Hochschild (2003) — The managed heart: The recognition of emotional labour in public service work

Recent evidence shows public service motivation (PSM) may be unrelated to one’s consideration of a public service career. In places where civil service examinations prevail, even adverse selection (selecting low-PSM individuals) can occur. This leaves public sector managers with tough questions: “Can we improve new recruits’ PSM? Does training matter?” The present study attempts to answer these questions by using a case of onboard training in Taiwan. We hypothesize that PSM, along with public service–related knowledge and a positive attitude toward public service work, improves after training, and that the improvement hinges on trainees’ satisfaction with training and perceived usefulness of training. Analytical results indicate that knowledge and attitudes are more “trainable” than PSM. Meanwhile, training satisfaction is associated with the growth of public service–related knowledge, while perceived training usefulness relates to a positive attitude toward public service work and PSM. Overall, these findings advance our understanding of the effectiveness of public service training, its determinants, and the implications for public employees’ public service orientations.

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The emotional labour of boundary spanning

Journal of Integrated Care ◽

10.1108/jica-04-2017-0008 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 25 (4) ◽

pp. 288-300 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Catherine Needham ◽

Sharon Mastracci ◽

Catherine Mangan

Keyword(s):

Public Service ◽

Boundary Spanning ◽

Boundary Spanners ◽

Theoretical Argument ◽

Content Type ◽

Individual Level ◽

Professional Boundaries ◽

Emotional Labour ◽

Conceptual Paper ◽

Low Degrees

Purpose Within public services there is a widely recognised role for workers who operate across organisational and professional boundaries. Much of this literature focusses on the organisational implications rather than on how boundary spanners engage with citizens. An increased number of public service roles require boundary spanning to support citizens with cross-cutting issues. The purpose of this paper is to explicate the emotional labour within the interactions that boundary spanners have with citizens, requiring adherence to display rules and building trust. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper which draws on illustrative examples to draw out the emotional labour within two types of boundary spanning: explicit and emergent. Findings Emotional labour theory offers a way to classify these interactions as requiring high, medium or low degrees of emotional labour. Boundary spanning theory contributes an understanding of how emotional labour is likely to be differently experienced depending on whether the boundary spanning is an explicit part of the job, or an emergent property. Originality/value Drawing on examples from public service work in a range of advanced democracies, the authors make a theoretical argument, suggesting that a more complete view of boundary spanning must account for individual-level affect and demands upon workers. Such a focus captures the “how” of the boundary spanning public encounter, and not just the institutional, political and organisational dimensions examined in most boundary spanning literatures.

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Deploying culture as a defence against incompetence: The unconscious dynamics of public service work

SA Journal of Industrial Psychology ◽

10.4102/sajip.v38i2.1000 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 38 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Peliwe P. Mnguni

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

Public Service ◽

Resource Constraints ◽

Service Work ◽

The Unconscious ◽

The Public ◽

Social Defense ◽

Defensive Role ◽

Managerial Implications ◽

Value Add

Orientation: The intractability of public service delivery and a polarised societal landscape heighten anxiety and reinforce a propensity for public service organisations to be used for defensive purposes.Research purpose: This article employs social defense theory to explore manifestations of anxiety and defense within South African public service organisations.Motivation for the study: Dominant discourse on public service institutions over-relies on political, sociological and public administration theories and tends to ignore psychosocial explanations. Further, whilst the psychodynamics of social service work are generally understood, the unconscious dynamics of generic public service work remain under-theorised. Research design, approach and method: This conceptual article draws on my personal observations as a reflective citizen and experiences as a consultant to government departments.Main findings: Herein, an argument is advanced that the deployment of ill-qualified party loyalists to key positions in the public service is perverse: it serves as a collective defense against the impossible aspects of the task at hand. The appointees, in turn, deploy organisational processes to defend against feelings of incompetence and the inevitability of failure. This practice, coupled with acute resource constraints, sets up front line staff for scapegoating.Practical/managerial implications: An appreciation of the multiple meanings of public service work and the defensive role played by public institutions stands to inform purposeful change towards sustainable public service organisational practice.Contribution/value-add: The discussion seeks to contribute to attempts that employ systems psychodynamics to make sense of anxiety and defense within organisations in general and public service institutions in particular.

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