Managing the commercialised heart: A challenge for the HR profession

SriLankan Airlines Ltd. Head of Human Resources Pradeepa Kekulawala hopes to introduce a new layer of understanding to the field of Human Resource Management through the management of emotional labour.  

It deals with ‘feelings on the job’ and takes into account the emotional work done by employees to maintain particular standards of behaviour expected by an organisation. For the first time we see the emotional work done by employees being referred to as ‘labour’ in recognition of the fact that, like physical labour, it needs to be taken into account. 

The benefits of managing emotional labour are twofold. It can be felt within the organisation in the increased job satisfaction and morale of employees and in the creation of solid teams. It also gives the organisation a competitive advantage in the service which they provide. For Sri Lankan Airlines this would be the promise of treating every customer as a guest with genuine Sri Lankan hospitality and warmth at every service point both on the ground and in the skies.

The concept was perceived and developed on research based on the training and development of the cabin crew of Delta Airlines of the US. Kekulawala has been conducting his own research on this topic with the hope of using the knowledge towards contributing to the industry at large, his own organisation and the HR profession.

He spoke to the Daily FT about his thoughts on this new approach and what he believes, is the future of the field of Human Resource Management. Following are some excerpts: 

SriLankan Airlines Ltd. Head of Human Resources Pradeepa Kekulawala

By Senuri de Silva 

Q: What is emotional labour?

A: Emotional labour can be defined as a publicly observable verbal and bodily display of emotions in service transactions. To explain this further, organisations at times dictate to people how they should behave; how they should engage the customer, how they should talk to the customer – basically, how the facial and bodily expression should be. There is a pre determined set of display rules to follow irrespective of how an employee really feels in general or at that moment. This requires mental effort and that is known as emotional labour. 

For example a funeral director who goes with the funeral procession, looks sombre and himself in grief which in actual fact is not the case but that’s the role his job demands of him. Another example would be Airline cabin crew who is required to interact in a certain way, serve in a certain way, take complaints and compliments in a certain way. It might not be the exact way they feel. That is emotional labour. 

 

Q: How did this concept evolve?

A: The concept of emotional labour evolved through studies and research work done by a lady by the name of Arlie Russell Hochschild who was a consultant attached to Delta Airlines in the US which also resulted in her authoring a very interesting book called ‘The Managed Heart: Commercialisation of Human Feeling’. So Hochschild is the pioneer or the founder of the concept of emotional labour. Hocshchild was involved in training of cabin crew. She says she was seated one day in the auditorium observing a training on Dos and Don’ts of onboard service and suddenly she says two words came into her mind; which were ‘Emotional Labour’ with the sudden realisation that, than physical labour these people are  labouring emotionally. It resulted in more research and her book which opened floodgates to a host of research into this area. 

 

Q: What is your interest in emotional labour? What led you to do research on this area?

A: Essentially and fundamentally in my job as a management person and a human resource professional I always deal with people. Therefore my job and that of others engaged likewise requires ‘emotional intelligence’ or a high ‘emotional quotient’. It’s not about IQ anymore its EQ and it’s all about interactions between people. So when I was reading up on some of these areas I came across this term emotional labour which got me intrigued. I started reading more about it which led me to Hocshchild’s book. Since I’m in the airline industry this is very relevant to my area of work especially as a human resource professional. It’s a part of organisational behaviour. This led me to start research into the concept and dynamics of emotional labour. 

 

Q: What are the influencers and consequences of emotional labour?

A: Emotional labour or ‘behaving in an organisationally desired manner’ very specifically is about verbal and bodily display of emotions. In any one to one engagement between two or more people either face to face or over the telephone, the way they talk and behave with each other is what each person perceives the other to be. In a customer-service provider interaction the way the service provider behaves represents the work ethic and customer service philosophy of the organisation that he or she represents. Therefore organisations develop ‘display rules’ to their frontline staff to follow.

If the service-provider staff are not totally aligned to this philosophy or do not naturally feel the way they are supposed to show emotion, they are forced to do so. In this exercise of emotional labour we do three things. Faking unfelt emotions such as happiness, concern, care, assertiveness, suppressing felt emotions such as worry, anger, exhaustion; and following organisational display rules. It has been empirically found out through research that this act of emotional labour has two aspects. One is called surface acting (SA) and the other is called deep acting (DA). 

Surface acting is when you don’t feel at all the way you are supposed to act so it becomes a total act. Receptionists, telephone operators maybe even crew in certain airlines or call centre agents talk to you in a very scripted and rehearsed manner without natural feeling. That’s surface acting. The other aspect or deep acting is actually trying to feel the way you should be feeling or supposed to feel which is closer to the truth. The further we are away from the true natural feeling within us, there is a greater dissonance or mental strain. 

