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Necessary Evils and the Management of Emotion

Necessary Evils and the Management of Emotion . Andy Molinsky Joshua Margolis Brandeis University Harvard University. Plan for Session . Motivation for Study Study Design Selected Findings Your Feedback !. Benefits of Emotional Labor. Motivates debtors to pay bills (Sutton, 1991)

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Necessary Evils and the Management of Emotion

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  1. Necessary Evils and the Management of Emotion • Andy MolinskyJoshua Margolis • Brandeis UniversityHarvard University

  2. Plan for Session • Motivation for Study • Study Design • Selected Findings • Your Feedback !

  3. Benefits of Emotional Labor • Motivates debtors to pay bills(Sutton, 1991) • Increases compliance in criminal investigations(Rafaeli & Sutton, 1991) • Improves perceptions of service quality(Pugh, 2001) • Enhances sales and customer loyalty(Hochschild, 1983) • Enables doctors to hide inappropriate feelings during patient-physician interactions(Smith & Kleinman, 1989) • Reduces wrongful termination lawsuits(Lind et al., 2000)

  4. Burdens of Emotional Labor • Emotional exhaustion (Morris & Feldman, 1996) • Emotional dissonance (Hochschild, 1983; Sutton, 1991; Thoits, 1985) • Inauthenticity (Ashforth and Tomiuk 2000; Ashforth & Humphrey 1993) • Burnout (Morris & Feldman, 1996)

  5. A Gap in Emotional Labor Research Little research about how peoplemanage the BURDENS to achieve the BENEFITS

  6. A Few Exceptions • Hochschild’s flight attendants (1979, 1983) • Venting emotion, deep acting • Sutton’s bill collectors (1991) • Venting emotion, cognitive appraisal • Smith & Kleinman’s medical students (1989) • Venting (through humor), cognitive appraisal, shifting focus, empathizing with patient

  7. What about coping research? • Long tradition of how people cope with everyday stressors (Lazarus and Folkman 1984; Pearlin and Schooler 1978; Thoits 1983, 1984, 1991; Gross 1998) • But a critique from within(e.g. Coyne, 2000; Thoits, 1994) • Too Broad (coping in everyday life) or toosimple (coping with one emotion) • Non-interactive (doesn’t take into account the actions, expressed emotion of other person/people in the situation) • Too Static/Non-dynamic (doesn’t address coping in ongoing interactions with waves of emotion) • Out of context (doesn’t take into account opportunities and constraints of professional settings)

  8. NecessaryEvil A work-related task in which an individual must, as part of his or her job, perform an act that causes emotional or physical pain and discomfort to another human being in the service of achieving some perceived greater good or purpose.

  9. Necessary Evils Data • Managers and Executives (N = 44) • Performing layoffs • Delivering performance appraisal • Punishing, reprimanding • Police Officers (N = 22) • Evicting people from their home • Repossessing property (serving warrants) • Pediatric Physicians (N = 25) • Delivering bad news • Performing painful procedures • Addiction Counselors (N = 20) • Breaking people down emotionally to rehabilitate them

  10. Method • 111 Semi-Structured Interviews; 300 Episodes • 1342 Passages • Field Observations (Officers, Counselors, Doctors) • Open Coding of Interviews (atlas ti) • Consensus Coding (2 pairs of coders) • Emotions (the “internal experience”) • Emotion Regulation (Functions and Tactics)

  11. Norms for Expressed Emotion • Management (layoffs, performance reviews) • Expected: Calm, compassionate, serious • Taboo: Angry, annoyed, anxious, frustrated, too much compassion • Police Work (evictions, warrants) • Expected: Confident, serious, strong • Taboo: Anxious, uncertain • Medicine (medical procedures, bad news) • Expected: Compassionate, confident • Taboo: Angry, anxious, uncertain, frustrated • Addiction Counselors (terminations, reprimands) • Expected: Calm, angry (reprimand), compassionate (post-reprimand, termination) • Taboo: Anxious, uncertain

  12. Experienced Emotion: Illustrations Literally had diarrhea for four days. Took probably two Tums in the morning, two at lunch and two in the afternoon. Then four extra strength Excedrin for headaches, two in the morning, two in the afternoon. The Excedrin I had to do for about two weeks. Literally had to leave mid-afternoon to go outside and walk around the building for just fresh air. To try to reduce headache. Try to relieve stress. [Manager 6, male] When the man was writhing, in pain, shaking, sweating and calling out in pain, I felt awful. I started to get very hot and sweaty and nervous. I knew that I had to finish, but felt like I was doing an inadequate job of packing the wound. I resented the attending for making me do what I felt was suboptimal work and mostly for causing this poor man unnecessary pain and suffering. I remember just wanting to get the whole procedure over as fast as possible. [Doctor 10, female]

