Emotional labour within the personal tutor role

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Emotional labour within the personal tutor role

• Angela Williams
• Lecturer
• Department of Nursing
• School of Health Science

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AIM

• To identify and discuss emotional labour within
  the personal tutor role

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Structure

• Introduction Background
• Organisational structure and process
• Emotional labour within the Personal Tutor role
• Implications

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Introduction background

• Implications of widening access to higher
  education
• Nature of students (diversity in age, gender,
  culture, qualifications, experience,
  expectations, commitments)
• Increased numbers of students
• Challenge is to address the needs of large
  numbers of students with varying needs in a
  personalised way

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Organisational structure and process

• Significant emphasis and value is placed on the
  personal tutor role within Swansea University and
  within the School of Health Science

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Organisational structure and process

• Consistent, branch specific personal tutoring
  throughout the programme
• Personal tutor time is mandatory, structured and
  supportive in purpose
• Personal tutor role incorporates group reflection
  with personal tutor students following each
  clinical placement

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Emotional Labour (Hochschild 1983)

• Based on flight attendants, emotional labour
  described as,
• the induction or suppression of feeling in order
  to sustain an outward appearance that produces in
  others a sense of being cared for in a convivial
  safe place (p7)

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Work requiring emotional labour (Hochschild 1983)

• Face or voice contact with the public
• Requires the worker to produce an emotional
  response in another e.g. gratitude
• Enables the employer through training to exercise
  a degree of control of employees emotional
  activities

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• James (1989) emotional labour
• labour involved in dealing with other peoples
  feelings, a core component of which is the
  regulation of emotions (p15)

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Key features of emotional labour (James 1992)

• Hard work
• Regulation and management of feeling
• Action and reaction
• Doing and being
• Demanding, skilled work
• Personal exchange
• Can be used for commercial purposes
• A pretence
• Response to common situations
• Subject to gender discussions

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James (1989)

• Emotional labour is hard work and can be
  sorrowful and difficult. It demands that the
  labourer gives personal attention which means
  they must give something of themselves, not just
  a formulaic response (p18)

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Emotional labour within the personal tutor role

• Working with our emotions in dealing with
  students emotions
• Dealing with students feelings relating to study
  (anger, disappointment, grief, frustration,
  elation)
• Dealing with students problems (mental/physical
  illness, isolation, abuse, bereavement, divorce,
  relationship problems)

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Emotional labour within personal tutor role

• Working with our emotions
• Students who are difficult to manage
  (demanding, lack commitment, reluctant to take
  responsibility - may be unpopular)
• Relationship has potential for attachment and
  emotional involvement (Menzies 1960)
• Personal tutors can experience a range of
  feelings such as care, concern, protection,
  responsibility, empathy and frustration
• These feelings have to be managed

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Implications of emotional labour

• Smith (1992) highlighted the importance of
• supportive environment
• effective leadership
• role modelling and
• valuing of emotion work
• as crucial for student nurses to care for
  patients.

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Support for personal tutors

• Needs to be recognised and supported through
  formal and informal organisational mechanisms
  (e.g. clinical supervision, mentorship)

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Research

• Research is crucial to illuminate the facets of
  emotional labour specifically within the personal
  tutor role

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References

• Hoschild A.R (1983) The managed heart
  commercialisation of human feeling, Berkeley,
  University of California Press
• James N. (1992) Care organisation physical
  labour emotional labour, Sociology of health
  and illness, 14 (4) 489-509
• James N. (1989) Emotional labour skill and work
  in the social regulation of feelings,
  Sociological Review, 37, 15-42
• Smith P. (1992) The Emotional Labour of Nursing,
  London, Macmillan

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