Chapter 4 Beneath the Masks: A Critical Incident Focus on the Emotions Experienced in the Worker/Supervisor Relationship

Abstract

Worker perceptions of their emotional response to a supervisor, during an incident identified as of critical significance, are described and analyzed in this study. We invited 14 participants, aged from 39 to 56 years to share their stories with us in semi-structured interviews. The organizations represented by the workers’ stories included private business government and educational institutions. A grounded-theory approach was adopted to allow key themes to emerge (Locke, 1996). We encouraged participants to allow “buried perspectives” (Hochschild, 1983) to surface: as they interpreted the relational effects of “what happened” in retrospective sense making. As they explored their perceptions of these interactions, participants revealed the complex and disturbing array of emotions and frustrations that lay beneath the veneer of rationality and control they chose to present during the incident. Felt emotions, whether expressed, repressed or edited, were overwhelmingly negative; and awareness of power issues emerged as a key driver in the “feeling rules” (Hochschild, 1983) workers perceived as needing to be observed. Worker tension was seen to be exacerbated by adherence to these rules because “the rules” conflicted with their own personal values and beliefs. Emotional dissonance resulted from this. The role of the organizational community within which workers coped with their experience, and subsequent emotional response, was also explored.

Citation

Piper, F. and Monin, N. (2006), "Chapter 4 Beneath the Masks: A Critical Incident Focus on the Emotions Experienced in the Worker/Supervisor Relationship", Zerbe, W.J., Ashkanasy, N.M. and Härtel, C.E.J. (Ed.) Individual and Organizational Perspectives on Emotion Management and Display (Research on Emotion in Organizations, Vol. 2), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 81-105. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1746-9791(06)02004-9