Customer care executives are expected to keep customers happy. While these interactions are bound to generate emotions on both sides, the service providers are expected to manage their emotions and display organizationally desired expressions. This concept of emotional labor has been an area of research for long. However, it is still an evolving area with studies showing variability in findings pertaining to the consequences and dimensions of emotional labor. This paper is an attempt to understand the developments in the area of emotional labor. It studies the relationship among concepts like emotional effort, emotional dissonance, emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction.
As
the role of the service sector in the Indian economy grows, there is an increasing
need for interaction between the employees and the clients or customers. It is
the role of the customer care and front end executives to keep the customers happy.
Industries like hospitality, call centers, service centers, hospitals, travel,
etc., require the employees to be with their best behavior at all timessmiling
and exuding warmth and friendliness. Front-end executives present the organization
to the customers, and it is generally believed that a pleasant and friendly employee
would help promote customers' loyalty and perception of service quality.
For
a customer care executive who receives scores of complaints in a day, keeping
his emotions under control can be a stressful activity. While he may sometimes
enjoy helping out customers, he may at times feel frustrated with the angry customer
screaming at him. Since this interaction is one of the crucial factors in determining
service quality, it is vital for the organization to ensure that every interaction
is a pleasant one for the customer. Thus, employees' emotional display becomes
an area for study and monitoring. Employees are provided training on how they
can control their feelings and portray a cheerful disposition at all times.
While
the term emotional labor was coined almost two decades back as an area of study,
it is still an evolving field. The issue is more pertinent in the context of countries
like India, where the subject has not been a topic of research. However, with
the evolution of more service-focused industries with emphasis on quality and
efficiency, studies on the concept of emotional labor would be relevant. |
