Understanding The Role Of Emotional Labor In Employee Performance

Motivation and Emotion in Psychology

There are two major concepts in Psychology- Motivation and emotion. Motivation refers to a process in which there is an impact on direction and the strength of a behavior that is goal specific. Emotions are the feelings that are affected by a pattern of physiological, cognitive and behavioral response to a particular action. Both of them are related to each other as emotions come according to the situation in which the goals are fulfilled, threatened or frustrated. 

Emotional labor refers to a process in which feelings of labor have been managed to fulfill emotional requirement of any particular job. It has been described that labors have to control and manage their emotions at workplace and while interacting with anyone at work. This project is related to the study of the performance of an emotional labor.

Emotional labor means workers that are directly related in dealing with the feelings of the people like customers, managers and colleagues.  According to an article, an emotional labor can be irritating for a worker so emotional worker has to behave according to the situation. Sometimes emotional labor requirement is suitable for one environment but it is not necessary that it should be suitable for some other environment. Emotional labor plays a very important role in dealing with colleagues, suppliers and customers (Humphrey, Ashforth & Diefendorff, 2015).

Employees have to control their emotions at work and this is called as emotional labor. Emotional labor strategies can provide advantages as well as disadvantages for the organization. There are many studies that define the impact of surface acting in different ways like it reduces employee job satisfaction and job performances (Alleydog.com 2018).  Surface acting is necessary for the expansion of understanding as it can result in low effectiveness in work and can increase employee turnover. Leaders are responsible to motivate all the employees to bring new ideas and speak up the same in meetings (Lawless, 2018).  It can be beneficial for both the employees and the organization. If there is any difference between the feelings and the way of showcasing, it can create negative impact for both the parties. Employees should keep a control on their emotions and try to behave in a happy way while interacting with others (Justina, 2015).

Motivation is an important factor for every organization. It clearly shows the methods of inspiring other’s initiatives as well as creativity. It is considered as an extra effort in order to achieve organizational goals. Motivation helps in achieving short term goals and it also helps in creating rewards for the employees (Hochschild, 1983).

The Concept of Emotional Labor

If employees feel motivated then they work with the highest efficiency and accuracy that basically leads to the growth of the organization (Mastracci, Guy & Newman, 2015). Emotional labor plays a high importance in hospitality industry because guests have to be treated in a very good and polite way. Emotional labor is a combination of mental as well as physical emotions shown in the whole work life. (Peng, Y, P, 2015)

Participant details-

1. A- Mr. A is an operational manager in the hospitality industry and his age is 28 years.
2. B- Mr. B is an investment supervisor with the age of 33 years. He works in a Bank.
3. C- Ms. C is a female intern in a restaurant and she is just 2 years old.
4. D- Ms. D is an operation supervisor in an innovative company. Her age is 35 years (Guy, Newman & Mastracci, 2015). 

Participant’s Answers on Questionnaire 

Mr. A is working in hospitality industry on a managerial position. He adores his organization as people there are very helpful. He never thought of leaving the organization because he is fully satisfied. He thinks that sometimes, there is a very critical situation and it becomes difficult to handle the pressure but everyone is very supportive and helpful in the organization. He thinks he is developing well in the organization. As per the interview, Mr. A is considered as one of the deep act (O’Neil, Drillings & O’Neil, 2012.

Mr. B is a 33 years old man who is involved in supervisor investment. He is on a position if director and working in the organization from past 3 years. He is very happy with his organization. When he joined the organization, he was so immature and not confident but now he is a different human being. Once he was in high stress where his supervisor helped him. The standards related to control id fine for him and he just want that there should be more rewards for the high performers (Whiteley, 2002).

Ms. C is a graduate who is an intern. She is very happy with her job as she gets the opportunity to learn different things. She is being treated in a very good way in the organization. As she is an intern for a shorter time period, she would be looking for some other job. According to her, attending workshops helps individual to grow and learn diverse things. A person feels really motivated after attending such seminars (Humphrey, Ashforth & Diefendorff, 2015).

Ms. D is an operations supervisor. She works with the operational manager and she is happy with the behavior of colleagues and the work environment as well. She knows how to create positive relationship. She gets different opportunities to create conclusions and resolve individual concerns and issues. She follows all the standards of the organization and respects the same because she thinks that it is important to create a control over the organization (“Motivational Factors on Learning in a Constructivist Classroom: A Strategy on Learning from 21st Century Learners”, 2018). 

