Research On The Resignation Behavior Of Female Social Workers From The Perspective Of Emotional Labor

Emotional labor is the labor involved in showing an "appropriate" emotion at work.Social workers often have to make a high intensity of emotional investment in their work,and compared with men,women social workers have greater emotional investment and richer emotions.This can easily lead to emotional exhaustion and exacerbate the tendency to resign.Based on this,this article analyzes the resignation behavior of female social workers from the perspective of emotional labor theory,using the concepts of "emotion management" and "automatic emotion." Starting from these two angles,it is possible to explain the reasons for the resignation of female social workers in China from the perspective of local institutions and culture by drawing on the lens of emotional labor theory in the West.The internal operating mechanism is explored through individual factors affecting respondents,social work practice experiences affecting respondents,and social work institutions affecting respondents.This article uses a qualitative research design and purposeful sampling method to select 10 female social workers who have resigned.Data collection is mainly conducted through in-depth interviews,and the following conclusions are drawn: In terms of emotion management,female social workers face various difficulties such as conflicts between personal and professional values,negative cooperation of clients,lack of organizational cultural atmosphere,and conflicts between client-centered and institution-centered approaches,which ultimately lead to their resignation.In terms of automatic emotion,family trauma,excessive integration or separation of individual and work boundaries,low professional levels of leadership and lack of supervision are also reasons for resignation.Therefore,to avoid resignations caused by emotional labor damage,individuals should build symbolic boundaries and establish boundaries between themselves and their professions.Institutions should create supportive managers and accompany human-oriented supervision,and cultivate professional and caring field cultures.Overall,this article provides an explanation for the resignation behavior of female social workers from an emotional sociology perspective.By selecting female social workers as the research object from the perspective of gender differences in emotions,the operating mechanism of resignation behavior is explained based on the theoretical basis of emotion management and automatic emotion.It is hoped to provide a new perspective for understanding the resignation behavior of female social workers from the perspective of emotional labor in the social work industry,responding to policy responses to social work talent team construction.