The primary purpose of this study was to explore and identify the meaning and importance of service for health professionals. Those who participated in this study are all registered nurses who each have between 10 and 40 years of clinical nursing and nurse lecturing experience. The participants each wrote two stories, one about the meaning of service and the other about the importance of service. Definitions of service generally suggest organised labour involving an act of help or assistance. Our intent was to understand what constituted service for each of us in the healthcare - and specifically the nursing practice/education - context.A secondary purpose of this qualitative research was guided by participatory and critical theory paradigms. Seven participants and I (as the initiating researcher) formed a co-operative inquiry group to undertake the research using a collaborative process. Within this method the leader and the group became co-participants and co-researchers. Nurses and women are identified as marginalised people and by honouring the principles of co-operative inquiry we were empowered through this process. While the initial data was analysed thematically by the lead researcher, the original 19 sub-themes were refined by participants into five themes.The findings of the participants are consistent with overseas studies on emotional labour and sentimental work. The five themes that emerged as the meaning of service are helping, giving, elements of service, acts of doing, and pride in work. Helping was defined as an attitude and an action, which often results in a spiritual connection. Giving involves stretching yourself, and altruistic behaviour that also incorporated a spiritual component. Five sub-themes merged to form the third theme elements of service; working with people, being a public servant, being a servant, need and duty. The complexity and hidden aspect of service work was expressed in acts of doing where being professional was paramount. The final theme, pride in work, acknowledged childhood conditioning and a sense of contributing to the greater good through our unique work as nurses. This study affirmed that service has much importance to those involved and deepened our understanding of the blend of meanings service expresses.

Magister Commercii - MCom / The increasing demand for client-centred services in a highly competitive business environment has resulted in a substantial increase in the number of call centres world wide (Knight 2004 cited in Carrim, Basson & Coetzee, 2006; Nel & De Villiers 2004 cited in Carrim et al., 2006; Williams, 2000 cited in Carrim et al., 2006). According to Holdsworth and Cartwright (2003); Malhotra and Mukherjee (2004); Singh and Goolsby (1994), the work of a customer service representative is seen as one of the ten most stressful jobs in the present-day world economy. Customer service representatives are highly susceptible to elevated levels of stress and burnout, more so than in any other work environment. Within the call centre environment specifically, turnover has been identified as one of the most pressing problems in terms of scope (levels or percentages of turnover), cost and productivity (O’Herron, 2003 cited in Spies, 2006). Factors that lead to unhappiness in call centres are, inter alia, the monotony and repetitiveness of the job content. This situation is aggravated by lack of opportunities for promotion and by stress (Worldroom Digest, 2004 cited in Carrim et al., 2006). In addition, Hochschild (1983) posits that organisations in the service industry do not hesitate to “commercialize” employees’ emotions as a means to attract and retain customers. Research suggests that service providers are under implicit and explicit pressure to regulate their emotions as a tool to lure customers into patronizing the organisation. In recent studies, several key factors were identified that are commonly associated with turnover intention among customer service representatives, namely, work overload, monitoring and surveillance of employees, competing management goals, upward career movement, lack of skill variety, and emotional labour (Cordes & Dougherty, 1993; Deery et al., 2002; Deery & Kinnie, 2004; Holman, 2004; Singh, 2000; Zapf, Isic, Bechtoldt & Blau, 2003). If not dealt with appropriately, stress, burnout and emotional labour can increase the turnover rate, which accordingly can be damaging to the organisation. The current research was conducted at an outbound call centre in a retail organisation in the Western Cape. The sample comprised of a hundred and sixty three call centre employees who are employed in the collections/outbound department. Convenience sampling was utilised. A self-developed Biographical Questionnaire, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson, 1981), the Emotional Labour Scale (Brotheridge & Lee, 2003), the Experience of Work and Life Circumstances Questionnaire (Van Zyl &Van der walt, 1994), and the Turnover Intentions Questionnaire (Roodt, 2004) were used to collect the data. The data was analysed using SPSS and the results were interpreted by means of descriptive and inferential statistics (the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient, T-Test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Multiple Regression Analysis. The results indicate that there is a moderate relationship between stress and intention to leave the organisation amongst the sample of employees. There was also a significant relationship between burnout and intention to leave the organisation. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between emotional labour and intention to leave the organisation. Further findings of the current study are: there are significant differences in stress based on employees’ gender and tenure, a significant difference in burnout with regards to gender and employment type, and significant differences between emotional labour based on gender and tenure. However, no significant difference was found between burnout and tenure, nor was there a significant difference between emotional labour and employment type. Recommendations are made to alleviate the effects of stress on call centre employees which in turn, will minimise the effects of burnout and emotional labour. Recommendations included the development of wellness programmes, stress management programmes, coping programmes and effective communications as a mean to shape employee perceptions regarding their interpretation of organisational demands, threats or opportunities and to enhance call centre employees’ performance within their work. / South Africa

