Spirituality, religion, and emotional labor in the workplace

Abstract

Emotional labor is the regulation of emotional displays as part of a work role. To date, minimal research has considered how spirituality and religion impact the performance and consequences of emotional labor, which is an important omission given a growing awareness that religion and spirituality are important components of people’s lives that continue to inform their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors while at work. Accordingly, we review the literature on emotional labor and develop a series of research questions that focus on issues such as the interplay between organizational and religious expectations for emotional displays toward others, as well as the ability of religious support and beliefs to buffer the negative effects of emotional labor on individual employees. Our hope is that these ideas spark interdisciplinary research on emotional labor that draws on a wider body of perspectives in management.

Teachers’ Emotional Labour and Burnout: Does Perceived Organizational Support Matter?

“…The concept of emotional labour was first introduced by Hochschild (1983) based on her studies of flight attendants, but ensuing research has found emotional labour to be usual in a number of human service occupations and a sizeable predictor of strain in the workplace (Brotheridge, 2006 (Byrne, Morton, & Dahling, 2011). These rules typically forms part of an organization's policy, clarifying which emotions the organization considers apt to show to clients (van Gelderen et al, 2011) or implicit and internalized via experience and socialization into a profession and/or a particular organization (Byrne et al, 2011).…”

“…These rules typically forms part of an organization's policy, clarifying which emotions the organization considers apt to show to clients (van Gelderen et al, 2011) or implicit and internalized via experience and socialization into a profession and/or a particular organization (Byrne et al, 2011).…”

Contextual emotional labor: an exploratory of Muslim female employees in Pakistan

“…There is a growing body of research on emotions in the workplace (Ashkanasy et al, 2002;Byrne et al, 2011;Mukhopadhyay, 2012;Rumens, 2005), described as "an explosion of interest in emotion in organizational behavior" (Fineman, 2004, p. 720). Usually there is a predominant emphasis on emotion display rules in organizations; however recent studies have highlighted the need for a more nuanced understanding of emotional labor (O'Donohoe and Turley, 2006).…”

“…Byrne et al (2011) note that to date, minimal research has considered how spirituality and religion impact the performance and consequences of emotional labor, which is an important omission given that religion and spirituality are important components of people's lives that continue to inform GM 28,4 their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors while at work. The contextual approach recognizes the emotional labor implications of an employee's contact not only with the public but also with her colleagues and other members of the society and the workplace.…”

“…This paper seeks to offer an empirical evaluation of the contextual emotional labor phenomenon. Several scholars have investigated the cultural specificity of emotions, their meanings in social life, and their public display (Byrne et al, 2011;Gergen, 1999;Harré, 1986;Heelas, 1996;Mukhopadhyay, 2012). The capacity to experience specific emotions, it has been argued, is contingent upon having learned to interpret experiences according to the values, norms, and expectations of the cultural context in which one is participating (Patient et al, 2003).…”