Emotion management in the workplacethe control and expression of emotions in interactions with others―is required in many types of jobs. For example, in encounters with customers and clients, many workers must act cheerful and friendly, regardless of their true feelings. In addition, within the workplace, workers manage their emotions in order to act appropriately in interactions with coworkers and superiors. However, by concealing their true feelings and expressing false outward emotions, workers may suffer from feelings of inauthenticity and, in turn, experience psychological distress. Previous research suggests that these consequences vary by the workers status in the workplace hierarchy, occupation, self-concept, and attitude toward the emotion management that she performs. Using quantitative data from a mail survey of a random sample of 2,500 Tennessee state workers, I identify the conditions under which workers perform emotion management, the link between emotion management and psychological outcomes, how workers of varying statuses are differentially affected by emotion management, and the factors that affect the relationship between emotion management and distress. Whereas previous research has focused on occupational-level characteristics (e.g., service vs. non-service occupation), I find that job-level characteristics such as control over work, job complexity, and the amount of interaction a worker has with other people better predict the extent of a workers emotion management. In addition, workers who have higher status within the workplace perform less emotion management than those with lower levels of workplace status. Although the effects of emotion management at work are moderated by several factors―including a workers occupational prestige and self-concept orientation―my analyses reveal that, in general, emotion management has harmful consequences for the psychological well-being of workers because it increases feelings of inauthenticity and distress.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-07262005-224258 |
| Date | 08 August 2005 |
| Creators | Sloan, Melissa Marie |
| Contributors | Karen E. Campbell, Peggy A. Thoits, Daniel B. Cornfield, Richard N. Pitt, David A. Owens |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-07262005-224258/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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