This study, written by Fredrica Eurén and Linnea Skoglund, is about how prison guards who work in a detention department in Stockholm experience the treatment of homeless people who are taken into care due to intoxication. The captive homeless often receive an extra favorable treatment from the prison guards that differs from the standardized work routines. The motivations for special treatment are based on the meeting that takes place between the homeless person in care and the prison guard. The deviations that are made, as well as extra benefits that are given to the homeless in care, include food and drink and also the opportunity to stay longer in custody so that the homeless person can spend a little more time inside. The results are analyzed using two theories: emotional work and street level bureaucracy. These theories partly explain how employees in certain professions cope with emotions, and partly how employees at street level within government organizations use their discretion in decision making. Similar studies have been carried out in prison, but not in arrest as examined in this study. The results suggest that the prison guards, to some extent, feel a kind of civil courage towards the homeless, which in turn means that they provide more favorable treatment to the homeless in custody. / Denna studie av Fredrica Eurén och Linnea Skoglund, handlar om hur kriminalvårdare som arbetar på arrestavdelning i Stockholm upplever hanteringen av hemlösa som omhändertas på grund av berusning. De omhändertagna hemlösa erhåller många gånger en extra förmånlig behandling av kriminalvårdarna, vilket skiljer sig från de standardiserade arbetsrutiner som finns inom myndigheten. Avstegen från rutinerna som görs, samt även motiveringarna till denna specialbehandling, baseras i grunden på det möte som sker mellan den omhändertagna hemlöse och kriminalvårdaren. De avsteg samt extra förmåner som ges till omhändertagna hemlösa, är bland annat mat och dryck samt möjligheten till att få stanna längre på arresten för att den intagne ska få spendera lite mer tid under tak. Resultatet analyseras med hjälp av två teorier: emotionellt arbete och gräsrotsbyråkrati. Dessa förklarar dels hur medarbetare inom vissa yrken arbetar med känslor på arbetet samt hur de hanterar dessa, dels hur medarbetare på gatunivå inom myndighetsorganisationer agerar inom ett visst handlingsutrymme som ges dem. Liknande studier har genomförts på anstalter, men inte på arresten såsom denna studie undersöker. Resultatet talar för att kriminalvårdarna till viss del känner en typ av civilkurage gentemot de hemlösa, vilket i sin tur gör att de ger mer förmånlig behandling till omhändertagna hemlösa.

This exploratory study investigates the serving experiences of seven women with work experience in the Victoria, BC restaurant community before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Informed by work from Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis on social performance and Candace West and Don Zimmerman’s ideas on doing gender, my overall goal is to answer the following research question(s): How do women servers in Victoria, BC perceive their restaurant work and has the COVID-19 pandemic influenced their serving experiences? Specifically, if the pandemic has changed the industry, what are these key changes, and might they affect the future of restaurant work? The research findings reveal that Canadian restaurants are gendered worksites, and while the pandemic facilitated some positive changes for servers it also surfaced longstanding restaurant concerns. / Graduate

The diploma thesis New services and emotion management in postindustrial society concerns about the new kind of services, which started to occupy a very important position in the most intimate and personal spheres of human life (partner life, bringing up or even giving birth to children). With the development of these services the society finds itself on the border of "commodification", when more and more realms of human life is governed by market mechanisms and things, which used to belong to personal life, are becoming just goods for us. The borders between these two areas are more permeable and that reflects upon borrowing of rhetorics and discourses across these realms. With shifting of boarders our ways of thinking, feeling and acting change. Some kind of depersonalization arises and our relationship to our own personal life and to its meaning is becoming mediated by those services and those, who provide them. With these changes individuals deal through involvement of emotion labor. In the thesis these mechanisms and their influence on feeling and acting on the personal level and formation of self are explored. Explored are also the functioning of contradictory mechanisms of decommodification, which are being involved when the logic of market goes too far and individuum begins to feel too...

