Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The USA

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of Global Perspectives on Emotional Labor in Public Service

  • 568 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter focuses on how national culture relates to emotional labor and work attitudes among public service workers in the USA. Discussion explores public management, views of public service, and the influence of national culture as it relates to emotional labor. Survey results show that job satisfaction, burnout, and personal fulfillment are all affected when employees must suppress how they actually feel in order to perform their jobs. This finding suggests that in the USA, public service workers struggle with the incongruity between work responsibilities that require them to emotively pretend when their feelings do not align with the expression they are expected to display, and a national identity where self-expression and individualism are highly valued. Employees are likely to experience emotional exhaustion as a result of the tension between a national culture that values individualism and job duties that prevent authentic emotive expression. Conversely, engaging in authentic emotive expression is rewarding. It has a significant, positive effect on job satisfaction and personal fulfillment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abraham, Rebecca. 1998. “Emotional Dissonance in Organizations: Antecedents, Consequences, and Moderators.” Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs 124 (2): 229–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arrow, Kenneth J. 1963. Social Choice and Individual Values. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashforth, Blake E., and Ronald H. Humphrey. 1993. “Emotional Labor in Service Roles: The Influence of Identity.” The Academy of Management Review 18 (1): 88–115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Austin, Elizabeth J., Timothy C. P. Dore, and Katharine M. O’Donovan. 2008. “Associations of Personality and Emotional Intelligence with Display Rule Perceptions and Emotional Labour.” Personality and Individual Differences 44 (3): 679–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2007.10.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhave, Devasheesh P., and Theresa M. Glomb. 2013. “The Role of Occupational Emotional Labor Requirements on the Surface Acting–Job Satisfaction Relationship.” Journal of Management 42 (3): 722–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206313498900.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bond, Michael Harris. 1988. “Finding Universal Dimensions of Individual Variation in Multicultural Studies of Values: The Rokeach and Chinese Value Surveys.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 55 (6): 1009–15. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.55.6.1009.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brotheridge, Céleste M., and Alicia A. Grandey. 2002. “Emotional Labor and Burnout: Comparing Two Perspectives of ‘People Work’.” Journal of Vocational Behavior 60 (1): 17–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1815.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buss, David M. 1989. “Sex Differences in Human Mate Preferences: Evolutionary Hypotheses Tested in 37 Cultures.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 12 (1): 1–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ciarrochi, Joseph, Frank P. Deane, and Stephen Anderson. 2002. “Emotional Intelligence Moderates the Relationship Between Stress and Mental Health.” Personality and Individual Differences 32 (2):197–209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(01)00012-5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frederickson, H. George. 2002. “Toward a New Public Administration.” In Classics of Public Administration, 8th ed., edited by J. Shafritz and Al Hyde, 282–94. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grandey, Alicia A. 2000. “Emotional Regulation in the Workplace: A New Way to Conceptualize Emotional Labor.” Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 5 (1): 95–110. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.1.95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grandey, Alicia A. 2003. “When ‘The Show Must Go On’: Surface Acting and Deep Acting as Determinants of Emotional Exhaustion and Peer-Rated Service Delivery.” Academy of Management Journal 46 (1): 86–96. https://doi.org/10.2307/30040678.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green, Richard T. 2002. “Alexander Hamilton: Founder of American Public Administration.” Administration & Society 34 (5): 541–62. https://doi.org/10.1177/009539902237275.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Groth, Markus, Thorsten Hennig-Thurau, and Gianfranco Walsh. 2009. “Customer Reactions to Emotional Labor: The Roles of Employee Acting Strategies and Customer Detection Accuracy.” The Academy of Management Journal 52 (5): 958–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guy, Mary E., and Hyun Jung Lee. 2015. “How Emotional Intelligence Mediates Emotional Labor in Public Service Jobs.” Review of Public Personnel Administration 35 (3): 261–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x13514095.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guy, Mary E., Meredith A. Newman, and Sharon H. Mastracci. 2008. Emotional Labor: Putting the Service in Public Service. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, Edward T. 1989. Beyond Culture. New York, NY: Anchor Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, and John Jay. 1857/2009. The Federalist Papers: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hochschild, Arlie R. 1983. The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hofstede, Geert. 1980. Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. Beverly Hill, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hofstede, Geert, Gert Jan Hofstede, and Michael Minkov. 2010. Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. 3rd ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hood, Christopher. 1991. “A Public Management for All Seasons?” Public Administration 69 (1): 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1991.tb00779.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hood, Christopher, and Ruth Dixon. 2015. “What We Have to Show for 30 Years of New Public Management: Higher Costs, More Complaints.” Governance 28 (3): 265–67. https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • House, Robert J., Paul J. Hanges, Mansour Javidan, Peter W. Dorfman, and Vipin Gupta. 