Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T04:54:20.716Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Are business academics in Australia experiencing emotional labour? A call for empirical research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

John Hatzinikolakis
Affiliation:
School of Management, The University of South Australia, Adelaide SA, Australia
Joanna Crossman
Affiliation:
School of Management, The University of South Australia, Adelaide SA, Australia

Abstract

The concept of ‘emotional labour’ is concerned with occasions when feelings are managed to create publically observable emotions in organizational settings in ways that involve them being ‘sold for a wage’ and therefore taking on an ‘exchange value’ (Hochschild (1983: 7). Drawing on an in-depth literature review, this paper explore grounds for arguing that business academics in Australia are experiencing emotional labor. The authors consider the application of findings concerned with emotional labor in a variety of occupations in relation to the context of university business schools. More specifically, they discuss how two decades of increasing marketisation, commercialisation and service orientated university practices may have contributed to emotional labor in Australian university business schools. The paper draws two conclusions. Firstly, educational managers need to be better informed about the positive and negative implications of emotional labor so that they can develop appropriate strategies, guidelines and workplace environments at the organizational level. Secondly, that a review of the literature suggests that empirical research is warranted in order to address the question posed in the title of the paper.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abouserie, R (1996) Stress, coping strategies and job satisfaction in university academic staff, Educational Psychology 16(1): 18.Google Scholar
Abraham, R (1998) Emotional dissonance in organizations: the antecedents, consequences and moderators. Genetic, Social and General Psychology Monographs 124(2): 229247.Google Scholar
Antonacopoulou, E & Gabriel, Y (2001) Emotion, learning and organizational change. Towards an integration of psychoanalytic and other perspectives, Journal of Organizational Change Management 14(5): 435451.Google Scholar
Armon-Jones, C (1988) The thesis of constructionism, in Harré, R (Ed.) The social construction of emotions, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Ashforth, BE & Humphrey, RH (1993) Emotional labor in service roles: the influence of identity, Academy of Management Review 18(1): 86115.Google Scholar
Ashforth, BE & Humphrey, RH (1995) Emotion in the workplace: A reappraisal, Human Relations 48(2): 97125.Google Scholar
Australian Business Deans Council (03 2008) Business as usual: A collaborative and inclusive investigation for sustainability in learning and teaching in Australian university business faculties, Canberra ACT.Google Scholar
Barrett, S (2006) Emotional labor and the permanent casual lecturer: Ideas for a research paper, in Ramani, V & Screedhar, G Eds), Emotional Labor, pp.3043, ICFAI University Press, Hyderabad.Google Scholar
Bellas, ML (1999) Emotional labor in academia: The case of professors, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 561: 96110.Google Scholar
Bolton, S (2000) Who cares? Offering emotion work as a gift in the nursing labor process, Journal of Advanced Nursing 32(3): 580586.Google Scholar
Brotheridge, C (2006) Emotional labor: Antecedents, consequences and practical implications, in Ramani, V & Screedhar, GEmotional Labor, pp.318, ICFAI University Press, Hyderabad.Google Scholar
Buchbinder, H (1993) The market oriented university and the changing role of knowledge, Higher Education 26(3): 331347.Google Scholar
Constanti, P & Gibbs, P (2004) Higher education teachers and emotional labor, International Journal of Education Management 18(4): 243249.Google Scholar
Cooper, CL (1995) Causes, coping and consequences of stress at work, Wiley, Chichester.Google Scholar
Crossman, J (2007) The role of relationships and emotions in student perceptions of learning and assessment, Higher Education and Research Development 26(3): 313327.Google Scholar
Cullinane, J (2006) Emotional labor and the role of internal marketing in Ramani, V & Screedhar, G (Eds) Emotional Labor, pp.3043, ICFAI University Press, Hyderabad.Google Scholar
Darwin, C (1872/1965) The expression of the emotions in man and animals, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Descartes, R (1637/1965) A discourse on method, (Veitch, J., Trans.) Everyman's Library, New York.Google Scholar
Domagalski, TA (1999) Emotion in organizations: Main currents, Human Relations, 52(6): 833852.10.1177/001872679905200607Google Scholar
