Gender and Emotional Labour - Essay Example

 Emotional Labour The success of businesses in world relies heavily on the emotions of the employees. Emotions play a vital role in how employees operate while performing their duties in the workplace. How employees feel or pretend to feel determines if they will meet their job requirements. It is important for organizations to understand their employees emotional labor status if they want to meet the objectives of their organization (Ashforth & Humphrey, 1993). This enables employees to always have a positive attitude as well as have good moods and emotions while providing service to the customers. This can be done through training and the exposure of knowledge to the employees (Forseth, 2005). Emotional labour and dissonance tells a lot about how difficult it is for employees to maintain a helpful and positive attitude when inside, they are filled with anger and negative personal or work issues (Brody, 1985). Gender is relevant to emotional labour this is because men and women respond differently. This is derived from the biological and genetic distinctiveness as well as the influence of hormones associated with processing and interpreting emotional experiences (Abraham, 1998). Research shows that women are able to integrate information much more effectively than men are. In addition, they also use environmental context in regards to relationships and physical location to prompt emotion. On the other hand, men depend on the internal physiological changes to access how they feel and determine the appropriate emotion. Emotional labour is the management of feelings by employees when providing organizations service and is required to display some set of emotions which are either verbal or nonverbal with the sole purpose of inducing specific feelings and responses to those whom the service is being rendered. Therefore, employees are expected to use their emotions to influence the emotional state of others (Glomb &Tews, 2004). This concept came about in 1983 by a sociologist by the name Arlie Hochschild who created the term ‘emotional labour’. She described the activities that employees do that are beyond mental or physical duties (Hochschild, 1983). This means employees showing a genuine concern for the needs of customers. This includes smiling, shaking customers’ hands while greeting customers as well as making a positive eye contact while providing services to clients ( Jansz & Timmers, 2002). Organizations should always place strategic importance on service orientation to both the external customers, workmates and internal clients as well (J.A & Feidman, 1996). When employees face clients when they are angry or when they are unpleasant, emotional labour can be challenging because it is difficult to hide emotions and continue to smile even when getting negative feedback (Hariland & Malatesha, 1998). It is important for employees to note that no matter what personal or work problems they are undergoing; they have to put on a happy face to get excellent job reviews. Employees should be able to control their emotions (Hatcher, 2003). Two types of labour exist, the deep acting where an individual tries to feel a particular emotion they are thinking. For example, thinking about the positive things and activities while working. This would help an individual become happy thus responding to customers concerns with politeness and enthusiasm. The second emotional labour is surface acting, where individuals fake emotions to meet work requirements (Hochschild, 1983). Generally, men are normally assigned tasks that require aggressiveness and curtness. This is the reason why they are aggressive towards those who break the rules. However, women are wards more likely to complete their work while restraining aggression and anger towards other people. Moreover, women are given more responsibilities in areas that require nurturing, tenderness, and sensitivity (Long, 1997). This is because women are supposedly described as agreeable, charitable, compassionate, and kind (Grandey, 2000). The gender division of emotional labour exists between jobs and workers who are in the same occupation. For example, in a salon, a male hairdresser only requires making just a few compliments to the customer and she will be excited and happy and this will make her come back to the same salon. The words he says are part of his work and is half his success. On the other hand, the female hairdresser cannot make the same compliments and must work harder to impress the customer. The success of the hairdresser is 80% physical work and it only requires 20% of what the hairdresser tells the customer is sufficient (Jick & Fitz, 1999). Some employees express their emotions through crying (Grossman & Wood, 1993). An emotional tear is described according to the type of emotion that triggers people. This can be either the tears of joy or tears of sadness. Individuals express themselves through tears thus communicating emotions that are beyond words ( Lopez, 2006). Therefore, crying is a form of non-verbal communication and expresses an individual’s helplessness and need for comfort and sympathy. According to research, when people cry, they release some form of stress thus producing an effect of relief. Men are known not to cry this is because of tears are not associated to weakness, femininity and cowardice. On the other hand, it is normal and accepted in the society for women to cry. Additionally, in the workplace, tears are present and sometimes individuals cry because of the positive feedback they have received after the completion of a challenging task (Matthews & Everson, 2000). Women are known to be best at care giving and require them to provide a great sensitivity to the needs of other people while expressing their emotions (McDaniel, 2001). Furthermore, women are more likely to display warmth because their emotions show that they are good in maintaining relationships. On the contrary, men are