Group members:

Tjaša Belčec

Tadeja Jurinec

David Kastelec

Lucija Kovačič

Tanja Udovč

 

Distribution of roles:

Leader: Tanja Udovč

Secretary: Lucija Kovačič

Time-keeper: Tjaša Belčec

Reporter: Tadeja Jurinec

Reserve: David Kastelec

 

GENDER AND EMOTIONAL LABOUR

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN EMPLOYED IN HEALTHCARE: The case of nursing

 

 

 

Definition of the problem:

 

Emotions are the essence of every individual. They play an important role in social bonds among people in private and public sphere. Due to modern way of life, emotions are increasingly becoming an important part of public life which result in a new form of work – emotional labour, which is based on professional managing of emotions in the work place. This type of work is typical for jobs in the service sector where employees have to attend customers. It is expected that the employee uses his/her personal characteristics and abilities that are primarily intended for his/her private life – home, family, friends... These private spheres become business strategies, especially in modern economy, where ‘selling’ smiles or any other emotion is one of the basic strategies in the business. Emotional labour requires that the employee suppresses or stimulates a certain emotion and thus stimulates the production and effectiveness of services (Šadl, 2002). In this paper we will focus on a profession which is very connected with emotional labour – nursing. At their job, nurses have to manage their emotions while at the same time also take care for patient’s medical condition and his/her feelings or emotions. Another issue is also that these nurses have hard time separating their job and home life. It is hard for them to forget all problems they face at work and also take care for their families at home.  We will also study the gender difference – differences between female and male emotional labour performance. Our hypothesis is that a major part of employees in the emotional professions is female workforce.  And finally we are going to study the meaning and influence of emotional labour on both genders. 

 

 

10 working questions:

 

1. What is emotional labour?(Lucija and Tanja)
2. When was the term and the concept of emotional labour used for the first time?(Lucija and Tanja)
3. What are forms of emotional labour?(Lucija and Tanja)
4. Which jobs are defined as those that involve emotional labour?(Lucija and Tanja)
5. Why do people choose work in these kinds of jobs and what motivates these employees to persistin emotional labour?(David and Tjaša)
6. How does emotional labour influence female and male employees and what is the implication of using emotional labour?(David and Tjaša)
7. How does emotional labor affect private lives of employees in nursing?(David and Tjaša)
8. Taking the theme of emotional labour in nursing, we wonder what impact it has on interpersonal relations, management and educational environment in nursing?(David and Tjaša)
9. How (can be) is emotional labour controled?(Lucija, Tanja, David and Tjaša)
10. What are the advantages and disadvantages of emotional labour?(Lucija, Tanja, David and Tjaša)
11. What meaning does emotional labour have in nursing?(Lucija and Tanja)
12. What researches were already made on the field of emotional labour?(Tadeja)
13. What conclusions did previous researches discover on the field of emotional labour?(Tadeja)

 

Glossary 

Health care - zdravstvena nega, zdravstveno varstvo

Emotional labour - emocionalno delo

Emotional care - emocionalna nega

Therapeutic value - terapevstski pomen, vloga

Social relationship - socialno/družbeno razmerje, odnosi

Emotions - čustva, emocije

Emotion management - uravnavanje čustev

Intimacy - zasebna sfera, zasebnost

Gender division - razlikovanje glede na spol

Sex and Gender - spol, družbeni spol

Femininity/masculinity - ženskost/moškost

Feminized professions - feminizirani poklici

Patriarchal professions - maskulinizirani/moški poklici

Cognitive dissonance - kognitivna disonanca, spoznavno neskladje

 

Polar Bears Report

 

 

 

Literature:

 

• Šadl, Zdenka. 2002. »We're Out To Make You Smile«. Emocionalno delo v storitvenih organizacijah. Teorija in praksa let. 39, 1/2002 page 49-80. Accessed on: http://dk.fdv.uni-lj.si/tip/tip20021Sadl2.PDF (3rd of March 2011)
• Gray, Benjamin. 2009: The emotional labour of nursing – Defining and managing emotions in nursing work. Nurse Education Today, Volume 29, Issue 2, 168-175, Accessed on: http://www.sciencedirect.com.nukweb.nuk.uni-lj.si/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6WNX-4TFH2FP-1-1&_cdi=6974&_user=4776866&_pii=S0260691708001056&_origin=search&_coverDate=02%2F28%2F2009&_sk=999709997&view=c&wchp=dGLbVlW-zSkzS&md5=44a60bea707430c8bb5c17d8d75594c5&ie=/sdarticle.pdf  (3rd of March 2011)
• Hochschild, R. Arlie. 2002. Upravljano srce: komercializacija človeških čustev. Teorija in praksa 39 (1), 196-213

