Emotional Labour Analysis

868 Words2 Pages

1. Critically examine the concept of emotional labour, and the implications for current management and workplace practices in ANZ in Australia, and offshore.
Introduction:
Emotional labour is the display of expected emotions by service agents during service encounters. It is performed through surface acting, deep acting, or the expression of genuine emotion. (Ashforth and Humprey, 1993). For service industries like ANZ, emotional labour plays a major role in terms of customer service. The priority and the concept of emotional labour is fairly new as organisations now solely focus around customer service. Emotional labour can lead to stress towards employees, as companies may give unrealistic expectations. This is essay is furthermore going to discuss emotional labour focusing on ANZ bank and how the espoused theory may not be the reality of the practice of emotional labour. Many theorist, which include Hochschild (1983), Ashforth and Humprey (1993) and Morris and Feldman (1996) have analysed emotional labour in-depth. This essay is furthermore going to explore theories and implications emotional labour has in the workplace.

What are the theories of emotional labour?

Many theorist have researched the concept of emotional labour, and although there were many similarities, there were distinctive differences. In terms of similarities, Hochschild (1983), Ashforth and Humprey (1993), Morris and Feldman (1996) concluded that emotional labour has an impact on the quality of life of the employee. By all studies, they have recognized that each sector of the workforce use different techniques in reference to emotional labour. For example, an individual that works at a children’s play centre are expected to feel and act happy and cheerful,...

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...his can be increasingly stressful compared to a bank tellers job.

Implications of emotional labour

How does ANZ pressure employees
As organisations nowadays strive for customer satisfaction, this can have a major impact on the organisations employees. The reality of the practice of emotional labour can lead to a decreased quality of life for employees. In regards to ANZ, money to individuals is a very sensitive and important factor and due to that, employees always need to seem happy and friendly even if customers are rude or employees are going through personal problems. This can cause stress and can make employees feel as if they are unappreciated within the organisation. As profits for ANZ continually increase, ANZ Bank may give unrealistic tasks and goals to employees. These tasks of continually improving customer service may see employees ‘burn out’

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