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The Psychology of Service: Interacting with Customers and Clients Part I Dieter Zapf Valencia 12th March 2008. Content. What is service? Emotional labour – emotion work Emotional job requirements Antecedents of Emotion Work and Emotional Job Requirements
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The Psychology of Service: Interacting with Customers and ClientsPart IDieter ZapfValencia12th March 2008
Dieter Zapf Content • What is service? • Emotional labour – emotion work • Emotional job requirements • Antecedents of Emotion Work and Emotional Job Requirements • Emotional Job Requirements and Well-being at Work
Dieter Zapf Increased Importance of Service Work (Source: Statistisches Bundesamt, 1999)
Dieter Zapf What is Service?
Dieter Zapf What is Service? • A problem of a customer is solved or a need is satisfied • Not production of a product, but adding something to a product or changing a product • The process is in parts intangible • Normally, there is no mutual obligation between the partners of the service interaction • There is a socialinteraction between a service provider and a customer or client either face-to-face or mediated by electronic media such as telephone • The interaction itself is part of service delivery. Therefore it has to satisfy certain requirements • Corsten (1997); Nerdinger (1994)
Dieter Zapf Human Service Work • The customers/clients themselves are the subject-matter of service performance • This includes a direct impact on • Cognitive/intellectual, • emotional or • Physical aspects of a person. • Examples: Physicians, nurses, teachers, social workers, hairdressers • Coincidence of production and consumption with regard to time and location: the uno-actu-principle • The client has to ‘co-operate’ to make the service successful: Co-Production
Dieter Zapf 2. Emotional Labour Emotion Work
Dieter Zapf Smiling and humour is good for our well-being
Dieter Zapf However: being EXPECTED to smile all day is a different story! Smiling and humour is good for our well-being
Dieter Zapf Emotion Work / Emotional Labour • Occurs in interactions with customers or clients • Organisations expect that employees behave in a certain way in these interactions • This implies to display certain emotions based on so-called displayrules The ‘friendly smile’ becomes a job requirement!
Dieter Zapf Emotion Work / Emotional Labour • First study of sociologist Arlie Russel Hochschild (1983): • Flight Attendants of Delta Airlines Business man: Let’s have a smile. Flight attendant:Okay. I’ll tell you what, first you smile and then I’ll smile, okay? Business man:smiles Flight attendant:Good. Now hold that for 15 hours. walks away
Dieter Zapf Emotion Work / Emotional Labour • Defined as • the paid work which • requires the regulation of one’s own emotions • to display an organisationally desired emotion in mimics, gestures and voice, • independent of whether or not this corresponds to the inner feelings (after Hochschild, 1983)
Dieter Zapf Emotion Work / Emotional Labour • Framework Models of • Rafaeli & Sutton (1987) • Morris & Feldman (1996) • Grandey (2000)
Dieter Zapf Regulation of Work Behaviour Framework Model of Service Work in Organisations Work Task Service Organisation Consequences Cognitive Regulation Requirements E.g. Complexity Regulation problems (job stressors) Cognitive Object-oriented Sub-Goals Action Regulation Well-being • Occupational • Identity Organisational Goals • Goal Specification , , Planning Socialisation Primary Task • Personality Monitoring, Feedback • Emotional Customer Orientation Competencies Internal Task Redefinition Secondary task parallel to primary task Redefined Goals Display rules Automatisation External Tasks Emotion regulation Secondary Task Automated Emotion regulation Performance Interaction - surface acting Frequency, oriented Sub-Goals Duration, deep acting Quality Emotional deviance Requirement to express of Service Interactions positive, negative or sympathy emotions Customers Sensitivity Requirements Emotional Dissonance