 

 

 

 

 

Minutes of the first meeting »Problem Based Learning Project«

held on 22 February, 2011 at FDV library

 

Present: Tjaša Belčec, Tadeja Jurinec, David Kastelec, Lucija Kovačič, Tanja Udovč

Absent: /

 

Agenda:

1. Selecting our group name

2. Distribution of tasks

3. Any other business

 

Item 1:

We brainstormed for ideas to decide what our group’s name should be. We decided as a group to select the name Polar Beers, because it is connected to a joke of our group.

 

Item 2:

We discussed about the distribution of tasks. Our decision based on the abilities of the group members. Tanja will be the chairperson, Lucija will be the minutes taker. Tjaša, Tadeja and David will contribute to the decisions about when to set the meetings and how to execute our tasks.

 

Item 3:

We had to decide the time and date for our next meeting and agreed to meet on Wednesday, 1^st of March at 12 AM at FDV library.

 

Minutes taker: Lucija Kovačič

Chair: Tanja Udovč

 

 

Minutes of the second meeting »Problem Based Learning Project«

held on 1 March, 2011 at FDV library

 

Present: Tjaša Belčec, Tadeja Jurinec, David Kastelec, Lucija Kovačič, Tanja Udovč

Absent: /

 

Agenda:

1. Distribution of roles

2. Defining the problem

3. Distribution of tasks

4. Discus the literature

5. Any other business

 

Item 1:

Discussion: We discussed the distribution of our roles and together decided who will have which role.

Decision: We decided that Tanja will be our leader, Lucija will be the secretary, Tjaša will be the time-keeper, Tadeja will be the reporter and David will be the reserve. He will help the other members of our group to carry out the tasks.

Item 2:

Discussion: Based on our theme, Gender and emotional labour, we discussed the profession on which we will focus. Tanja suggested nurses, David proposed the occupation of people who work in call centers, Lucija suggested hostesses, Tjaša proposed the work of sellers.

Decision: After we discussed all aspects of the listed occupations, we decided to choose nurses as our profession.

 

Item 3:

Discussion: We discussed the distribution of tasks, who will do which part.
Decision: We decided that Tanja will define the problem, Tadeja and David will form the 10 working questions, Lucija and Tjaša will help the others with the execution of the tasks.

 

Item 4:

Discussion: We discussed the literature we could use in our project. We all searched for appropriate literature at home, so we had to decide which to use in our project.

Decision: We selected 3 pieces of literature which are, in our opinion, the best choice because they contain general and important information related to our topic.

 

Item 5:

We had to decide the time and date for our next meeting and agreed to meet on Wednesday, 9th of March at 12 AM at FDV library.

 

Minutes taker: Lucija Kovačič

Chair: Tanja Udovč

 

 

Minutes of the third meeting »Problem Based Learning Project«

held on 8 March, 2011 at FDV library

 

Present: Tjaša Belčec, Tadeja Jurinec, David Kastelec, Lucija Kovačič, Tanja Udovč

Absent: /

 

Agenda:

1. Distribution of tasks

2. Any other business

 

Item 1:

Discussion: We had to distribute the tasks, which part will do who. After consulting who wants to do what, we came to an agreement.

Decision: We decided that Tadeja and Tanja will do the theoretical part of our project and answer the working questions connected to our theory, Lucija will analyse the research that has already been made concerned emotional labour, Tjaša and David will execute the interview and try to find the answers to the working questions that are connected to their part of the project.

Item 2:

We had to decide the time and date for our next meeting and agreed to meet on Wednesday, 15th of March at 12 AM at FDV library.

 

Minutes taker: Lucija Kovačič

Chair: Tanja Udovč