Managing the performance of individuals Emotional Labour
Emotional management at the Neighbour-hood Dollar-store
The Neighbour-hood Dollar-Store is a training business located in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada) and run by Affirmative Industries Nova Scotia. It offers people with disabilities an opportunity to learn to work in a store that is open to the public. ‘Ready for work’ is the slogan of the programme, which can be found for example on the letterhead of the store. Trainees (who are called employees in the store, even if they are unpaid) benefit from a close accompaniment by several job coaches. They learn the basic principles of the retail (and customer service) industry, as, for example, receiving, pricing, merchandising, doing cash, doing customer service, inventory etc. The idea behind having a training business is to provide hands-on experience in a setting that allows mistakes and that gives trainees the time to get used to the expectations at their own pace.
The different tasks in the store are organized in a somewhat hierarchical manner. Trainees start off in the backroom receiving items, pricing, then starting to do merchandising in the store at the same time as being available for customer service. “Being on cash” is the last task employees usually start doing in the store, it comes after all the other things as receiving, merchandising, closing and cleaning duties. It therefore signifies a huge step forward for the employees once they are allowed to “do cash” with real money and real customers (before the “real cash”, there is also a training cash machine with play money with which co-workers train each other).
In order to achieve this status, the performance on employees is assessed by senior staff at the Neighbour-hood Dollar-Store, especially with regard to how they management their emotions. An overview of the performance of three employees is presented below.
“Daniel the reliable”
Daniel (19 years) has had a dishwasher job in a restaurant, but it appears that this previous employment does not play out in the same way as it did for James. From the very beginning, he is a very smiling and cooperative co-worker who makes a lot of effort to be on the task and to do things right (his writing and math skills appear to be weak). He realizes very quickly the implicit feeling rules of the store, and one can consider that he already possessed skills in presentational and philanthropic emotion management, as he has been always very involved in athletic activity as for example Ice Hockey or Lacrosse. He learns to blend those skills with pecuniary and prescriptive feeling rules required in retail.
Daniel has learned over the time how to manage different emotions in the workplace including boredom and lack of social contact. He is “ready for employment”, he hopes to keep the job and even move into a better position by “sucking up” the current job, which leaves him by himself in a basement garage. He projects himself into a better-paid position, which makes it worthwhile to retain the current one. It shows that he has also situates himself in a time frame, managing immediate frustrations and needs for the sake of an improvement in the near future. This also hints towards the emotional aspect of professionalism.
“Peter the grumpy”
Peter (19 years old) has a broad vocabulary and few difficulties to master the skills required in the store. It appears that his main challenge definitely lies in managing emotions. The field notes mark very often “grumpy”, “defensive”, “aggressive”, “rude” or “cranky” about him. During shifts, especially in the beginning, staff were often wondering if he would just run away or become violent. However, one could observe how he has set up some strategies to manage overwhelming emotions (asking to step out, going to the bathroom). Peter was very well aware about how far he could go in his behaviour, as the investigator could see how much energy it took him to keep things under control, to do “self-policing”. On the other hand, his rudeness and grumpiness were more difficult to overcome in interactions with staff and customers.
Peter is the one whose emotion management efforts are the most visible, as one can observe in his face how he tries to control strong and overwhelming emotions. Peter is rather on the level of “surface acting” than “deep acting” as it is so obvious that he constantly tries to manage his emotions in the store setting. As an actor, he could be identified rather as a “bad actor” playing the role of a friendly retail employee. Being in the store and being assigned as a cashier, his management skills are improving, and he starts to show more often his humoristic side. But this learning process remains fragile and is complicated by family issues (his father suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and passes away towards the end of the observation period). This, of course, has a huge impact on his emotion management in the store, as it signifies to literally ‘leave at home’ another layer of emotions, as worries and grief. At the end of the year, Peter decides to return to school and take courses in information technology.
“Neil the invisible”
While, for some trainees, emotion work consists also in recognizing boundaries and in reducing extroversion in order to respect what can be called “professional boundaries”, for others, rather introversion and shyness are becoming a challenge. One of those examples would be Neil (24 years) who the field notes characterize as “shy”, “quiet”, and “looks kind of lost”, which means that he would stand on the shop floor as if someone had forgotten him there. When he was talking, he was rather whispering than speaking. Neil slowly overcomes his shyness, as, in retail, it is expected of him to be available and communicative with the customers, to “speak up”.
His goal can be found posted on the “ladder of success” on a sticky note. Over the year, he starts to speak louder, and engages in more interactions with the customers. He looks less ‘lost’ while being on the shop floor (he has learned different ways how to keep busy, e.g. by fixing or reorganizing displays on the shelves). He also becomes more visible once he starts working as the cashier in the store, which is a highly exposed part of the store, as it is at the store entrance and elevated from the rest of the floor. The cashier in the store can usually be seen through the shop window. Standing up there gives the trainee a certain importance and makes visible his/her progress in the training process. The trainee is now responsible enough to handle real money and also the pressure that might come with it – in other words, the trainee is able to manage money as much as emotions in front of the customers. Neil visibly enjoys this recognition
Questions
1. With reference to the characters depicted in this case, evaluate how effective they are in using “emotional labour”. In your answer, please make reference to at least one of the suggested articles and other sources you feel are relevant (answer worth 50%)
2. Do you think that this case presents a credible account of how emotional labour is used? Again, in your answer, please make reference to at least one of the suggested articles and other sources you feel are relevant (answer worth 50%)
Individual case analysis instructions:
Write your answer in a (basic) essay format.
4. Write your answers in proper academic style and particularly ensure you use ‘third person’ narrative, Harvard-style in-text citation and referencing.
5. Use 1.5 line spacing and Ariel or Times Roman 12 font.
6. Utilise at least 8 academic-style resources including those recommended under ‘Additional reading’ (e.g. textbooks, books and journals) to support your points and try to ensure that you use no or only a small number of internet sources.
7. Do not copy any materials you use word for word (including the case-study) unless you identify these sections clearly as quotations and provide accurate in text referencing and acknowledgement in the reference list.
8. If you paraphrase (i.e. rewrite any materials in your own words) you must identify the materials’ sources through in-text referencing and acknowledgement in the reference list.
9. This is an individual exercise please do not work closely with anyone else.
For the case study on emotional labour write approximately 1000 words for question 1, and 1000 words for question 2.
11. Please ensure that you keep to the word limits within 10% – therefore each 1000 word section must be between 900-1100 words.
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