scholarly journals Flight Attendants’ Emotional Labor and Exhaustion in the Taiwanese Airline Industry

2009 ◽  
Vol 02 (04) ◽  
pp. 305-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng-Ping CHANG ◽  
Ju-Mei CHIU
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Labor ◽  
Airline Industry ◽  
Flight Attendants

The Managed Heart Revisited: Exploring the Effect of Institutional Norms on the Emotional Labor of Flight Attendants Post 9/11

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 519-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlene Santin ◽  
Benjamin Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Labor ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Security Policies ◽  
Flight Attendants ◽  
Institutional Changes ◽  
Institutional Policies ◽  
Cabin Crew ◽  
Emotional Culture ◽  
Historical Comparative ◽  
Using Data

This article examines the emotional culture of flight attendants thirty-two years after Hochschild’s (1983) study, The Managed Heart. Using data collected by participant observation and informal interviews, we argue that flight attendants are empowered by post-9/11 institutional changes in security policies and as a result are using more discretion in how they perform courteous emotional labor. We put forward two interrelated concepts—the “9/11 effect” and “role shields”—to explain how a new emphasis on safety over courtesy in institutional policies provides cabin crew with a normative resource to achieve greater autonomy. We establish that flight attendants are now more assertive when they interact with passengers. By acknowledging the flight attendant’s post-9/11 experience and their increase in what we label emotional agency, this study offers a historical-comparative complement to Hochschild’s emphasis on emotive constraints.

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