This doctoral thesis investigates a relatively under-researched aspect of teachers’ emotions: namely, teachers’ emotions towards assessment. It generates a conceptual framework and methodological tool for the investigation into and analysis of teachers’ assessment practice, which consists of three concepts: emotions, emotional rules and emotional labour. Following Nussbaum (2001), emotions are viewed as cognitive, i.e. as evaluative judgements of objects important to a person’s flourishing. Following Turner (2007, 2010), emotions are understood as a generalised symbolic medium exchanged between people within institutions, making positive emotions a desirable resource that enhance a person’s flourishing. The thesis also draws on Hochschild (1983/2003), Zembylas (2005), Theodosius (2008) and Archer (2000), to expand, systematize and operationalize the concepts of emotional rules and labour, which increase the visibility of teachers’ emotions and illustrate how assessment, like teaching, is an “emotional practice” (Hargreaves, 1998). This conceptual frame opens possibilities for further research into the nascent field of teachers’ emotions and assessment. Data was collected through seven focus group interviews with nineteen teachers. The teachers were selected as a purposive sample: committed to their work of enabling learner achievement, engaged in professional development and working in functional schools. A thick description of teachers’ emotions foregrounded three main ‘objects’ of assessment: learner achievement, the assessment practices of marking and giving feedback, and accountability demands. Findings show the identity of committed teachers’ as interdependent with learner achievement: teachers gain positive emotions and the motivation to continue their work when learners do well, but are disappointed and filled with self-doubt when learners do badly. In their assessment practice, committed teachers are often overwhelmed by endless marking, yet continuously strive to make judgements and give feedback in ways that are fair, just and empowering for learners. The “panic accountability” of departmental demands undermines and demeans teachers, generating outrage and alienation. Key claims arising from the research are: 1. Teachers’ emotions occupy a strategic position as an inevitable filter through which all policy aimed at achieving the national project of high learner achievement must pass, so teachers’ emotions towards assessment and accountability have the power to enhance or destabilise learner achievement and are thus a valid concern for educational research, policy and practice. 2. As seen through their emotional rules, committed teachers strive to live up to high ethical ideals and take responsibility not only for learner success but also learner failure. 3. Teachers’ emotional labour makes visible how they strive to fulfil their moral purpose of learner achievement, yet are deeply demoralised by not receiving acknowledgement and respect from education authorities.

The growth of service industry enhances the importance of emotion issues in organizations. In the light of increasing interest in organizational emotions, previous studies focused on how front line staffs work. However, employees who play mediating role perform more emotional labor. As Arvey, Renz and Watson (1998) suggested, it is valuable to investigate the possible moderating or mediating roles valuable. By interviewing fifteen advertising account people, this article discusses the emotional labor of advertising account people who mostly play mediating role at work. Analyzing transcriptions in a qualitative approach, this research explores the emotional rules of mediating role and how they are socialized.

I dagens Sverige är mobbning ett samhällsproblem då allt fler barn och ungdomar utsätts för det i skolmiljön. Denna studie har sin utgångspunkt i skolkuratorns perspektiv på hanteringen av mobbning som fokuserar på deras tankar, känslor och tolkningar. Studien utgår från skolkuratorns perspektiv och syftet är att få en djupare förståelse för hur de hanterar mobbningsärenden samtidigt som de reglerar sina känslor och vilken problematik de upplever i samband med detta. Det teoretiska ramverket består av emotionellt arbete och mobbning, med hjälp av begreppen känsloregler, åtgärdsprogram och känslomässig börda förklaras hur skolkuratorns känslor påverkas i samband med hanteringen av mobbning. Denna studie har en kvalitativ ansats där semi-strukturerade intervjuer användes som redskap. Urvalet består av 10 skolkuratorer som är yrkesverksamma vid högstadieskolor i Göteborg. Resultaten visar att skolkuratorns känsloreglering och emotionella arbete kan komma att påverka hanteringen av mobbning och skolans elever både negativt och positivt. Enligt respondenterna så upplevdes hanteringen av mobbning som en hög känslomässig belastning och som bidrog till stark oro som kunde vara svår att släppa. Samtidigt tyckte de intervjuade skolkuratorerna att de handskades med viktiga uppgifter som kändes väldigt meningsfulla och givande. / Bullying in today's Sweden is a societal problem since the number of children and teenagers who are exposed to it in the school environment is increasing. This study is focused on the school counsellors’ perspective on bullying, focusing on their thoughts, feelings, and interpretations. The focus of this study is the perspective of the school counsellor, and the purpose is to gain a deeper understanding of how they handle bullying issues while regulating their feelings and the problems they experience in connection with this. The theoretical framework consists of emotional work and bullying, using the concepts of feeling rules, action programs against bullying and emotional burden, explaining how the feelings of the school counsellor are influenced in dealing with bullying. This study has a qualitative approach where semi-structured interviews were used as a tool. The selection consists of 10 high-school counsellors in Gothenburg. The results show that the school counsellors’ emotional regulation and emotional work can affect how he or she handles the bullying and even affect the school students in a positive or a negative 3 way. The respondents described the management of bullying as a high emotional burden that contributed to strong concerns that could be difficult to release. At the same time, the school counsellors thought that they were dealing with important tasks that felt very meaningful and rewarding.