Studies on Emotional Labor and its Impact on Employee Performance

Physical work creates a big damage as physical fatigue and in the same way it can creates an impact on the profitability of specialists, on the other hand enthusiastic work inflicts high damage at workplace as change in work helps in affecting efficiency (Noor & Zainuddin, 2011). Hypothesis expresses that any idea of the activity for doing passionate work creates an impact on the mind. Passionate work includes affecting feeling of a person and its affect can be easily found in the mental health of the representative. Two important factors that impacts mental health are burnout and occupation fulfillment. We create passionate work only if there is a connection between surface-level and profound dimension enthusiastic work (Nilsson, Hansson & Lagerkvist, 2016). 

Conclusion 

As discussed, motivation and emotion are altogether related to each other. There are different perceptions of both the concepts but the main goal us to understand their role in studying and explaining human behavior. It is necessary for employees to control their feelings at work. Employees feel motivated when they achieve any goal and they always try to make their best efforts for the growth of the organization. There are some other employees who fail to achieve the goal and it results in low motivation. As per the paper, passionate work refers to “a component of work action in which the specialist is required to show certain feelings so as to finish the assignments required by the business” (Karim & Weisz, 2011)

Enthusiastic work plays an important role as it requires communication with the partners, clients and providers that is really is critical task. Directors are responsible to keep a focus on the mind and the feelings of their followers. There should be a communication of the feelings that assignment and relationship administrators has to perform as it leads to a more effective and profitable environment (D’ Almeida, 2011).

The author would like to explore a little more about emotional labor and motivation for their future research. These two are the main keys for the success of an organization.

Research explains that there is an inclination to participate in a work full of enthusiasm- surface acting, inclusive of an abnormal state of incoherency between the feeling of an individual and what it looks like. When individuals continuously inspire the worry related to surface acting, they will be more attracted to nervousness and diminished employment execution. 

It creates an impact on the others like the leaders that surface act at work and are liable to be damaging to their representatives with the help of attacking their protection and putting them down. So, as per the data, there is a recommendation that workers should have a control over their emotions in front of the customers. They have to behave in a proper way with a smiling face. Their performance evaluation has been done with the help of the feedback of the customers and comments of the manager. They should encourage everyone by their positive attitude. They should be aware about all the strengths and weaknesses to fix the situations in the best possible way. Instead of blaming others, they should start taking authorities and responsibilities.

References 

Alleydog.com. (2018). Emotion Work definition | Psychology Glossary | alleydog.com. [online] Available at: https://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Emotion+Work [Accessed 10 Dec. 2018]. 

D’ Almeida, D. (2011). Comparative study of motivational factors affecting Male and Female Entrepreneurs. Indian Journal Of Applied Research, 4(6), 65-68. doi: 10.15373/2249555x/june2014/19 

Guy, M., Newman, M., & Mastracci, S. (2015). Emotional labor. London: Routledge.

Hochschild, A.R., 1983. The Managed Heart; Commercialization of Human Feeling. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. 

Humphrey, R., Ashforth, B., & Diefendorff, J. (2015). The bright side of emotional labor. Journal Of Organizational Behavior, 36(6), 749-769. doi: 10.1002/job.2019 

Justina, R. (2015). Motivational Factors that Enhance Students Learning/Achievement. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.2714297 

Lawless, B. (2018). Documenting a labor of love: emotional labor as academic labor. Review Of    Communication, 18(2), 85-97. doi: 10.1080/15358593.2018.1438644 

Mastracci, S., Guy, M., & Newman, M. (2015). Emotional labor and crisis response. London: Routledge. 

Motivational Factors on Learning in a Constructivist Classroom: A Strategy on Learning from 21st Century Learners. (2018). International Journal Of Humanities, Arts And Social Sciences, 4(2). doi: 10.20469/ijhss.4.10004-2 

Nilsson, L., Hansson, H., & Lagerkvist, C. (2016). Motivational Factors for Remaining in or Exiting a Cooperative. Agribusiness, 33(2), 209-225. doi: 10.1002/agr.21480  

Noor, N., & Zainuddin, M. (2011). Emotional labor and burnout among female teachers: Work-family conflict as mediator. Asian Journal Of Social Psychology, 14(4), 283-293. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-839x.2011.01349.x

O’Neil, J., Drillings, M., & O’Neil, H. (2012). Motivation. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.

Peng, Y, P (2015). Buffering the Negative Effects of Surface Acting: The Moderating Role of Supervisor Support in Librarianship. The journal of Academic Librarianship, 1(41)pp. 37-46.

Whiteley, P. (2002). Motivation. Oxford, U.K.: Capstone Pub.

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