Emotional Labour among Women Leaders within the South African Consulting Industry: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Inquiry

Abstract

The opinion that the workplace should be viewed as a rational environment is being swiftly dismantled by acknowledging and harnessing the power of emotions in favour of individual and organisational outcomes. This study explored the lived experiences of emotional labour among women leaders in the consulting industry in South Africa. A qualitative study was conducted and informed by the hermeneutic phenomenological perspective. Data were gathered through in-depth, unstructured interviews with eight women leaders resident in the Gauteng Province, South Africa. The data gathered were analysed by applying a hermeneutic phenomenological analysis, and interpreted from a work- and personally related emotional labour stance. The empirical findings suggest that these women leaders enjoy very little work-life balance, which is accepted as common practice in this industry. Role complexity and personal life obligations result in role conflict. Their emotional wellbeing is adversely affected, which manifests in guilt, loneliness, loss of identity, alienation, shame and the emotional exhaustion they experience. Furthermore, it seems that adequate organisational support is not experienced by women leaders in this volatile, highly pressured emotional context. This study contributes to the field of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, the literature on emotional labour, as well as human resource practices such as talent management, retention strategies and the career management of women leaders in the consulting industry by making suggestions for human resource practices and future research.

Impact of surface acting and deep acting techniques on teachers’ organizational commitment

“…It is presumed that allowing emotional liberty may hamper organizational activities (Yin et al, 2017) or lead to irrationality (Verhoef and Terblanche, 2015). So, EL process is usually designed to regulate employees' emotions, PRR 4,1 behaviours, thoughts and actions to conform with organizational desired emotions (Christoforou and Ashforth, 2015;Huys and Renz, 2017;Pillay et al, 2019).…”

“…For instance, Grandey et al (2015) submit that both SA and DA involve suppression of felt emotions. Researchers (Kidwell et al, 2011;Pillay et al, 2019;Yin et al, 2019) assent that suppressing felt emotions for organizational required emotions often contribute to employees' feelings of detachment from the organization. Brotheridge and Lee (2003) note that suppressing emotions can inhibit employees' sense of belongingness, connectedness with colleagues or organizational goals.…”

The ethics of service work in a neoliberal healthcare context: doing embodied and “dirty” emotional labor

“…Although we do not explicitly look at aesthetic of labor, we can see some similarities between our theorizing and Warhurst and Nickson's (2009) work that extends emotion work and embodiment to include the commodification of workers' embodied dispositions (and how they must project a certain 'look' or 'brand'). In a similar way, we argue that the healthcare service workers' emotions and bodies are valorized and commodified by organizations (Hochschild, 1983;Witz et al, 2003;Pillay, 2016). The body as their tool is especially evident in the inherent physicality of their emotional laboring (e.g., giving patients the space to scream and shout, offering home visits, going with them to appointments, even merging bodies with patients by holding hands, etc.)…”

“…Thirdly, we extend work on embodiment at work, embodiment in emotional labor, emotional labor and 'dirty' work, and emotional 'dirty' work. We extend existing work on the commercial value of embodiment and emotions (e.g., Witz et al, 2003;Pillay, 2016) and emotional 'dirty' work by illuminating how emotions and/or bodies are commodified in neoliberal contexts (Warhurst and Nickson, 2009;Rivera and Tracy, 2014;Hoppania and Vaittinen, 2015;Mastracci and Mourtgos, 2021). Further, we extend the research of Rivera (2015) and McMurray and Ward (2014) work to theorize and empirically illustrate how such emotional 'dirty' work is embodiedembodied in how workers absorb the 'dirty' emotions of patients and protect the institution from such 'dirt' (often at the expense of their own well-being), and also in how they absolve themselves from such emotional 'dirt' in an attempt to maintain well-being.…”

Enhancing Service Personnel�s Emotional Labour Techniques: An Empirical Case for Spiritual Intelligence

“…Deep acting relates to "changing one"s feelings regarding an interaction so that emotional expressions naturally fall in line with expectations" (Grandey et al, 2013 p. 207). So, rather than mere faking unfelt feelings, service personnel may actively alter inner feelings to express the emotion they wish to display (Nauman et al, 2019;Pillay et al, 2019). Possibly, by either "directly exhorting the feelings or indirectly experiencing it through trained imagination" (Hochschild, 1983 p. 38).…”