Financial Feeling: An Investigation of Emotion and Communication in the Workplace

There is growing interest in the role of emotion when considering communication in the workplace. This work has most often considered workers in front-line service positions in investigations of emotional labor, and human service workers in investigations of empathy and emotional work. In this study, we consider processes of both emotional labor and emotional work in the financial planning profession. Financial planners occupy a role requiring ongoing relationships with clients, conversations about the often emotional topic of money, and a need to manage emotion in a variety of interaction contexts. Thus, from extant theory and literature regarding emotion and communication, we proposed research questions regarding the roles of emotional labor and emotional work in the financial planning profession. These questions were investigated in a web-based survey study of almost 300 professional financial planners and supporting interviews with 14 financial planners. Results indicate support for existing theory on emotional work, extensions to current research regarding emotional labor, and important implications for the role of emotion and communication in a range of professional service roles.     

Compassionate Communication in the Workplace: Exploring Processes of Noticing,Connecting, and Responding

This research contributes to the growing body of literature exploring emotion and communication in the workplace by considering the workers in a variety of jobs that require “compassionate communication.” Compassion is conceptualized as one form of emotional work and is theoretically developed through a model that highlights the subprocesses of noticing, feeling, and responding. Analyses of interviews with 23 workers in a wide range of human service jobs indicated a number of complexities in the communication of compassion in the workplace. Processes of “noticing” included both noticing the need for compassion and noticing details of clients’ lives in order to communicate more successfully in compassionate ways. Processes of “connecting” included both emotional processes (empathy) and cognitive processes (perspective taking). Processes of “responding” included both nonverbal strategies, such as immediacy behaviors and environmental structuring, and verbal strategies for balancing the informational and emotional content of messages. These results are interpreted in the light of both contemporary and traditional communication theory, and practical implications are presented for human service workers and others involved in compassionate communication in the workplace.     

Compassionate Communication in the Workplace: Exploring Processes of Noticing, Connecting, and Responding

This research contributes to the growing body of literature exploring emotion and communication in the workplace by considering the workers in a variety of jobs that require “compassionate communication.” Compassion is conceptualized as one form of emotional work and is theoretically developed through a model that highlights the subprocesses of noticing, feeling, and responding. Analyses of interviews with 23 workers in a wide range of human service jobs indicated a number of complexities in the communication of compassion in the workplace. Processes of “noticing” included both noticing the need for compassion and noticing details of clients' lives in order to communicate more successfully in compassionate ways. Processes of “connecting” included both emotional processes (empathy) and cognitive processes (perspective taking). Processes of “responding” included both nonverbal strategies, such as immediacy behaviors and environmental structuring, and verbal strategies for balancing the informational and emotional content of messages. These results are interpreted in the light of both contemporary and traditional communication theory, and practical implications are presented for human service workers and others involved in compassionate communication in the workplace.     

The Socialization of Emotion: Learning Emotion Management at the Fire Station

In a variety of fields, particularly human service occupations, the management of emotion is a precondition of employee and client well being. Based on qualitative data from participant observation and interviews, this study examines how firefighters are socialized to manage feelings and emotional displays. It concludes that firefighters recognized a need to manage their own emotions and those of their clients in order to deliver adequate service. Veteran firefighters facilitated the use of emotion labor techniques among newcomers by considering the emotion management knowledge and capabilities of job candidates during employee selection processes, providing habituated emotional events, and reinforcing customer service expectations. Newcomers actively participated in their own socialization to local emotion expectations through observational information seeking, retrospective surveillance, and performance of a normative newcomer role demeanor. The article concludes by offering practical and theoretical implications.     

