A Theoretical Account Hillary Anger Elfenbein Washington University in St Louis Organizations use Emotional DivisionofLabor In essentially every organized human activity people take on different ID: 534995
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Slide1
Emotional Division-of-Labor:
A Theoretical Account
Hillary
Anger
Elfenbein
Washington University in St. LouisSlide2
Organizations use
Emotional Division-of-Labor
In essentially every organized human activity, people take on different rolesPlato in the Republic: There is a natural inequality among people that makes it important to take different jobsAdam Smith in the Wealth of Nations: DOL increases productivity due to training for specialized tasksDurkheim: Decried DOL, but observed it is inevitable, occurring naturally within biological organismsEmotion is infused within work rolesThere should be a DOL of emotional work rolesSlide3
Van
Maanen and Kunda (1991)
“An emotional division of labor attaches itself to organizations wherein the management of emotions for some categories of employees is of more concern than it is for others in the organization. Perhaps only the dominant and the doormat in organizational life have a relative freedom from emotional constraint.”(p. 55)Slide4
Defining Emotional Division-of-Labor
“Any explicit or implicit division of task roles such that individuals take on varying requirements to use emotional abilities
”EDOL is about distributed work effortsRelated yet distinct from Emotional LaborInvolves abilities beyond outward displays and inward emotion regulation Slide5
Developing a Theory of EDOL
EI research largely focuses on individuals having more vs. less ability
EDOL is about how people put their abilities to use, in dynamic distribution across individualsAbout the collective, not about the individualAcross colleagues, individuals make use of different combinations of emotional abilities, and individuals use abilities in complementary waysNot every individual needs every abilityIndeed, sometimes abilities would be little used or could even impair an individual’s effectivenessSlide6
A Heuristic to Identify EDOL
EDOL can involve any emotional capability
A heuristic: use the branches of EI to identify emotionally effective behaviors that can be distributed across individualsNote that EDOL is about what you do, not what you can doEmotion recognition: The scout, people-watcherER of self: The steady citizen, shield, harnesserER of others: The persuader, sensemaker, toxin handler, motivator, enforcer, brightenerUnderstanding Emotion: The anticipator, reality check, socializerExpression: The communicatorPeople take on unique profiles of emotional rolesSlide7
Two Case Studies Underway
Auto dealerships
Front vs. back roomSales vs. serviceStructural EDOL, e.g., salespeople vs. sales managersSome could benefit from low capabilities, e.g., techniciansPolice crisis management teamsEveryone needs self-regulationMany need emotion recognition but not other-regulationSnipers, profilers, recordersNegotiation team vs. tactical team membersPrimary vs. secondary negotiators