George Rusinak Graves Essay 9\16\99 The Managed Heart: Emotional Management
vs. Emotional Labor Can a person’s heart be controlled? Do all people go have
some form of emotional management or emotional labor in their lives? In the
book, The Managed Heart, written by Arlie Hochschild , discusses the issues of
emotional labor and emotional management. In the book, it describes the
difference between the two issues and gives Hochschild’s opinion on those
issues. The first issue is emotional management. This is where the fight
attendants learn how to deal with certain situations that they might encounter.
Basically, they are taught to manage their emotions and look at their situation
from the other side. By doing this, the flight attendants can create a happy and
more comfortable setting for the passengers. On page 113 in the book, it states
that the fight attendants should imagine a reason to excuse an obnoxious or
unruly passenger. This is what Delta teaches: emotional management. The other
issue is emotional labor.
The use of emotional management is emotional labor. They flight attendants
use surface acting in everyday work life. They are there to make the passenger
feel comfortable and happy. This is a cover sheet for the flight attendants
emotions. They are in a way bottling up their feelings to produce another
feeling. The problem with emotional labor and surface acting are they become a
part of that person. Hochschild thinks that this is a bad thing because one will
never break away from the emotional labor and in turn have trouble expressing
their inner feelings, (deep acting) in their private lives. In summary,
emotional management is emotional labor. Emotional management is the learning
how to deal with situations. Emotional labor is the actual use of the emotional
management. Learning emotional management is helpful, but can affect that
person’s lifestyle. When they use emotional labor, they are hiding their inner
feelings to create are better atmosphere for others. People using this might
never be able to distinguish the difference between their surface acting and
deep acting. Hochschild’s sees this as a problem for the people affected by this
emotion manipulator. This will affect their friend’s, family, and the rest of
society.
Bibliography
Hockschild,The Unmanaged Heart, conseni 1978.
Words: 367