Dieter Zapf Regulation of Work Behaviour Framework Model of Service Work in Organisations Work Task Service Organisation Consequences Cognitive Regulation Requirements E.g. Complexity Regulation problems (job stressors) Cognitive Ante- cedents Job Require- ments Work Process Cognitive/ Motivational/ emotional regulation Con- sequences Object-oriented Sub-Goals Action Regulation Well-being • Occupational • Identity Organisational Goals • Goal Specification , , Planning Socialisation Primary Task • Personality Monitoring, Feedback • Emotional Customer Orientation Competencies Internal Task Redefinition Secondary task parallel to primary task Redefined Goals Display rules Automatisation External Tasks Emotion regulation Secondary Task Automated Emotion regulation Performance Interaction - surface acting Frequency, oriented Sub-Goals Duration, deep acting Quality Emotional deviance Requirement to express of Service Interactions positive, negative or sympathy emotions Customers Sensitivity Requirements Emotional Dissonance
Dieter Zapf 3. Emotional Job Requirements
Dieter Zapf Regulation of Work Behaviour Framework Model of Service Work in Organisations Work Task Service Organisation Consequences Cognitive Regulation Requirements E.g. Complexity Regulation problems (job stressors) Cognitive Object-oriented Sub-Goals Action Regulation Well-being • Occupational • Identity Organisational Goals • Goal Specification , , Planning Socialisation Primary Task • Personality Monitoring, Feedback • Emotional Customer Orientation Competencies Internal Task Redefinition Secondary task Emotional Demands Requirements Behaviour Requirement Approach of Hackman (1970) parallel to primary task Redefined Goals Display rules Automatisation External Tasks Emotion regulation Secondary Task Automated Emotion regulation Performance Interaction - surface acting Frequency, oriented Sub-Goals Duration, deep acting Quality Emotional deviance Requirement to express of Service Interactions positive, negative or sympathy emotions Customers Sensitivity Requirements Emotional Dissonance
Dieter Zapf Physical Demands Cognitive Demands Emotional Demands “Muscles Work“, Environmental factors (noise, heat, etc.) Activation of cognitive resources; action control: goal setting, planning, execution, feedback processing Activation of emotional resources; perception, appraisal, display and control of emotions Job Demands in the History of Work Psychology In Service Occupations:
Instrument: Frankfurt Emotion Work Scales FEWS 4.2 Dimensions of Emotion Work - Emotional Requirements Zapf, Werner, Holz, Fischbach & Dormann (submitted) Dieter Zapf
Dieter Zapf Instrument: Frankfurt Emotion Work Scales FEWS 4.2 Emotional Dissonance Zapf, Werner, Holz, Fischbach & Dormann (submitted) • The requirement of the organisation to display emotions in interactions with customers, clients, students, etc. in mimics, gestures and voice which are not felt in that particular moment. The dissonance between displayed and felt emotions (Rafaeli & Sutton, 1987) • Item examples“How often does it occur in your job that one has to display positive emotions while feeling indifferent?”“How often does it occur in your job that one has to display positive emotions which do not correspond to what is felt in this situation?”
Dieter Zapf Instrument: Frankfurt Emotion Work Scales FEWS 4.2 Emotion Work Control Zapf, Werner, Holz, Fischbach & Dormann (submitted) • Autonomy with regard to display rules end emotional requirements • Item examples“How often can you decide for yourself on as to which emotions to display towards the client??”“Person A has strict instructions from the company on how to deal with his/her own feelings and those of the clients. • Person B has hardly any instructions from the company on how to deal with either his/her own feelings nor those of the clients • Which one of these two jobs is most similar to yours?”