  13. Experienced Emotion: Metaphors • Game of poker • Marathon • Emotional rollercoaster • Barrel going over the falls • Going into a college exam knowing that you are going to get an F • Riding a bike for the first time • Making a child eat his peas • War • Lifting weights (no pain/no gain)

  14. Experienced Emotion: Dimensions

  15. Meta-Functions, Functions, and Tactics • MODULATE EXPOSURE TO EMOTION [meta-function #1] • BLOCKING emotion [function #1] • Reaction Prevention [tactic #1] • Detaching the Self [tactic #2] • MODULATE IMPACT OF EMOTION (on task performance) [meta-function #2] • EXTINGUISHING emotion [function #2] • DILUTING emotion [function #3] • Self-Coaxing [tactic #1] • Self-Soothing [tactic #2] • DEFLECTING emotion [function #4] • Focus [tactic #1] • “Just do it” [tactic #2] • Self-coach [tactic #3] • EXHALE EMOTION [meta-function #3] • RELEASING [function #5] • CHANNELING [function #6]

  16. Reaction Prevention Definition: Manage interaction or control physical setting to reduce target’s emotional reaction (thereby minimizing one’s own) Illustration #1: “If you're looking around for like a gauze; or if you're looking around for something, or you don't know what's going on next, kind of, or you have to think about it, the patients get a little bit more uncomfortable and edgy, also. Whereas, if you have everything laid out, and you just go about it step by step, and make it look very methodical, like you've done it many times; it makes them more comfortable, and it gives you less to think about. So, I would definitely say be prepared and practice as much as you can, even if you don't have opportunities after you do it, and have a layout in your head about what you need to do.” [Doctor 2, female, 24]

  17. Reaction Prevention Illustration #2: “For me it helped me that I had practiced in my mind what exactly I was going to say to her. So that I wouldn’t get in there and be feeling for things, and grasping for things. And I also tried to anticipate, in my head, the things that she would come back with, and the things that she would say, like, you know, for example, I said to her, “Melanie, you’ve missed at least three days of work since I’ve been here in March.” And I knew she’d say, “No, I haven’t.” And she did do that. You know, things like that I tried to anticipate. So I tried to bring with me the facts, you know, have all my facts, and my ducks in a row helped me personally to stay focused on that, and keep my own emotion out of it, and deal with her emotion as it rose during the situation.” [Manager 19, female, 41]

  18. Self-Coaxing Definition: Reducing intensity of emotion by supplying oneself with explanations/justifications for why the task must be done Illustration #1: “I never liked the feeling of hearing a kid’s cry, but the more I’m convinced that it really needs to be done, the better I feel about it. Just – if there were a better – if there were a less painful way to do it, we would have chosen that. The reason we chose this way is because people have thought very carefully through the risks and benefits of making it less painful, and we’ve chosen what’s best and really I’m really helping that child even though for that moment, the child doesn’t realize it.” [Doctor 9, male]

  19. Self-Coaxing Illustration #2: “It’s not easy. I don’t think it’s easy. But I just remind myself of what I’m there to do, and it’s a job, and I am not the person that’s decided to lay them off. And my job is to be helpful to them. And I consciously tell myself that. I consciously tell myself that. If that makes sense.” [Manager19, female, 41] Illustration #3: “When the white coat is on and when you're being a doctor, it makes perfect sense that you have to do this, you know because its part of the job and you know that you're expected to rise above the situation that most people might have emotional difficulty doing. And like you're the one everyone is counting on so you fulfill your role and I think also, you know, part of that role is also knowing that these unusual and crazy thinks have to be done in order to carry out your duties in that role which is eventually leading to helping someone.” [Doctor 5, male, 24]

  20. Forms of Self-Coaxing

  21. Channel • Definition: Relieve oneself of emotion by directing that emotion into behavior that reflects the emotion • Note: Channeling often entailed positive emotion such as sympathy and compassion, but sometimes entailed negative emotion such as anger and annoyance (e.g. at the Addiction facility where anger and annoyance was a functional, intended feature of external emotional expression)

  22. Channel Emotion Illustration #1: “It's nice maybe the next -- later on that day to go back and talk to parents; it makes you feel a little better about yourself, when you talk to them when their kid is calm and happy, and you go and bring them the results and tell them what you're going to do with this now. So, I think that follow-up sort of helps you, as much as it helps the families.” [Doctor 2, female] Illustration #2: Field Notes (Officer Charles)

  23. Frequency of Emotion Regulation: Average # of Functions by Episode

  24. Inventiveness -Three Ways • Variation • Emotion regulation tactics serve multiple functions (e.g. block, extinguish, dilute etc.) • Coordination • People use multiple tactics/functions within an episode • People use distinct “chords” of tactics/functions (under analysis) • Customization • People use what’s available to them in professional setting • Meaning • Time, space, physical objects

  25. Thank you!

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