnover intention. The relationship between stress and organizational commitment is totally mediated with the element of job satisfaction. A relationship between job-stress and its effects, established through various direct and indirect links, necessities the need for regular evaluation by the Human Resource (HR) department within an organization. These findings provide some practical implications for the HR resources of an organization to introduce programmes designed to reduce employee stress, leading increase of job satisfaction, commitment and responsibility and reduction in the intended employee turnover rates. 5. Summary and Conclusions This is a limited and inter-organizational cross-sectional study considering the problems of employee turnover, in relation to stress, job satisfaction and commitment to organization. The service sector is highly demanding and should improvise ways of motivating employees through proper training, so that they are more responsible to their organizations. From an organizational perspective, businesses should start considering humanistic and more compassionate feeling polices and stop adopting a generalized approach. This study has limitations and data collection has been collected at a single-point using pre-determined attributes, through a pre-applied method bias. Testing and analysis might suffer from a method bias and commonly applied strategy. References Ashforth, B. E. & Humphrey, R. H. (1993). Emotional labor in service roles: The influence of identity. Academy of management review, 18(1), 88-115. Brett, J.M. and Drasgow, F. (Eds) (2002). The Psychology of Work: Theoretically Based Empirical Research. London: Psychology Press. Chu, K. H. L. (2002). The effects of emotional labor on employee work outcomes. Doctoral Dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Hochschild, A. R. (2012). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. California: University of California Press. Mann, S. (2004). People-work: Emotion management, stress and coping. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 32(2), 205-221. Persaud, R. (2004). Faking it: the emotional labour of medicine. Retrieved from :< http://student.bmj.com/student/view-article.html?id=sbmj0409329> Ruppel, C. P., Sims, R. L., & Zeidler, P. (2013). Emotional labour and its outcomes: a study of a Philippine call centre. Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration, 5(3), 246-261. Seashore, S.E., Lawler, E.E., Mirvis, P. and Cammann, C. (Eds) (1982). Observing and Measuring Organizational Change: A Guide to Field Practice. New York: Wiley. Tate, U., Whatley, A. and Clugston, M. (1997). Sources and outcomes of job tension: a three-nation study. International Journal of Management, 14(3), 350-358. Xie, J.L., Schaubroeck, J. & Lam, S.S.K. (2008). Theories of job stress and the role of traditional values: a longitudinal study in China. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(4), 831-848. Appendix The questionnaire schedule for data-collection is as shown below. The scores for each of the statements have to be marked against the specific values, on a pre-defined scale or either 0-6 or 0-9, respectively for each pre-identified criterion, inspired from existing literature. Read More