Dieter Zapf Emotion Work in Service Branches
Dieter Zapf Emotion Work in Different Service Branches
Dieter Zapf Emotion Work in Different Service Branches
Dieter Zapf Several times/hourSeveral times/dayOnce/dayOnce/weekseldom/never Emotion Work – Desired Emotions
Dieter Zapf 4. Antecedents of Emotion Work and Emotional Job Requirements
Dieter Zapf Regulation of Work Behaviour Framework Model of Service Work in Organisations Work Task Service Organisation Consequences Cognitive Regulation Requirements E.g. Complexity Regulation problems (job stressors) Cognitive Object-oriented Sub-Goals Action Regulation Well-being • Occupational • Identity Organisational Goals • Goal Specification , , Planning Socialisation Primary Task • Personality Monitoring, Feedback • Emotional Customer Orientation Competencies Internal Task Redefinition Secondary task parallel to primary task Redefined Goals Display rules Automatisation External Tasks Emotion regulation Secondary Task Antecedents of Emotion Work Antecedents of Emotion Work Automated Emotion regulation Performance Interaction - surface acting Frequency, oriented Sub-Goals Duration, deep acting Emotional deviance Social Quality Requirement to express of Service Interactions positive, negative or sympathy emotions Customers Sensitivity Requirements Emotional Dissonance
Dieter Zapf Regulation of Work Behaviour ? Antecedents of Emotion Work Emotional Demands Requirements Behaviour Requirement Approach of Hackman (1970) Framework Model of Service Work in Organisations Work Task Service Organisation Consequences Cognitive Regulation Requirements E.g. Complexity Regulation problems (job stressors) Cognitive Object-oriented Sub-Goals Action Regulation Well-being • Occupational • Identity Organisational Goals • Goal Specification , , Planning Socialisation Primary Task • Personality Monitoring, Feedback • Emotional Customer Orientation Competencies Internal Task Redefinition Secondary task parallel to primary task Redefined Goals Display rules Automatisation External Tasks Emotion regulation Secondary Task Automated Emotion regulation Performance Interaction - surface acting Frequency, oriented Sub-Goals Duration, deep acting Quality Emotional deviance Requirement to express of Service Interactions positive, negative or sympathy emotions Customers Sensitivity Requirements Emotional Dissonance
Dieter Zapf Positive emotions Sympathy emotions Negative emotions Sensitivity requirement Emotional dissonance Step 1 β β β β β total Time .32 ** .18 ** .14 ** .20 ** .28 ** Display rules .19 ** .15 ** -.07 ** .11 ** .08 ** Mean duration .01 .14 ** .16 ** .17 ** -.12 ** Task complex .02 .23 ** .28 ** .28 ** .15 ** F 65.33 ** 60.24 ** 60.39 ** 80.59 ** 40.45 ** R2 15.9 14.9 14.9 18.9 10.5 Step 2 Negative quality of interaction .13 ** .26 ** .40 ** .22 ** .45 ** F 27.20 ** 106.41** 288.15 ** 80.62 ** 382.29 ** ΔR2 1.6 6.1 14.7 4.5 19.4 R2 17.5 21.1 29.6 23.3 29.8 Relation between Antecedents and Emotion Work : Cross-sectional Study Zapf, Werner, Holz, Fischbach & Dormann (submitted) Field study: 6 service organisations; N=1391
Dieter Zapf Experimental Simulation of a Call Centre Situation Experimental Group: be friendly! Control Group: be authentic!
Dieter Zapf Quality of interaction Interaction time Duration Held constant Complexity The Effect of Display Rules on Emotional Dissonance: Experimental Study Fischbach & Zapf (2005) Experiment 2: Call centre agent in a recruitment agency for students; N=18
Dieter Zapf 5. Emotional Job Requirements and Well-being at Work
Dieter Zapf Regulation of Work Behaviour Framework Model of Service Work in Organisations Work Task Service Organisation Consequences Cognitive Regulation Requirements E.g. Complexity ? Regulation problems (job stressors) Cognitive Object-oriented Sub-Goals Action Regulation Well-being • Occupational • Identity Organisational Goals • Goal Specification , , Planning Socialisation Primary Task • Emotional Demands Requirements Behaviour Requirement Approach of Hackman (1970) Personality Monitoring, Feedback • Emotional Customer Orientation Competencies Internal Task Redefinition Secondary task parallel to primary task Redefined Goals Display rules Automatisation External Tasks Emotion regulation Secondary Task Automated Emotion regulation Performance Interaction - surface acting Frequency, oriented Sub-Goals Duration, deep acting Quality Emotional deviance Requirement to express of Service Interactions positive, negative or sympathy emotions Customers Sensitivity Requirements Emotional Dissonance
Dieter Zapf Burnout Emotional Labour Burnout(Maslach Burnout Inventory) Emotional Exhaustion the feeling of being burnt out and frustrated; working with people is perceived as very effortful Depersonalization the tendency to treat clients like objects; becoming indifferent and apathetic with regard to clients Personal Accomplishment the feeling of having energy to do things and of being able to meet one’s aspirations