2004. Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hsieh, Chih-Wei. 2014. “Burnout Among Public Service Workers: The Role of Emotional Labor Requirements and Job Resources.” Review of Public Personnel Administration 34 (4): 379–402.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hsieh, Chih-Wei, Jun-Yi Hsieh, and Irving Yi-Feng Huang. 2016. “Self-Efficacy as a Mediator and Moderator Between Emotional Labor and Job Satisfaction: A Case Study of Public Service Employees in Taiwan.” Public Performance and Management Review 40 (1): 71–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hsieh, Chih-Wei, Myung Jin, and Mary E. Guy. 2012. “Managing Work-Related Emotions: Analysis of a Cross Section of Public Service Workers.” The American Review of Public Administration 42 (1): 39–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hülsheger, Ute R., Hugo J. E. M. Alberts, Alina Feinholdt, and Jonas W. B. Lang. 2013. “Benefits of Mindfulness at Work: The Role of Mindfulness in Emotion Regulation, Emotional Exhaustion, and Job Satisfaction.” Journal of Applied Psychology 98 (2): 310–25. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031313.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Inglehart, Ronald, Alejandro Menendez Moreno, Miguel Basáñez, Gabriela Catterberg, Jaime Diez-Medrano, Alejandro Moreno, Pippa Norris, Renata Siemienska, and Ignacio Zuasnabar. 1998. Human Values and Beliefs: A Cross-Cultural Sourcebook. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inglehart, Ronald, and Paul R. Abramson. 1994. “Economic Security and Value Change.” The American Political Science Review 88 (2): 336–54. https://doi.org/10.2307/2944708.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaufman, Herbert. 1969/2017. “Administrative Decentralization and Political Power.” In Classics of Public Administration, 8th ed., edited by J. Shafritz and Al Hyde, 265–77. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kotsou, Ilios, Delphine Nelis, Jacques Grégoire, and Moïra Mikolajczak. 2011. “Emotional Plasticity: Conditions and Effects of Improving Emotional Competence in Adulthood.” Journal of Applied Psychology 96 (4): 827–39. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023047.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krislov, S. 1974/2017. “Representative Bureaucracy.” In Classics of Public Administration, 8th ed., edited by J. Shafritz and Al Hyde, 339–43. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, Frances E. 2009. Beyond Ideology: Politics, Principles, and Partisanship in the U.S. Senate. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipsky, Michael. 1980. Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Baodong. 2014. “Postracial Politics: Counterevidence from the Presidential Elections, 2004–2012.” Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race 11 (2): 443–63. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1742058x14000113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lucaites, John Louis. 1997. “Visualizing ‘the People’ Individualism vs. Collectivism in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 83 (3): 269–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mastracci, Sharon H., Mary E. Guy, and Meredith A. Newman. 2012. Emotional Labor and Crisis Response: Working on the Razor’s Edge. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mastracci, Sharon H., Meredith A. Newman, and Mary E. Guy. 2010. “Emotional labor: Why and How to Teach It.” Journal of Public Affairs Education 16 (2):123–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maynard-Moody, Steven, and Michael Musheno. 2003. Cops, Teachers, Counselors: Stories from the Front Lines of Public Service. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayo, Elton. 1933. The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization. Cambridge, MA: Harvard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mesmer-Magnus, Jessica R., Leslie A. DeChurch, and Amy Wax. 2012. “Moving Emotional Labor Beyond Surface and Deep acting: A Discordance–Congruence Perspective.” Organizational Psychology Review 2 (1): 6–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/2041386611417746.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mikolajczak, Moïra, Emmanuel Roy, Olivier Luminet, Catherine Fillée, and Philippe de Timary. 2007. “The Moderating Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Free Cortisol Responses to Stress.” Psychoneuroendocrinology 32 (8–10): 1000–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2007.07.009.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moradi, Afsaneh, Nooshin Pishva, Hadi Bahrami Ehsan, Parvaneh Hadadi, and Farzaneh Pouladi. 2011. “The Relationship Between Coping Strategies and Emotional Intelligence.” Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences 30: 748–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.10.146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Niskanen, William A. 1971. Bureaucracy and Representative Government. Chicago, IL: Aldine, Atherton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parsons, Craig. 2007. How to Map Arguments in Political Science. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prati, L. Melita, Yongmei Liu, Pamela L. Perrewé, and Gerald R. Ferris. 2009. “Emotional Intelligence as Moderator of the Surface Acting—Strain Relationship.” Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies 15 (4): 368–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051808328518.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pressman, Jeffrey L., and Aaron B. Wildavsky. 1984. Implementation: How Great Expectations in Washington Are Dashed in Oakland: Or, Why It’s Amazing That Federal Programs Work at All, This Being a Saga of the Economic Development Administration as Told by Two Sympathetic Observers Who Seek to Build Morals on a Foundation of Ruined Hopes. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pugh, S. Douglas, Markus Groth, and Thorsten Hennig-Thurau. 2011. “Willing and Able to Fake Emotions: A Closer Examination of the Link Between Emotional Dissonance and Employee Well-Being.” Journal of Applied Psychology 96 (2): 377–90. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ramos, Juan. 2018. “How Many Countries Are in North America?” Science Trends. Accessed October 8, 2018 at https://sciencetrends.com/heres-many-countries-north-america/.