Easton, S & Van Laar, D (1994) Pastoral care in tertiary education: Experiences of lecturers helping students in higher education, Counselling Psychology Quarterly 7(1): 8390.Google Scholar
Goffman, E (1959) The presentation of self in everyday life, Doubleday Anchor, New York.Google Scholar
Goldstein, L (2002) Reclaiming caring in teaching and teaching education, Peter Lang, New York.Google Scholar
Goleman, D (1996) Emotional intelligence, Bloomsbury, London.Google Scholar
Grandey, AA (2000) Emotion regulation in the workplace: A new way to conceptualize emotional labor, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 5(1): 95110.Google Scholar
Harré, R (1988) The social construction of emotions. Basil Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Hawk, T & Lyons, P (2008) Please don't give up on me: When faculty fail to care, Journal of Management Education 32: 316338.Google Scholar
Higginbotham, N, Albrecht, G and Carter, L (2001) Health and Social science. A Transdisciplinary and complexity perspective, Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Hochschild, AR (1983) The managed heart, University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Hochschild, AR (2003) The managed heart. Commercialization of human feeling, University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Isenbarger, L & Michalinos, Z (2006) The emotional labor of caring in teaching, Teaching and Teacher Education 22(1): 120134.Google Scholar
James, N (1992) Care = organization = physical labor + emotional labor, Sociology of Health and Illness 14(5): 488502.Google Scholar
Kernochan, R, McCormick, D & White, J (2007) Spirituality and the management teacher. Reflections of three Buddhists on compassion, minfulness, and selflessness in the classroom, Journal of Management Inquiry 16(1): 6175.Google Scholar
Kinman, G (2001) Pressure points: A review of research on stressors and strains in UK acadmics, Educational Psychology 21(4): 473492.10.1080/01443410120090849Google Scholar
Knights, D & Richards, W (2003) Sex discrimination in UK academia, Gender, Work and Organization 10(2): 213238.10.1111/1468-0432.t01-1-00012Google Scholar
Labaree, D. (2000) On the nature of teaching and teacher education; Difficult practices that look easy, Journal of Teacher Education, 51(3).10.1177/0022487100051003011Google Scholar
Ledgerwood, C (1998) Antecedents of employee burnout in the hotel industry, Progress in Tourism and Hospitality Research 4: 3144.Google Scholar
Leidner, R (1999) Emotional labor in service work, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 561: 8195.Google Scholar
Lutz, C. & White, M. (1986) The anthropology of emotions, Annual Review of Anthropology 15: 405436.Google Scholar
Marginson, S (1995) Markets in education, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.Google Scholar
Marginson, S (2000) Policy forum: Higher education funding trends in the funding of Australian higher education, Australian Economic Review 34(2): 205215.Google Scholar
Marginson, S (2000) Rethinking academic work in the global era, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 22(1): 2335.Google Scholar
Miller, H (1995a) States, economies and the changing labor process of academics: Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, pp. 4059, Society for Research into Higher Education and the Open University Press, Buckingham.Google Scholar
Miller, K (1995b) Empathy and burnout in human service work: An extension of a communication model, Communication Research 22(2): 123147.Google Scholar
Morris, JA & Feldman, DC (1996) The dimensions, antecedents and consequences of emotional labor, Academy of Management Review 21(4): 9861010.Google Scholar
Morris, JA & Feldman, DC (1997) Managing emotions in the workplace, Journal of Managerial Issues 9(3): 257274.Google Scholar
Naring, G; Briet, M & Brouwers, A (2006) Beyond demand–control: Emotional labor and symptoms of burnout in teachers, Work and Stress 20(4): 303315.Google Scholar
Nash, P (1966) Authority and freedom in education: An introduction to the philosophy of education, Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Nietsche, F (1886/1973) Beyond good and evil, (Trans. Hollingdale, R), Penguin, Middlesex.Google Scholar
Ogbonna, E & Harris, L (2004) Work intensification and emotional labor among university lecturers: An exploratory study, Organization Studies 25(7): 11851203.Google Scholar
Oshagbemi, T (1996) Job satisfaction of UK academics, Education Management and Administration 24(4): 389400.Google Scholar
Othman, A, Abdullah, H & Ahmad, J (2008) Emotional intelligence, emotional labor and work effectiveness in service organisations; a proposed model, The Journal of Business Perspective, 12(1): 3142.Google Scholar
Parkin, W (1993) The public and the private: gender, sexuality and emotion, in Fineman, S (Ed.) Emotion in organizations, Sage, London.Google Scholar