The Socialization of Emotion: Learning Emotion Management at the Fire Station

In a variety of fields, particularly human service occupations, the management of emotion is a precondition of employee and client well being. Based on qualitative data from participant observation and interviews, this study examines how firefighters are socialized to manage feelings and emotional displays. It concludes that firefighters recognized a need to manage their own emotions and those of their clients in order to deliver adequate service. Veteran firefighters facilitated the use of emotion labor techniques among newcomers by considering the emotion management knowledge and capabilities of job candidates during employee selection processes, providing habituated emotional events, and reinforcing customer service expectations. Newcomers actively participated in their own socialization to local emotion expectations through observational information seeking, retrospective surveillance, and performance of a normative newcomer role demeanor. The article concludes by offering practical and theoretical implications.     

A study of emotional labor in librarianship

Librarianship, like many occupations, requires emotional labor, which is an awareness of job requirements for emotional expression and the strategies used to express those emotions. Research on emotional labor suggests that performing emotional labor results in both positive and negative effects on individual outcomes, such as job satisfaction and job burnout. Since affective events are prevalent in library work and evidence suggests positive outcomes from emotional labor can be fostered, the ways emotional labor is performed in libraries should be studied. This research explores the key components of emotional labor: perceptions of display rules and the emotion regulation strategies of surface and deep acting. Data were collected from a sample of American librarians in 46 states from public, academic, special, and K–12 libraries who completed a survey. Bi-variate and multi-variate correlations, as well as ANOVAs, were used to test relationships among emotional labor constructs, job satisfaction, and job burnout. Results show evidence of significant associations with emotional labor among library employees in both the perception of display rules, as well as in surface and deep acting. Perception of display rules showed mixed results with job burnout and job satisfaction. Surface acting was found to be associated consistently with job burnout and decreased job satisfaction, while deep acting strategies were less strongly associated with negative outcomes. Findings suggest that library managers should clearly communicate display rule expectations to employees and work to build staff support to help meet those expectations. Library employees should be aware of occasions when they use surface acting and work to develop stronger deep acting techniques. The study contributes to an understanding of the influence of emotion management in the library workplace.     

An Evaluation of the Brandeis Model of Reference Service at a Small Academic Library

Abstract

The Brandeis model of reference service features two tiers of staff, a first tier of non-professional workers and a second tier of professional librarians, and separate, yet interconnected, working environments. The non-professionals work the Information Desk, and the professionals work out of their offices. This study finds that while the model might be suited to a large graduate university library, it is not an efficient use of professional resources when the non-professionals are often unevenly-trained work-study students of varying skills or interest, or where the volume of reference questions, rather than “directional” questions, does not justify a two-tiered model.     

What Library Managers Should Know about Emotional Labor

This article presents emotional labor in a library context and offers library managers strategies to minimize the negative effects of emotional labor on both staff and users. The components of emotional labor are explained and a framework of response levels is presented with strategies targeted to each response level: incident, training, supervision, human resources, and organizational culture. The strategies offer library managers some ideas for effectively managing emotional labor in their organizations. Understanding the effects of emotional labor and developing the tools that can offset potential negative outcomes can create a more positive work climate and better customer service.     

Communication and problematic integration: Milan Kundera's “lost letters” in the book of laughter and forgetting

This essay uses the theory of problematic integration to analyze Milan Kundera's writing, particularly the central segment, entitled “Lost Letters,” in his first novel written as an emigre. The theory is concerned with the role of communication when desires and expectations diverge, or when we face ambiguity, ambivalence, or impossibility (i.e., when it is difficult to integrate evaluative and probabilistic orientations). Communication plays many significant roles in experiences with such difficulties. The essay reviews problematic integration theory and presents a case study of Kundera's writing designed to illuminate both the theory and a work by one of the most significant of modern novelists. The essay concludes by discussing the relevance of problematic integration theory to other approaches to the study of communication and by identifying questions for future communication research.     

Financing Public Media in Spain: New Strategies

This article attempts to explain the key points of the new financing reform of public service broadcasting in Spain. The following questions are analyzed: controversial points; the new law, private broadcasting, and the telecommunications sector; and the future of public service broadcasting in Spain. Deliberative discussion with 80 participants was conducted evaluating their views regarding public media. The central problem was the role that people feel the RTVE Corporation should play in the future. With that role in mind, participants were asked to evaluate the financial situation of public broadcasting in Spain. The new Financing Law of the RTVE Corporation, based on the immediate cessation of advertising, was passed in August 2009. According to the law, for every new service provided by RTVE, it should be assigned additional funding. It is not clear yet how this process will work in the future.     

