The Art of Pacifying an Aggressive Client: ‘Feminine’ Skills and Preventing Violence in Caring Work

Virkki, Tuija

doi:10.1111/j.1468-0432.2007.00365.x

Cited by 39 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…In this way, they drew on interpersonal skills and emotional labour to retreat from the encounter without aggravating the customer, or rather by pacifying the customer. Previous research has documented the emotional labour employees use to pacify violent customers, highlighting the gendered nature of this interaction (Baines, 2004; Baines and Cunningham, ; Virkki, ). This research has also found that the interpersonal skills that employees use are often developed tacitly by watching colleagues or through repeated experience (Virkki, ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘But It's Your Job To Be Friendly’: Employees Coping With and Contesting Sexual Harassment from Customers in the Service Sector

Good

Cooper

2016

Gender Work & Organization

105

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This article analyses how employees in the service sector respond to sexual harassment from customers and attempts to explain why this is so. There are only a small number of previous studies examining the issue of customer-perpetrated sexual harassment. Those that have been conducted have detailed the nature and prevalence of sexual harassment from customers, but this research lags behind employee experience and some emerging policy responses to this issue. The extant literature, whilst growing, remains largely limited to documenting the phenomenon. In this article, we attempt to create a deeper analysis of customer-perpetrated harassment by conducting a new review of the literature to develop propositions about how employees respond to it and the factors that influence their responses. These propositions are analysed in relation to a qualitative pilot study with 15 interviewees who had experienced sexual harassment from customers to understand how they reacted and why. The article shows how the social norms and precarious working conditions of the service sector constrain employees from seeking formal redress, leading to the enactment of informal coping strategies and temporary contestations of the situation. This research is important for building our understanding of the influence of workplace context for framing employee responses to customer sexual harassment.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘But It's Your Job To Be Friendly’: Employees Coping With and Contesting Sexual Harassment from Customers in the Service Sector

Good

Cooper

2016

Gender Work & Organization

105

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“…2005; Ryan & Bowers 2005), but there were also studies conducted in Sweden (Carlsson et al . 2000) and Finland (Virkki 2008). Table 2 provides a summary of the major findings of each study.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They express genuine concern for the patient, appear non‐threatening and have a permissive, non‐authoritarian manner (Carlsson et al . 2000; Duperouzel 2008; Gertz 1980; Johnson & Hauser 2001; Lane 1986, Virkki 2008). These qualities help to gain the patient's trust, making appeals for self‐control more likely to be accepted (Duperouzel 2008; Lowe 1992).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Key components of de‐escalation techniques: A thematic synthesis

Price

Baker

2012

Int J Mental Health Nurs

114

141

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De-escalation techniques are a highly recommended set of therapeutic interventions that are frequently used to prevent violence and aggression within mental health services. A thematic synthesis literature review identified 11 international papers. Seven themes emerged from the data synthesis. The first three related broadly to staff skills, including: characteristics of effective de-escalators, maintaining personal control, and verbal and non-verbal skills. The last four relate to the process of intervening and include: engaging with the patient, when to intervene, ensuring safe conditions for de-escalation, and strategies for de-escalation (including two sub-themes, autonomy confirming interventions, and limit-setting and authoritative interventions). De-escalation techniques are an example of a complex intervention, which has been overlooked by rigorous research, and it is often assumed that staff are able to perform these techniques in clinical practice. KEY WORDS: de-escalation techniques, literature review, nursing interventions, violence and aggression management.

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“…As indicated in the examples given, room attendants as front‐line service employees are expected to have competencies in ‘sophisticated social intelligence’ so as to deter the guest without giving offence (Harris, , p. 146). Some employees, frequently the older ones, deployed humour to deal with and pacify difficult customers, thus reproducing the gendered attributes of subordination (Virkki, ). In this way the socio‐cultural model within attendants' workplaces enabled sexual harassment to operate as a mechanism to maintain male dominance (Bedford and Hwang, ; O'Hare and O'Donohue, ).…”

Section: Hotel Workplace Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual Harassment of Women Working as Room Attendants within 5‐Star Hotels

Kensbock¹,

Bailey²,

Jennings³

et al. 2014

Gender Work & Organization

106

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Given the gendered power relations and the isolated nature of women hotel room attendants' working environments, guest‐initiated sexual harassment experienced by room attendants is a significant, under‐investigated problem. This study of women attendants' experiences of sexual harassment was conducted in 5‐star hotels located on the Gold Coast — a notable tourism destination — of Queensland, Australia. Adopting a socialist–feminist critical theory epistemological perspective, the study used a qualitative constructivist grounded theory methodology. The research reveals the pervasiveness of sexual harassment experienced by women hotel room attendants. In particular, this study illuminates the varied forms, meanings and consequences of sexual harassment in a particular organizational context. In focusing on the interacting effects of the gendered nature of the hotel workplace and the hotel workplace culture, the near‐complete ‘normalization’ of sexual harassment within the hotels is revealed. This outcome is a source of considerable concern, with implications for the industry, for employment relations institutions and for public policy.

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The Art of Pacifying an Aggressive Client: ‘Feminine’ Skills and Preventing Violence in Caring Work

Cited by 39 publications

References 15 publications

‘But It's Your Job To Be Friendly’: Employees Coping With and Contesting Sexual Harassment from Customers in the Service Sector

‘But It's Your Job To Be Friendly’: Employees Coping With and Contesting Sexual Harassment from Customers in the Service Sector

Key components of de‐escalation techniques: A thematic synthesis

Sexual Harassment of Women Working as Room Attendants within 5‐Star Hotels

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