Inom restaurangbranschen finns det krav och normer för hur en servitris ska bemöta restaurangens gäster. Dessa krav ingår i arbetsrollen och påverkar servitrisens emotioner och självkänsla, vilket skapar en emotionell belastning för servitriserna. För att lindra den emotionella påfrestningen använder de sig av copingstrategier för att behålla självkänslan i balans och fortsätta arbeta inom yrket. Studiens syfte är att utifrån ett socialpsykologiskt perspektiv få en djupare förståelse för hur social interaktion inom restaurangbranschen påverkar servitrisens självkänsla och emotioner. Studien använderen kvalitativ metod med 10 semistrukturerade intervjuer som genomfördes på respondenternas arbetsplatser. Teorierna som används fokuserar på självkänsla, emotionellt lönearbete och copingstrategier. En tematisk analys används för att identifiera mönster och teman i det insamlade materialet. Resultatet visar att servitrisens arbete skapar en emotionell belastning och påverkar självkänslan. Därför använder servitriser olika copingstrategier för att hantera den emotionella belastningen på arbetsplatsen. Några viktiga faktorer som påverkar självkänslan och emotionerna är kundbemötande, feedback från gäster och chefen samt att arbeta enligt yrkeskraven.Respondenterna hanterar de negativa emotionerna genom socialt stöd och använder sin fritid för återhämtning, för att bibehålla balansen mellan arbetslivet och fritiden. / In the restaurant industry, there are requirements and standards about how a waitress should treat the restaurant's guests. These demands are part of the work role and affect the waitress's emotions and self-esteem, which creates an emotional burden for the waitresses. To alleviate the emotional strain, they use coping strategies to keep their self-esteem in balance and continue working in the profession. The purpose of the study is based on a social psychological perspective to gain a deeper understanding of how social interaction within the restaurant industry affects the waitress's self-esteem and emotions. The study is based on a qualitative method with 10 semi-structured interviews that were conducted at the respondents' workplaces. The theories in the study focused on self-esteem, emotional labor and coping strategies. The study used a thematic analysis to identify patterns and themes in the collected material. The results showed that working as a waitress creates an emotional burden, and affects the waitress's self-esteem. Therefore, waitresses used various coping strategies to manage the emotional burden in the workplace. Some important factors that influence self-esteem and emotions are customer service, feedback from guests and the manager, and working according to professional requirements. The respondents dealt with the negative emotions with the help of social support and they recovered in their free time to find a balance between work life and free time.

The aim of this study was to examine professional resilience among social workers. Professional resilience in this study included three dimensions; organizational, relational and emotional resilience. Resilience was described in this study as recuperation and resistance. The aim was to see which resilience factors contribute to social workers staying at their workplaces for more than two years. The study was based on six interviews with social workers at the social services in social child care in Sweden. The theory of emotional wage labor and the concept of SOC, Sense of Coherence, were used as theoretical frameworks. The study concluded that social workers stay longer than two years in their workplaces in social child care, primarily thanks to their colleagues. Other important factors for social workers to thrive were leadership and personal qualities, such as the emotional ability to leave the job at work and not engage too much emotionally.