Dieter Zapf Negative Effects of Emotion Work
Dieter Zapf Positive Effects of Emotion Requirements • Affiliation needs are met • Recognition, status • Experience of successful interaction, feelings of self efficacy • Positive reaction in return • Facial feedback hypothesis: Display of positive emotions induces positive feelings
Dieter Zapf Relations between Emotion Work and Burnout Service Sample (Kindergarden, Hotels, Banks, Call Center, Social workers (N=1032) Italic and in parentheses: representative sample (N=405) from: Zapf & Holz (2006, EJWOP)
Dieter Zapf Relations between Emotion Work and Burnout Service Sample (Kindergarden, Hotels, Banks, Call Center, Social workers (N=1032) Italic and in parentheses: representative sample (N=405) from: Zapf & Holz (2006, EJWOP)
Dieter Zapf Why is Emotional Dissonance Interesting? • Although hypothesised, emotional demands did not play a role in empirical studies in the prediction of burnout for a long time (see., e.g., Lee & Ashforth, 1996; Schaufeli & Enzmann, 1998) • Quantitative indicators describing interactions with customers (no. of customers, frequency of service interaction; time working with customers or clients) tended to show no correlation with burnout (Schaufeli & Enzmann, 1998; Zapf, 2002) • Qualitative indicators such as verbal customer aggression predict burnout are strong predictors (Dormann & Zapf, 2004), but are of relevance only for a minority (<20%; i.e., many report not to be exposed to customer aggression) • In contrast, emotional dissonance is a sensitive qualitative indicator to describe service interactions
Dieter Zapf The Status of Emotional Dissonance • Is Emotional Dissonance • a Stressor or • a Stress Reaction? A characteristic of the situation/ environment that has an impact on the individual An individual reaction elicited by a stressor and as such a characteristic of the individual
Dieter Zapf Emotional Dissonance as job requirement (Hackman, 1971) 4-dimensional model of Morris & Feldman (1996) Pugliesi (1999): self-focused emotional labour Abraham (1998): Difference scores Schaubroeck & Jones (2000): requirement to suppress negative emotional efference Zapf et al., (1999): regulation problem Emotional Dissonance as psychological/behavioural strategy Brotheridge & Lee (2003) and Brotheridge & Grandey (2002): surface acting and deep acting The Status of Emotional Dissonance
Dieter Zapf Situation Appraisal Coping/Behaviour Outcome Reappraisal The Status of Variables in the Stress Process How often in your job do you have to display emotions that do not agree with your true feelings? I feel exhausted because I have to express emotions which I don‘t feel How much do you feel hampered by having to express emotions you don’t feel? How often do you express emotions which you do not feel at that moment?
Dieter Zapf How can the Status of Emotional Dissonance as a Job Requirement be Justified • Emotion theory: Inter-individual differences stronger for regulation, but less for the experience of emotion • Emotional dissonance can be induced in experiments • Emotional Dissonance depends on The frequency of interactions Existence and Monitoring of display rules Autonomy with regard to display rules Quality of service interaction (conflicts, negative customer behaviour)
Dieter Zapf What we know so far about Emotional Dissonance and Burnout ... • In cross-sectional studies, emotional dissonance is associated with emotional exhaustion (around .30) and depersonalisation (around .30) (Zapf, 2002, HRMR) • But there is a lack of longitudinal field studies which allow the investigation of cause and effect
Dieter Zapf Hypotheses: Causal and Reversed Effects • According to Hochschild (1983): Causal Effects • Reverse Effects: Employees under strain are less able to show the required positive emotions. Thus strain increases emotional dissonance Emotion workRequirem. Emotional Dissonance Strain Strain Emotional Dissonance Emotion workRequirem.
Dieter Zapf Instruments Frankfurt Emotion Work Scales(FEWS 4.0, Zapf et al., 1999; 2005) The Requirement to Display Positive Emotions refer to the requirement to show pleasant emotions (e.g. "In your job how often does it occur that you have to display pleasant emotions towards your clients?"). The Requirement to Display Negative Emotions This scale asks for the necessity of displaying and dealing with unpleasant emotions (example item: "How often does it occur in your job that you have to display unpleasant emotions towards your clients?"). Sensitivity Requirements This scale examines whether empathy or knowledge about clients' current feelings are required by the job (e.g. "Does your job require paying attention to the feelings of your clients?"). Emotional Dissonance refers to the display of unfelt emotions and to the suppression of felt but organizationally undesired emotions (e g. "How often does it occur in your job that one has to display positive emotions which do not correspond to what is felt in this situation?”)