Emotion management and solidarity in the workplace: A call for a new research agenda

an article by Jordan McKenzie and Roger Patulny (University of Wollongong, Australia), Rebecca E Olson (University of Queensland, Australia), Alberto Bellocchi (Queensland University of Technology, Australia) and Kathy A Mills (Australian Catholic University, Australia) published in The Sociological Review Volume 67 Issue 3 (May 2019)

Abstract

Research focusing on the management of emotion features prominently in studies of employee attrition, gender inequality and workplace satisfaction, but rarely in research on worker solidarity.

Against a backdrop of increasing individualisation within late modern society, research about workplace management of emotion has become bifurcated along sociological or organisational psychology lines.

Within the sociology literature, management of emotion is theorised as a commercialised, relational and (often) alienating experience. Within organisational psychology literature and research, the emphasis is on harnessing individual traits and skills (e.g. emotional intelligence) to regulate emotions for increased productivity and employee retention.

In this article, the authors call for a new research agenda that prioritises the examination of solidarity between workers alongside the analysis of emotion management. This call is based in a critical reading of the sociological and organisational psychology scholarship addressing the management of emotions.

Through the example of teaching work, the authors provide a critique of scholarship on workplace strategies that promote highly individualised understandings of managing emotions through resilience training and other simplified techniques. They argue that workplaces should recognise the dangers of uncritically adopting individualised strategies for managing emotions, and propose a research agenda that seeks to understand how emotion management can affect worker solidarity.

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Controlling Anger and Happiness at Work: An Examination of Gender Differences

an article by Melissa M. Sloan (Dept of Sociology, Drew University, USA) published in Gender, Work & Organization Volume 19 Issue 4 (July 2012)

Abstract

This article examines gender differences in the emotion management of men and women in the workplace.

The belief in American culture that women are more emotional than men has limited women’s opportunities in many types of work. [It’s not only in American culture that this belief exists.] Because emotional expression is often tightly controlled in the workplace, examining emotion management performed at work presents an opportunity to evaluate gender differences in response to similar working conditions.

Previous research suggests that men and women do not differ in their experiences of emotion and the expression of emotion is linked to status positions. An analysis of survey data collected from workers in a diverse group of occupations illustrates that women express anger less and happiness more than men in the workplace.

Job and status characteristics explain the association between gender and anger management at work but were unrelated to the management of happiness expressions in the workplace.

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