The consequences of emotional labour are that it can result in job dissatisfaction, de motivation and also emotional burnout. Main influencers of emotional labour are the display rules of an organisation, the frequency of display of these rules and the variety of emotions that you need to display. 

As said earlier there are two ways in which you deliver emotional labour; face to face or over the phone. It has been found empirically that face to face emotional labour is more taxing than over the phone. There have been other studies done whether gender matters. Between male and female, who gets affected more? There is no great divide but it has been found that women find it more taxing because they find it harder to suppress and/or fake emotions. 

 

Q: What kinds of employee groups are more susceptible to or engage in emotional labour?

A: It’s mostly employee groups who are engaged in service engagements or service transactions. Basically it can be customer service, public service, or employee service. If you look at customer service, examples would be airline crew, supermarkets or any other shop or boutique sales people, amusement park animators or any other frontline staff, telephone operators or call centres agents. 

Taking the public service into account, emotional labour is done by any public servant who meets the public to discharge a service. Emotional labour is a fundamental act of people who deal with human beings such as human resource professionals, counsellors and doctors, because their own emotions can’t overshadow the professionalism required and what needs to be done. 

 

Q: How important is it for an organisation to manage negative aspects and consequences of emotional labour and how can emotional labour be managed?

A: As I said the consequences of emotional labour are of concern because the consequences are the emotional burn out of people and de motivation at work and it has also been found out that it also spills over to private lives even affecting domestic peace of mind. Now if you don’t manage this in an effective manner organisations will definitely not benefit because their people would not be the right people who should be working in the organisation; being a de motivated work force. It’s bad for the people in the first place and it’s bad for the organisations’ survival. 

How we should manage it is a part of my research. I am of the firm belief that there are two things that helps you to manage this. One is in the hands of the person or the staff and the other aspect is in the hands of the organisation. What is in the hands of the organisation is effective employee engagement. An engaged employee is not just a motivated employee. Engagement is something more than motivation and I would like to call it passion. You need to make the employees passionate about their job. That is something the organisation can do through building culture, interventions such as training, coaching and mentoring to basically get you to get up in the morning with a bang, go to work and love every moment of your job. Then your surface acting diminishes and you’re engaged in deep acting. That means you actually feel close to how you should feel and act. Engaging employees effectively in their jobs and creating passion, I attempt to establish as one way of getting rid of emotional dissonance or the negative strains of emotional labour. 

Secondly on the part of the individual it’s the intrinsic motivation or the motivation within you which can help to get rid of the ill effects of emotional labour. Intrinsic motivation is not motivation fuelled by monetary rewards. Intrinsic motivation does not have outside influencing factors. It’s a psychological stimulation or a state of mind that you come to. Of course the right work ethic, the right working atmosphere and the way the organisation treats the people can be the fuelling factors of intrinsic motivation. Some of us are by nature very active and motivated on the go. Some of us need a little push and some of us need a good kick to get us to work. The intrinsically motivated person will find it much easier to tackle the ill effects of emotional labour as he will be even beyond deep acting and performing with natural feeling actually living it. 

Employee engagement and intrinsic motivation are two areas that need more study. I am trying to prove through research that employee engagement and intrinsic motivation can take away the ill effects of emotional labour. 

 

Q: How does EL impact the bottom line of the company?

A: The ill effects of emotional labour will definitely impact the bottom line of a company. De motivation, burn out and lack of interest in the job, will cause productivity to suffer. We will have a sub optimised workforce if we don’t tackle emotional labour.  

Sub optimisation means you’re not optimising on your productivity and if you’re not optimising on your productivity you’ll use more than needed to perform a certain job and that will have a negative impact on the bottom line. The performance indicators will go down and people will be a burden resulting in negative bottom lines.

 

Q: Do you see any specific relationship between the HR profession and the concept of emotional labour?

A: Yes. I think the HR profession cannot be divorced or detached from or be alien towards the concept of emotional labour because emotional labour is all about human beings and the HR profession is rooted in human beings. It is a fact that HR professionals have to be aligned to the concept and the different dimensions and dynamics of emotional labour to ensure their work force does not suffer from its ill effects. 

They should take positive and effective action to manage emotional labour and to create conditions that negate surface acting but encourage deep acting which can be transformed to real feeling or acting with real feeling. I think, in the future a priority key result area for HR professionals will be managing emotions of people and transforming negativity to positive energy in the context managing emotional labour.