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Article
Publication date: 16 October 2017

Catherine Needham, Sharon Mastracci and Catherine Mangan

Within public services there is a widely recognised role for workers who operate across organisational and professional boundaries. Much of this literature focusses on the…

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Abstract

Purpose

Within public services there is a widely recognised role for workers who operate across organisational and professional boundaries. Much of this literature focusses on the organisational implications rather than on how boundary spanners engage with citizens. An increased number of public service roles require boundary spanning to support citizens with cross-cutting issues. The purpose of this paper is to explicate the emotional labour within the interactions that boundary spanners have with citizens, requiring adherence to display rules and building trust.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper which draws on illustrative examples to draw out the emotional labour within two types of boundary spanning: explicit and emergent.

Findings

Emotional labour theory offers a way to classify these interactions as requiring high, medium or low degrees of emotional labour. Boundary spanning theory contributes an understanding of how emotional labour is likely to be differently experienced depending on whether the boundary spanning is an explicit part of the job, or an emergent property.

Originality/value

Drawing on examples from public service work in a range of advanced democracies, the authors make a theoretical argument, suggesting that a more complete view of boundary spanning must account for individual-level affect and demands upon workers. Such a focus captures the “how” of the boundary spanning public encounter, and not just the institutional, political and organisational dimensions examined in most boundary spanning literatures.

Details

Journal of Integrated Care, vol. 25 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1476-9018

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 31 July 2023

Abstract

Details

Disabilities and the Life Course
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-202-5

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 21 February 2022

Mariann Hardey

Abstract

Details

Household Self-Tracking during a Global Health Crisis
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-915-3

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