Parrot, W (2001) Emotions in social psychology, Psychology Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Pirsig, R (1989) Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. An inquiry into values, Vintage, London.Google Scholar
Provis, C (2001) Ethics of emotional labor, Australian Journal of Applied Ethics, 3(2): 115.Google Scholar
Provis, C (2006) The ethics of emotional labor, in Ramani, V & Screedhar, G (Eds) Emotional Labor, pp. 6787. ICFAI University Press, Hyderabad.Google Scholar
Pugliesi, K (1999) The consequences of emotional labor: Effects on work stress, job satisfaction, and well being, Motivation and Emotion: 23 (2): 125154.Google Scholar
Putman, L & Mumby, D (1993) Organizations, emotion and the myth of rationality, in Fineman, 5 (Ed.) Emotion in organizations, Sage, London.Google Scholar
Rafaeli, A & Sutton, RL (1987) Expression of emotion as part of the work role, Academy of Management Review 12(1): 2337.Google Scholar
Ramani, V (2006) Emotional labor: management control, in Ramani, V & Screedhar, G (Eds) Emotional Labor, pp. 4451. ICFAI Univesity Press, Hyderabad.Google Scholar
Ramani, V & Screedhar, G (Eds) (2006) Emotional Labor. ICFAI Univesity Press, Hyderabad.Google Scholar
Rhoades, G (1998) Market models, managerial institutions, and managed professionals, International Higher Education Fall: 34.Google Scholar
Riddell, R, Silcox, S, Timms, A, Manos, J, Woollatt, C & Payne, W (2008) Practitioners need to engage with emotional labor, Occupational Health 60(4).Google Scholar
Sachs, J & Blackmore, J (1998) You never show you can't cope: Women in school leadership roles managing their emotions, Gender and Education 10(3): 265–79.Google Scholar
Schweitzer, R (1996) Problems and awareness of support services among students at an urban Australian university, Journal of American College Health 45(2): 1724.Google Scholar
Seymour, D (2000) Emotional labor: A comparison between fast food and traditional service work, Hospitality Management 19: 59171.Google Scholar
Shields, S (2002) Speaking from the heart. Gender and the social meaning of emotion, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Shuler, S & Sypher, B (2000) Seeking emotional labor, Management Communication Quarterly 14(1): 5089.Google Scholar
Shuler, S (2007) Autoethnographic emotion: Studying and living emotional labor in the scholarly life, Women's Studies in Communication 30(3): 254283.Google Scholar
Sumsion, J (2000) Caring and Empowerment: A teacher educator's reflection on an ethical dilemma, Teaching in Higher Education 5(2): 167179.Google Scholar
Taylor, FW (1911) The principles of scientific management, Indy Publishing, Boston.Google Scholar
Tolich, MB (1993) Alienating and liberating emotions at work, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 22(3): 361381.10.1177/089124193022003004Google Scholar
Tracy, SJ (2000) Becoming a character for commerce: emotional labor, self subordination, and discursive construction of identity in a total institution, Management Communication Quarterly 14(1): 90128.Google Scholar
Van Dijk, P & Brown, A (2006) Emotional labor and negative job outcomes: An evaluation of the mediating role of emotional dissonance, Journal of Management & Organization 12(2): 101115.Google Scholar
Van Maanen, J & Kunda, G (1989) ‘Real feelings’: Emotional expressions and organizational culture, in Cummings, L (Ed.) Research in Organizational Behavior pp. 43104, JAI Press, Greenwich CT.Google Scholar
Wharton, A (1993) The affective consequences of service work, Work and Occupations 20: 205232.Google Scholar
Wharton, A (1999) The psychosocial consequences of emotional labor, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 561(1): 158177.Google Scholar
Wharton, A and Erickson, R (1993) Managing emotion on the job and at home: understanding the consequences of multiple emotional roles, Academy of Management Review 18: 457486.Google Scholar
Willmott, H (1995) Managing the academics: Commodification and control in the development of university education in the UK, Human Relations 48(9): 9931027.Google Scholar
Winograd, K (2003) The functions of teacher emotions. The good, the bad and the ugly, Teachers Colleges Record, 105(9): 16411673.Google Scholar
Wittgensten, L (1948/1982) Last writings on the philosophy of psychology, (Trans. Luckhardt, CG & Aue, MAE) Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Ybema, J & Smulders, P (2002) Emotional demand and the need to hide emotions at work, Gender and Organization 15: 129146.Google Scholar
Young, P (2000) ‘I might as well give UP’: Self esteem and mature students' feelings about feedback on assignments, Journal of Further and Higher Education 24(3): 409418.Google Scholar
Zapf, D & Holz, M (2006) On the positive and negative effects of emotion work in organizations, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 15(1): 128.Google Scholar