Title: Leading with emotional labour: the interplay of six emotions

Authors: Eeva Aromaa; Outi-Maaria Palo-oja

Addresses: Business School, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 1627, FI-70211 Kuopio, Finland ' Business School, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 1627, FI-70211 Kuopio, Finland

Abstract: This study explores how emotional labour is performed by leaders to enhance employee task completion. More specifically, the study examines how one particular leader enacted emotional labour by expressing various emotions in real-life interactions that were recorded during an 11-minute conversation with employees. The data for the study were collected from a videotaped office meeting that took place in a small service company. A detailed micro-analysis of a series of vignettes from the meeting provides new evidence of the dynamic nature of emotional labour in an everyday leadership situation, enhancing the research literature on emotional labour performed by Humphrey (2008), Humphrey et al. (2008) and Iszatt-White (2013b).

Keywords: leadership; leading; emotional labour; emotion work; emotional displays; emotion management; managing emotion; controlling emotion; displaying emotion; gestures; video data; vignette; micro-analysis; small companies.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHRDM.2017.085268

International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 2017 Vol.17 No.1/2, pp.143 - 161

Received: 09 Mar 2016
Accepted: 13 Nov 2016
Published online: 19 Jul 2017 *

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