  • Rohr, John A. 1986. To Run a Constitution: The Legitimacy of the Administrative State. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, Anne, and Helen Ingram. 1993. “Social Construction of Target Populations: Implications for Politics and Policy.” The American Political Science Review 87 (2): 334–47. https://doi.org/10.2307/2939044.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, Anne, Helen Ingram, and Peter DeLeon. 2014. “Democratic Policy Design: Social Construction of Target Populations.” In Theories of the Policy Process, 3rd ed., edited by Paul A. Sabatier and Christopher M. Weible, 105–50. New York, NY: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schreiber, James B., Amaury Nora, Frances K. Stage, Elizabeth A. Barlow, and Jamie King. 2006. “Reporting Structural Equation Modeling and Confirmatory Factor Analysis Results: A Review.” The Journal of Educational Research 99 (6): 323–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shafritz, Jay M., and Albert C. Hyde. 2012. Classics of Public Administration. 7th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, Herbert A. 1950. Public Administration. New York, NY: Knopf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stillman, Richard J. 2010. “The Study of Public Administration in the United States: The Eminently Practical Science.” In Public Administration, Concepts and Cases,9th ed., edited by Richard J. Stillman, 17–29. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stivers, Camilla. 2000. Bureau Men, Settlement Women: Constructing Public Administration in the Progressive Era: Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, Frederick Winslow. 1912/2017. “Scientific Management.” In Classics of Public Administration, 8th ed., edited by Jay Shafritz and Al Hyde, 56–58. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

    Google Scholar 

  • United States Census Bureau. 2019. U.S. and World Population Clock. Accessed April 5, 2019 at https://www.census.gov/popclock/.

  • U.S. Constitution. Accessed April 5, 2019 at https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript, updated December 7, 2018.

  • Waldo, Dwight. 1955. The Study of Public Administration. New York, NY: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waldo, Dwight. 1968. “Public Administration.” The Journal of Politics 30 (2): 443–79. https://doi.org/10.2307/2128449.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, Max. 1922/2017. “Bureaucracy.” In Classics of Public Administration, 8th ed., edited by J. Shafritz and Al Hyde, 63–67. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, Leonard Dupee. 1955. Introduction to the Study of Public Administration. 4th ed. New York, NY: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, Woodrow. 1887. “The Study of Administration.” Political Science Quarterly 2 (2): 197–222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, Woodrow. 1889. The State: Elements of Historical and Practical Politics. Boston, MA: D. C. Heath.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang, Seung-Bum, Mary E. Guy, Aisha Azhar, Chih-Wei Hsieh, Hyun Jung Lee, Xiaojun Lu, and Sharon H. Mastracci. 2018. “Comparing Apples and Manzanas: Instrument Development and Measurement Invariance in a Cross-National Analysis of Emotional Labor in Public Service Jobs.” International Journal of Work Organization and Emotion 9 (3): 264–82. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJWOE.2018.10015953.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Geri A. Miller-Fox

Authors
  1. Geri A. Miller-Fox
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Geri A. Miller-Fox .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Mary E. Guy

  2. Department of Political Science, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Sharon H. Mastracci

  3. Department of Public Administration, Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

    Seung-Bum Yang

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Miller-Fox, G.A. (2019). The USA. In: Guy, M.E., Mastracci, S.H., Yang, SB. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Perspectives on Emotional Labor in Public Service. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24823-9_20

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24823-9_20

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-24822-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-24823-9

  • eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation