Strategies And Influences:a Study On Emotional Labor Of Front-line Social Workers In Chengdu And Chongqing Area

Emotional labor refers to the ways in which people create some kind of open and visible facial display or physical behavior in front of the public by adjusting their emotions.It provides an important reference for us to better understand the complex role of emotions in work and labor process.At present,most scholars tend to approach emotional labor from a static and slightly rigid perspective,which,to some extent,ignores the dynamic nature of emotional labor strategies and the complexity of the influences of emotional labor.This research takes the emotional labor of social workers in Chengdu Chongqing area as an empirical starting point to address the abovementioned problems.Based on the abductive analysis of the semi-structured interview data conducted with 21 front-line social workers in Chengdu and Chongqing,this study constructs an analytical framework towards a situational understanding of emotional labor,in which work autonomy and sense of work meaning serve as two axes.The author divides four different labor situations according to the level of work autonomy and sense of work meaning—high work autonomy and high work meaning situation,low work autonomy and high work meaning situation,low work autonomy and low work meaning situation,and high work autonomy and low work meaning situation.The data analysis shows that the emotional labor strategies of the front-line social workers in Chengdu Chongqing area varied in different work situations,and the influences of emotional labor change accordingly.This not only deeply reflects the dynamic nature of emotional labor strategies,but also well explains the complexity of the impact of emotional labor.On this basis,this study not only provides a new perspective for the academic discussion on the strategies and effects of emotional labor,but also provides a reference for the research on emotional labor in professional oriented occupations.