The Construction of Meaning for the Emotional Labor

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of the research is to understand how the organization can assign meaning to the emotional labor performed by salespeople in the experience store. For this, it was analyzed the sources of the meaning of the work in the process of managing the emotions realized by the salespeople. Originality/value: There are few studies in the international literature that proposed to articulate the meaning of work (Rosso, Dekas & Wrzesniewski, 2010) and management of emotions (Grandey, 2000) and there is no research about it on the national level. Based on this gap, the present research proposes that the meaning of work and management of emotions are intrinsically related in the management field, as a way of homogenizing behaviors and feelings related to work and organization. The originality of the research is to explain how organizations can establish mechanisms of meaning to work and contribute to processes of management of emotions with a more genuine character, and, consequently, how this subjective form of the work contributes to the construction of the brand experience in the sales environment. Design/methodology/approach: This is qualitative research that occurred in an experienced store located in the city of São Paulo. The methodological strategy was to enter the universe of work of the salespeople, through participant observation technique, with the purpose of understanding and explaining how the sources of the meaning of the work can contribute in the process of management of the emotions realized by the salespeople. The Hermeneutics was adopted for data analysis. Findings: The research presents that the sources of the meaning of work promoted by the organization, such as "authenticity", "self-efficacy", "belonging", "self-esteem", "sense of purpose" and "transcendence" mobilizes the salespeople's genuine emotions toward organizational goals.

Meaning of work in a group of school principals: the role of organizational variables

“…Regarding the significant effect of organizational variables, our findings support previous literature on the contributions of organizational culture and structure on the meaning of work (Nielsen et al , 2008; Koyuncu et al , 2012; Rahim and Siti-Rohaida, 2015; Spinelli-De-Sà et al , 2017; Cuéllar-Molina et al , 2018; Santos and Fontenelle, 2019). Most part of these results can be explained by broadening findings on meaning in life and psychological well-being to the organizational context.…”

“…At the same time, some authors showed that eudaimonic dimensions of well-being are related to one another. From an individual point of view, workers with a high sense of mastery and efficacy in their mansions, indeed, are more likely to consider their job as meaningful (Rawsthorne and Elliot, 1999; Wrzesniewski, 2003; Spinelli-De-Sà et al , 2017; Santos and Fontenelle, 2019). From an organizational point of view, the sense of belonging or affective organizational commitment has been connected to work meaning (Spinelli-De-Sà et al , 2017; Santos and Fontenelle, 2019) and other practices, such as having chances for professional growth (Nielsen et al , 2008; Koyuncu et al , 2012; Rahim and Siti-Rohaida, 2015), role clarity (Nielsen et al , 2008; Cuéllar-Molina et al , 2018) and positive feedback from colleagues and supervisors (Merriman, 2017; Sparr and Sonnentag, 2008) have been linked to higher job well-being.…”

Simulated scenes: a pedagogical experiment to reflect about conflict management in nursing care

“…Another point to be highlighted in the context of health work concerns the emotional rules of the organization disseminated through discourses shared by the group, which can determine not only the emotions transmitted, but also a sense of purpose that shows direction and intentionality at work. Individuals receptive to this purpose produced by the organization, realizing and accepting the mission of his work, will be able to perform the emotional work more naturally, and can justify to themselves the necessary efforts to manage his emotions (22) .…”

The Effect of Psychological Capital and Emotional Labor on Job Performance: A Study on Five Star Hotel Enterprises in Antalya

“…The third strategy, natural and genuine acting, is when the emotions needed by an enterprise are felt by the employee and occur spontaneously (Humphrey, Ashforth, & Diefendorff, 2015). This third form was discussed in few empirical studies (Santos & Fontenelle, 2019). Surface and deep acting have been exemplified by Grandey (2000) as follows: surface acting, reflecting that desired emotions are not real, is like an artificial smile on the face of an employee while they are indeed sad and angry.…”