ILPC 2027

Since the publication of The Managed Heart in 1983, emotions in work have been front and centre in the research agenda around interactive services. These discussions are generally focused explicitly on emotion work and other control regimes as managerially imposed on, and experienced by, front-line service workers. While this is consistent with Hochschild’s initial treatment of the concept of emotional labour, it obscures the fact that for managers who work on the front line, emotion displays and other behavioural modifications are also part of the job. There is a small but growing literature which suggests that for managers in front line service work, a large part of their working day is spent working alongside their subordinates in an outwardly identical capacity. This paper draws on interviews with 36 general managers in public houses to describe the ways in which front line managers suppress and manage their emotional responses and displays at work, and their motivation for so doing. Where front line service workers must attempt to produce sincere displays which conform to managerial and customer expectations of exemplary customer service, their managers are further constrained by the need to present an example of exemplary customer service to their staff. The paper argues that managerial emotion work is highly nuanced and worthy of further study.