Chapter 3 Tricks of the Trade: Customer Service Employee Strategies in Performing Emotion Work

Abstract

This chapter investigated tactics used by customer service employees in performing emotion work during their interactions with customers and those internal to organizations. Based on a qualitative study in the hospitality industry, I discovered that customer service employees used a range of tactics that impact different phases of the emotion regulation process in order to facilitate emotion work. One group of tactics was directed towards the work context while the other was self-directed in an attempt to regulate the experience and expression of emotion. Taken together these two groups of tactics provide a holistic portrayal of the range of tactics used by customer service employees in performing emotion work.

Citation

Perera, S. (2011), "Chapter 3 Tricks of the Trade: Customer Service Employee Strategies in Performing Emotion Work", Härtel, C.E.J., Ashkanasy, N.M. and Zerbe, W.J. (Ed.) What Have We Learned? Ten Years On (Research on Emotion in Organizations, Vol. 7), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 75-106. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1746-9791(2011)0000007008