MSW Interns and Public Libraries: Enhancing Services through Interdisciplinary Collaboration

While the collaborative trend among professional social workers and librarians gains traction and attention, literature about the utilization of student social workers partnering with libraries is non-existent. Over 64,000 students are currently enrolled in master-level social work (MSW) programs throughout the United States and nearly all are required to complete at least 900?hours of fieldwork. Such students provide untapped skills, knowledge, and values that can help address the broader—and very real—needs of patrons. By reaching out to MSW programs, public librarians play a critical role in helping advance tolerance for a diversity of people and much-needed services. While the professional values and ethics of both librarianship and social work have strong overlap, librarians can invite social work students to partner with them; particularly as libraries are still considered nontraditional service points. MSW students can work with libraries to expand programing, strengthen outreach, and enhance the professional development of both social workers and librarians to the benefit of marginalized patrons.     

Claiming expertise from betwixt and between: Digital humanities librarians,emotional labor,and genre theory

ABSTRACT

Librarians' liminal (intermediate) position within academia situates us to make unique contributions to digital humanities (DH). In this article, we use genre theory, feminist theory, and theories of emotional labor to explore the importance of discourse mediation and affective labor to DH and the interplay between these areas and academic structural inequality. By claiming our expertise and making explicit work that is often not visible, we can advocate for new and varied roles for librarians in digital humanities. Our analysis is informed by both theory and practice, and it takes a dialogic approach that depends upon the interactions between the two.     

试论图书馆伦理管理

图书馆管理在进入了信息时代后,管理的实践和认识已经进入了管理与人文伦理结合的阶段———伦理管理阶段。管理与伦理结合,是由两者的相关性和一致性决定的,主要是管理活动离不开伦理准则。图书馆职业作为社会特定职业,有其自身的规律和职业范围。图书馆职业伦理就是图书馆管理服务领域中的角色伦理,是以图书馆为主体对图书馆管理的社会化角色的伦理原则和规范。     

高校院系资料员的职业发展

当图书馆在不断开拓创新时,院系资料室和资料员的发展却处于停滞状态。文章剖析了资料员的发展障碍及其先天优势,提出从全面熟悉业务流程、开展特色服务、努力学习业务知识、加强与领导沟通等方面促进职业发展。     

美国7个图书馆员职业能力标准的比较分析

[目的/意义] 比较分析美国7个专门的图书馆职业能力标准,以发现其核心要素与主要条款。[方法/过程] 在解析美国7个专门的图书馆职业能力标准内容基础上,比较分析各能力标准的适用对象、要素与条款的差异。[结果/结论] 研究发现,7个能力标准各自定义了与众不同的用户;这些能力标准由组织管理、馆藏资源管理、营销与推广、交流技能、领导与规划、用户服务、职业素养、评估技能、信息技术、合作技能、教学技能、研究技能、客户知识、知识基础、职业发展、学科技能、课程知识、演讲技能18个能力要素组成;且同时出现在4个以上能力标准中的要素所定义的能力对于不同标准而言有明显的差异。     

Communicative signaling of occupational fitness: How innovative ability is expressed and assessed

ABSTRACT

This study investigates how individuals working in the innovation field communicatively define the nature of their work and make assessments of others’ innovative ability. Drawing on signaling theory, this work explores what communicative signals are valued within an ambiguous professional context. Interviews with 36 innovation workers revealed that individuals perceive this emerging occupational role as comprised of skills and traits that vary in how easily they are communicatively expressed, and in turn what forms of communication allow these dimensions to be evaluated. These findings inform the development of a grounded model for communicatively assessing innovative ability. This work extends our theoretical understanding of how signals of professionalism are actively, and communicatively expressed and assessed in new occupational settings.