known for maintaining norms and rules to maintain control and gain status (Masrracci & Guy, 2006). Cultural values impose the types of emotions the male and female display and how they may be expressed (Maslach & Jackson, 1985). This is the reason men do not express as well as discourage men from showing they are sad. These values instill beliefs and skills that lead women to be more responsive to their own emotions compared to the men. In addition, women and employees who wore uniforms were more likely to display positive emotions compared to men who wore uniforms (Guy & Newman, 2004). Emotion regulation theory deals with the capability of individuals being able to control their emotional expressions to fit in the situation. Here, individuals influence the kind of emotion to have and how they express these emotions. In addition, cognitive dissonance theory talks about the negative outcomes associated with emotional labour (Wharton & Erickson, 1993). It suggests that individuals become uncomfortable psychologically when they conflicting cognitions between thought and behavior (Gwartney & Lach, 1994). It may also be created when an individual loves their job but hates the employer. Moreover, there is the motivational theory that was developed in the twentieth century. The main aim of this theory was to achieve organizational goals and objectives. Therefore, managers should find a way of connecting and understanding the employees (Bulan & Erickson, 1997). They focus more on human feelings and desires. In 1954, Maslow came up with some of the factors that motivated people generally, rather than in the work place. He further developed the idea of Maslow theory and the hierarchy of needs that began from the physical needs, continuing to less tangible and more fundamental concepts to satisfy emotional fulfillment and achievement. Maslow further argues that a higher level of need, once the lower one is fulfilled, motivates individuals. The lowest needs include food, shelter, clothing, and some other bodily needs (Williams, 2003). After the first level is fulfilled, then the safety, social, need for acceptance and friendship, self esteem, and self-actualization would be fulfilled. Finally, there is the process theory that allows individuals to make own choices about what drives people other than people seeing themselves as able to achieve their goals. These goals may include job satisfaction, which is no longer a precondition for motivation. In addition, process theory includes equity theory and expectancy theory. Equity theory is about individuals being involved in thinking social comparison and exchange (Pugh, 2001). It states that an individual is motivated depending on the reward for effort expended to complete a task as compared to what is believed about other people’s reward relationship. On the contrary, expectancy theory is based on the comparison of outcomes and preferences according to behavior. It is assumed that people will expect a certain result like a reward, if they conduct themselves in a certain way. People’s behaviors is predicted then assumed that they will behave in a rational manner (Pennebaker & Robberts, 1992). Most employers use job satisfaction as a measure to evaluate the employee well being in the workplace. Research also shows that employees in the work place who expressed real smiles without faking while performing their duties had more job satisfaction compared to those who faking emotions (Nixon, 2009). It is important for both the employers and employees to note that showing happiness and empathy is very important for maintaining loyal customers as well as makes a repeat sale. This is because emotions regulate and have an impact while performing work. As a means of presenting a positive image in the organization and making customers feel that they are cared for and appreciated, managing emotions may result in employees having good customer service performance. Finally, Emotional labour and dissonance affect how employees work and the effort they make in ensuring that the goals and objectives of an organization are met. Emotional labour is an indicator and shows how the employees can handle adversity in the workplace. Dissonance occurs when employees are unable to control their emotions, which become an obstacle to performance in the organization (Druckman, 2004). Therefore, managers should be able to identify employees suffering from emotional dissonance and provide a platform that helps deal with personal issues as well as any other problem that may be hindering them to provide and perform work positively. Likewise, the male employees experience higher emotional labour compared to the female employees especially those working in the public sector (Meier & Wilson, 2006). In conclusion, gender and emotional labour should be taken seriously in all organizations. It should be undertaken with an array of emotional labour measures so that emotional labour can be understood in the workplace (Durik & Schultz, 2006). The management should be able to recognize employees undergoing emotional labour and come up with way to manage them. The provision of training is important if the organization is to meet organizational goals and objectives. On the other hand, employees should be able to handle emotional labour especially when they are not in good moods. Both the male and female should be able to be in the forefront in handling clients and their queries positively without being rude even when dealing with difficult customers. This is because emotional labour is a skill that should be cultivated equally in the workplace regardless of gender. Thus, gender equality is not possible as long as the skills are related to a single gender (Erickson & Ritter, 2001). Moreover, emotional expressions like being happy at the workplace and smiling as well as providing friendly comments may lead to excellent work performance. References Abraham, R. 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