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The Expression of Suppression: Loss and emotional labour in narratives of organisational change
Melanie Bryant
Department of Management, Monash University, Churchill VIC
Julie Wolfram Cox
School of Management, RMIT University, Melbourne VIC
Abstract
This paper focuses on themes of emotionality and emotional labour derived inductively from retrospective narratives constructed by employees who experienced rapid organisational change and specifically addresses the question: 'How do people talk about the need to 'dull down' their emotions during situations of organisational change?'
We highlight themes of loss associated with retrospective displays of emotion and argue that loss and emotion management are most typically associated with issues concerning transition from the past or resistance to the future. We show how emotional labour serves both to mute and, ironically, to heighten emotions in the talk of change and extend studies of emotional labour beyond the service encounter and into the realm of organisational change.
Keywords
emotional labour, loss, organisational change, narratives, retrospection
Article Text
Emotions are becoming increasingly recognised as a central focus of organisation studies (Sturdy 2003) and are considered by Fineman (2000) to be a natural outcome of the interpersonal nature of daily workplace life. However, an emphasis on rationality tends to prevail in management literature, with authors often focusing on organisations as being devoid of emotions (Carr 2001) or considering the expression of particular emotions to be 'disruptive...and marginal...to life at work' (Hochschild 1993: ix). At one extreme, only 'McDonaldized...routinized' (Mestrovic 1997: 147) displays of emotions are acceptable in organisations. In many ways, an ongoing focus on 'appropriateness' and the management of emotions at work is inevitable as management will always encourage employees to display emotions and behaviours that meet organisational goals. However, we argue that events such as rapid organisational change, in which employees are faced with discontinuous and unpredictable circumstances, are likely to cause people to be highly emotional and that such emotions should be recognised to develop further understanding of bottom-up experiences of organisational change.
In this paper, we present findings from a cross-industry study of rapid, large-scale organisational change in a region located in Victoria, Australia. The findings focus on themes of emotionality and emotional labour, which were identified from analysis of retrospective employee narratives. Specifically, we seek to address the research question: how do people talk about the need to 'dull down' their emotions during situations of organisational change? Research discussed within this paper was part of a larger study (Bryant 2003) that did not aim specifically to explore emotionality or emotional labour. Rather, the research focused broadly on retrospective narratives of employee experiences of organisational change and the themes of emotionality and reports of emotional labour were derived inductively from spontaneous employee reports.
Thematic analysis of the narratives concerning emotion (both presence and absence) within the research revealed sub-themes of activism and hope, as well as of despair and loss. This paper explores the latter theme of despair and loss as the themes of activism and hope have been discussed elsewhere (Bryant & Wolfram Cox 2004). Examination of participants' reports highlighted in this paper suggests that organisational change is attributed to loss of promotion and advancement opportunities in the workplace as a consequence of the removal of decision-making power, demotion and displacement. In addition, participants indicated that they experienced feelings of grief, anger, sadness and loss but further reported that expression of these emotions was considered 'inappropriate' (Putman & Mumby 1993: 36) within the context of organisations. Through analysis of this expression of suppression - the juxtaposition of the expression of the telling with the suppression of the tales - we also aim to draw attention to dynamics of narrating organisational change in interview situations and to the importance of considering such dynamics when assessing the possible contributions of retrospective analysis of organisational change (cf. Bryant & Wolfram Cox 2003; 2004). We argue that as a consequence of the management of emotions in the workplace and emotional labour (Hochschild 1983; Yanay & Shahar 1998), experiences of organisational change have been 'dulled down'. However, retrospective employee reports of the dysfunctional effects of long-term emotional labour requirements may be emotionally amplified as a consequence of the losses suffered as a result of change, for there are differences between what is discussed and how it is discussed. We argue that this differentiation of the tales and their telling illustrates how analysis of retrospective narratives may reveal several different levels of the emotional complexity associated with organisational change.
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