Comparing the Findings on Emotional Labor in Nurses and Stewardesses - Essay Example

?Compare and contrast the findings from empirical studies on emotional labor in two different jobs (nurses and stewardesses). You must have a minimumof two empirical studies per job. The term “emotional labor” can be applied both to life at work, and life in the home. This is the kind of effort that a person puts into his or her activities beyond the merely functional and skills-based kind. Part of this is an ability to show emotions in a controlled way and empathize with other people, for example displaying kindness and caring. Another part of this part of it is the ability to put one’s own feelings aside, and deal professionally with events and circumstances which are difficult, for example dealing with difficult people or facing danger, injury or even trauma and violence. There are some professions, such as nursing and air stewarding which are recognized as requiring a considerable amount of emotional labor. The evidence from recent scholarship shows that despite equality legislation, the emotional labor of nursing and air stewarding is consistently valued less than other kinds of labor, and that this is related to the association which these two professions have as “women’s work.” Montgomery et al. (2005) examine the emotional labor issue in a sample of 180 doctors and 84 nurses in the context of Greece. The method of investigation used was questionnaires, and the researchers looked for indicators such as hiding negative emotions at work and surface acting at work. The study concludes that in the case of doctors there was spill-over from work to family, while in the nurses there was spill-over from family to work. Both groups were required to perform emotional labor, but this occurred at mainly home for the nurses and at mainly at work for the doctors. The authors acknowledge that the study has limitations, most notably the self-selection element in the way that the sample was derived and possible variations in the degree to which individuals identify with their job role which were not measured. Elements of status and gender were touched upon, but not fully explored and this too, may render the conclusions somewhat suspect. A more in-depth analysis was conducted by Henderson (2001) who looked at 49 nurses from Canada and the United Kingdom who were involved in the care of abused women. The research methods used were individual interview and focus groups of 6-9 nurses. Nurses agreed with the view that they perform this emotional labor of caring in a society which both demands such labor and at the same time refuses to value it properly. The findings show that nurses are very adept at managing professional involvement and professional detachment in their working lives, but that they learn this skill on the job rather than in their training at college. In short, they felt that their education had not prepared them at all for the emotional labor that they found themselves delivering when they started their careers in hospitals. The author perceived this, however, as a matter of learning the theory first, and not realizing its deeper meaning until the opportunity arises to use the theory in practice. The nurses reported low status in the workplace, and perceived this as being directly linked to the old-fashioned view that nursing is “women’s work” and therefore inferior to other professions. This finding matches the findings of the Montgomery et al. study. In the case of air stewards, and particularly stewardesses, these same themes of low status and association with “women’s work” occur in a study by Chang and Chiu (2009) which used a questionnaire to explore the feelings of 353 Taiwanese flight attendants on this topic. The results indicated that female cabin crew face relatively high stress levels which contributes in some cases to exhaustion in the long run. Working conditions are cramped, with little opportunity for rest, schedules are unpredictable, and stewardesses are in the front line of company objectives to improve service quality. Despite these pressures, high levels of emotional control are required with the result that “Long term emotional stress and relatively intense emotional labor result in emotional exhaustion.” (Chang and Chiu: 2009, p. 306) This is acknowledged as the first stage of burnout. The study hypothesized that flight attendants with different backgrounds will have different feelings about emotional labor and emotional exhaustion, and that flight attendants’ emotional labor will correlate with and be predictive of emotional exhaustion. The results show that older respondents and well educated respondents experience stronger feelings about emotional labor and also more exhaustion, and the hypotheses were all found to be true in this sample. One recommendation given was that employers should support employees, rather than clients, and offer the flight attendants more understanding. All three of these empirical studies reveal interesting results which cause the researchers to question more deeply the relationship between emotional labor, the workplace, and society’s expectations of workers, and especially female workers. A further study by Taylor and Tyler uses ethnographic rather than just survey or interview based methods to explore these issues further. Non participant observation of training and operational flights was a feature of this study, followed by interviews with 25 flight attendants and 48 passengers. Despite the relatively small sample, this study produced very interesting results, especially in relation to surface acting of flight attendants. Gendered assumptions about “natural” abilities and “personalities” of women and men are found to be common in the airlines studied, and the presentation and performance of the female body as feminine was particularly valued by management, employees and passengers. In summary, then, it is clear that both nursing and flight attendant professions recruit and traind individuals who are expected to measure up to gendered notions of suitability for emotional labor as part of the job specification. These employees are aware of the lower status that this necessarily entails and this is an additional stress in their already demanding careers. While there is evidence of growing awareness of these issues among employees, there is little evidence that the prevailing opinions in the world of hospital or airline management are likely to change in the near future. References Chang. C-P. and Chiu, J-M. 2009. Flight attendants’ Emotional Labor and Exhaustion in the Taiwanese Airline Industry. Journal of Service Science and Management 2, pp. 305-311. Available online at: http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?paperID=967 Henderson, A. 2001. Emotional labor and nursing: an under-appreciated aspect of caring work. Nursing Enquiry 8 (2), pp. 130-138. Montgomery, A., Panagopolou, E. and Benos, A. 2005. Emotional labour at work and at home among Greek health-care professionals. Journal of Health Organization and Management 19 (4/5), pp. 1477-7266. Taylor, S. and Tyler, M. Emotional Labour and Sexual Difference in the Airline Industry. 2000. Work, Employment & Society 14 (1), pp. 77-95. Available at: http://www.uk.sagepub.com/fineman/Reading%20On/Chapter%2016c%20-%20Taylor%20and%20Tyler.pdf Read More