INSTRUCTIONS
Before you begin, read through this entire procedure. Then,follow these steps to complete your project:
1. Create your own working definition of emotional labor.Your definition should include likely effects of emotionallabor, such as fatigue, workplace stress, anxiety, andalienation. Use your definition to guide your fieldresearch and clarify your thinking prior to beginningwork on your term paper.
2. Use the following sources to conduct backgroundresearch. Note: You must use all of these sources for
your project.
a. Robert P. Vecchio, Organizational Behavior,pages 262–263
b. Online sources
1) Context Magazine, "Feeling around the World,"Arlie Hocschild, page 80
http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2008/feeling-around-the-world/
2) Wikipedia: Defining Emotional Labor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_labor
3) "What Is Emotional Labor?" (feminist view)
http://tinyurl.com/kn2zn5y
c. At least one source of your own from the Internet, alibrary source, or elsewhere
3. Prepare a survey for interviewing people in different worksettings. On the survey, leave room for notes you takeduring or immediately following your interview with anysubject. Although you may add questions of your own,include the following questions on your survey:
a. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate yoursatisfaction with your job?
b. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate yoursatisfaction with your present workplace
environment?
c. Are you expected to present yourself in certain waysto customers (patients, passengers, clients, and so on)?
c. If so, how are you expected to present yourself? Tohelp the interviewee answer this question, you mayask one or more of the following questions:
1) Are you expected to follow a sales script?
2) Are you expected to "up-sell" special offers?
3) Are you instructed to always be polite?
4) Are you expected to encourage andsupport patients?
5) Are you supposed to smile when you wouldprefer to scream or frown?
d. Do you feel stress when you feel one way and haveto pretend you feel another way? Can you give me
examples?
e. When you feel some kind of work stress, can you
tell me how you feel about it? (If interviewees need
help answering this question, you may ask, "Does
stress make you feel tired? Frustrated? Amused?
Irritable? Sad?")
4. Follow these guidelines for conducting your research:
a. Interview people in at least three different work settings.
Your subjects might include fast-food workers,
bus or taxi drivers, firefighters, law enforcement officers,
sanitation workers, bank tellers, airline flight
attendants, public school teachers, paramedics, and
social workers—to offer some examples.
b. Interview at least two people from each work setting.
c. To find individuals to interview, begin making contacts
through people you know.
d. During the interview, complete the surveys yourself.
Don't ask the subjects to fill out the forms.
e. Before beginning an interview, tell each subject that
his or her responses will be anonymous. Indeed, it's
advisable to create fictitious names for particular
work venues, for the subjects themselves, and for
any persons mentioned by the subjects. Also, inform
each subject that your written report is for a course,
and that it will not be published anywhere.
f. Allow your respondents to speak freely. Don't allow
your survey form to keep you from taking notes on
unexpected comments, observations, and information
provided by subjects. In other words, keep an
open mind.
g. Don't record an interview on any electronic device,
such as a tape recorder, cell phone, or camcorder,
without the express permission of the subject. If you
do record any interview, destroy or delete any such
digital information upon completion of your
research project.
5. Prepare a five- to eight-page term paper based on your
research. Draft your paper on the basis of your background
reading and your field research. Edit and revise
your draft prior to submitting it to your instructor.
7. Use the following outline as a suggested guide for the
body of your paper:
a. Introduction. Summarize your paper. Briefly
describe what the paper is about and how you went
about writing it.
b. Emotional Labor: Psychological Stress in the
Workplace. Describe emotional labor, including
different perspectives on its nature and its psychological
costs. The material for this section should
come mainly from your background research.
c. Interviews. Explain what you learned from your
interviews, including anecdotal material to engage
the reader and, to a limited extent, offer your interpretations
and impressions.
d. Summary and conclusion. Discuss your overall
impressions, your view on the causes of emotional
labor, and perhaps, how it might be managed or
reduced.
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