The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of how retail employees experience the organizational conditions in the workplace in order to be able to perform emotional work in relation to customers. The study is conducted through six qualitative semi-structured interviews with retail employees who are employed in different companies in the retail industry in Sweden. Based on the perspective of Arlie Hochschild's sociology of emotions and the concept of social support, the empirical material has been analyzed. The study's research questions are the following: ● How do retail employees relate to emotional labor? ● How are the organizational conditions at the workplace perceived for performing emotional labor? The result of the study shows that in their work role, retail employees manage and influence both their own and the customers' emotions in order to achieve customer trust. The varying expectations of expressed emotions in different situations can be described through Hochschild's concept of emotion rules and take place on the basis of both informal and formal emotion rules. Retail employees are constantly exposed to managing a distance between perceived and expressed emotions at work, which can be explained through two more of Hochschild's concepts: surface acting and deep acting. To manage emotional work, retail employees express the importance of social support from the environment. On the other hand, the study shows that social support from managers and supervisors was lacking in all interviewees' workplaces, which affects the perception of the organizational conditions for performing work. Time constraints, staff shortages and unreasonable demands from management are perceived as factors that affect the ability to perform emotional labor and risk resulting in unwanted emotions with negative attributes. In contrast to previous research, the results of this study show that retail employees' approach to emotional labor is influenced by more factors than interaction with the customer. / Syftet med denna studie är att skapa en ökad förståelse för hur butiksmedarbetare inom handelsbranschen upplever de organisatoriska förutsättningarna på arbetsplatsen för att kunna utföra det emotionella arbetet i relation till kunder. Studien utförs genom sex kvalitativa semistrukturerade forskningsintervjuer med butiksmedarbetare som förvärvsarbetar på olika företag inom handelsbranschen i Sverige. Utifrån Arlie Hochschilds emotionssociologiska perspektiv och begreppet socialt stöd har det empiriska materialet analyserats. Studiens frågeställningar är följande: ● Hur förhåller sig butiksmedarbetare till det emotionella arbetet? ● Hur upplevs de organisatoriska förutsättningarna på arbetsplatsen för att utföra det emotionella arbetet? Studiens resultat visar att butiksmedarbetare i sin yrkesroll hanterar och påverkar både sina individuella och kunders känslor i syfte att uppnå ett kundförtroende. De varierande förväntningar på uttryckta känslor i olika situationer kan beskrivas genom Hochschilds begrepp känsloregler och sker utifrån både informella och formella känsloregler. Butiksmedarbetare utsätts ständigt för hantering av en distans mellan upplevda och uttrycka känslor i arbetet, vilket kan förklaras genom ytterligare två av Hochschilds begrepp: ytagerande och djupagerande. För att hantera det emotionella arbetet är socialt stöd från omgivningen betydelsefullt för butiksmedarbetarna. Däremot visar studien att det sociala stödet från chef och ledning är bristande på samtliga intervjupersoners arbetsplatser, vilket påverkar upplevelsen av de organisatoriska förutsättningarna för att utföra arbetet. Tidsbrist, personalbrist och orimliga krav från ledningen upplevs vara faktorer som påverkar möjligheten till att utföra det emotionella arbetet och riskerar att resultera i oönskade känslor med negativt attribut. Till skillnad från tidigare forskning visar studiens resultat att butiksmedarbetares förhållningssätt till det emotionella arbetet påverkas av fler faktorer än interaktion med kund.