In Sweden, new parents are always offered a visit from a child health care nurse. Usually the home visit takes place with only the child health care nurse. In a smaller municipality in Sweden, a decision has been made that home visits should take place in teams. The team consists of a child health care nurse and a representative from the Social Services. The aim of this study is to explore the role of emotions and emotional rules in meetings between parents, child health care nurses and representatives from the Social Services that take place in a home environment. The study also aims to investigate how emotions are shaped by the professional role (as child health care nurse and Social Services representative) as well as the place (the home of the parents). The data in the study has been gathered through a qualitative research method and eight interviews were conducted with child health care nurses as well as representatives from the Social Services. The data has been analyzed through sociology of emotions as well as Goffman's dramaturgical perspective. The results of the study shows that emotional rules and professional emotional rules are most present in the emotional labour that child health care nurses and representatives from the Social Services perform at home visits in teams. The professionals strive to convey and provide security to the new parents by adhering to emotional rules and professional emotional rules. Furthermore, it appears that the professional role and the place are of great importance for the role of emotions during home visits. Given that the meeting takes place in the private sphere of the home means that the professionals refrain from ending up in a discussion with the parents. However, they feel more comfortable having that kind of discussion at the health center.

Socialtjänsten har ett stort ansvar när det kommer till barn och unga och ska verka för att de växer upp under goda och trygga förhållande. Att arbeta med barn och unga inom ramen för socialarbete beskrivs som utmanande och många socialarbetare som arbetar med denna målgrupp tenderar att drabbas av sekundär traumatisering och utbrändhet. Hur socialarbetare hanterar och upplever olika känslor som uppstår i deras professionella möte med barn och unga är dock ett område som är relativt outforskat trots att det är något som kan få betydelse för alla involverade. Syftet med denna studie har varit att förstå hur socialarbetarnas känsloarbete ser ut och påverkas i mötet med barn och unga som begått allvarligare brott, för att belysa och tydliggöra socialarbetarnas behov. I denna studie har intervjuer genomförts med sex socionomer som på olika sätt arbetar inom ramen för socialtjänsten i Sverige. Resultatet indikerar att socialarbetare aktivt använder sig av känsloarbete för att upprätthålla professionalism och försöka göra skillnad. Samtidigt upplever de svårigheter att förankra teoretisk kunskap i det praktiska arbetet. Studien indikerar att det kan vara värdefullt att förstå hur socialarbetarnas känsloarbete ser ut för att bidra med kunskap relevant för professionell utveckling och det relationskapande arbetet. / Social services have a great responsibility when it comes to children and young people work to ensure that they grow up in good and safe conditions. Working with children and young people within the framework of social work is described as challenging and many social workers who work with this group tend to suffer from secondary traumatization and burnout. However, how social workers handle and experience different emotions that arise in their professional encounter with children and young people is an area that is relatively unexplored, even though it is something that can be important for everyone involved. The purpose of this thesis has been to understand how social workers emotional labour looks like and is affected in the meeting with children and young people who have committed serious crimes, to highlight and clarify the social workers needs. In this study, interviews have been conducted with six social workers who work within social services in Sweden. The results indicate that social workers actively use emotional labour to maintain professionalism and to try to create change. At the same time, the social workers experience difficulties in anchoring the theoretical knowledge in the practical work. The study indicates that it is valuable to understand social workers emotional labour to contribute knowledge relevant to professional development and the relationship-building work.

The purpose of this study is to examine the perceived freedom of discretion and emotional labour of travel service officers in relation to the austerity in political decisions. The study aims to raise the importance of travel service officers' role in people with reduced mobility lives and ability to move freely and without obstacles in society. The study uses Lipsky’s theory of Street-level bureaucracy to highlight what kind of work travel service officers do, and to analyse their perceived freedom of discretion. Together with Hochschild’s thoughts on emotional labour, which aims to point this study in the right direction when it comes to travel service officers' outlook on emotional labour in their work. The study’s empirical data consists of 10 qualitative interviews lasting approximately 45-60 minutes each. Since the aim is to gain an understanding of how the travel service officers experience their discretion and emotional labour, a phenomenological approach is utilized. The justification for the qualitative approaches is that the focus of the study is on the lived experiences of the travel service officers; human behaviour. The analysis of the collected material of the interviews resulted in 3 themes, The relationship in conversation with customers, the importance of work experience and different roles in the work of travel service officers. The study shows how work experience at the travel service government as an officer affects which role an officer takes on, and how that role affects how they view their discretion and essentially how they perceive their emotional labour as well. The study finds that officers with longer experience tend to have a more personal role with the customers, and the officers with shorter experience tend to take an approach of more authority.