Cost and Benefits of
Organizational Display Rules
RESEARCH REPORT
National University of Computers and Emerging Sciences, FAST-NU
Organizational Behavior
BBA 2009
Presented to:
Prof. Dr. Hamid Hassan
Prepared by:
(Group-VII)
Amina Farrukh 09-4714
Komal Anjum 09-4752
Maryam Salahuddin 09-4672
Tanzeela Muhammad 09-4723
MEMO
To: Prof. Dr. Hamid Hassan
From: Group-VII
Date: April 30, 2011
Subject: Cost and Benefits of Organizational Display Rules
Enclosed is the (informational/research) report on “Cost and Benefits of Organizational Display
Rules”. The report studies/ is an in-depth analysis of cost and benefits of Organizational Display
Rules. Display rules are a social group's informal norms about when, where, and how one
should express emotions. For any organization these display rules are a must have. Our purpose
was to find how effective these rules are and how they affect the business and the employees.
We enjoyed the opportunity to study this subject. It enabled us to observe the dynamics of the
business world and how important are emotions becoming at work places all around the globe.
Enclosure
Executive Summary
In the past, emotions were ignored in the study of organizational behavior. The workplace was
viewed as a rational environment, where emotions would get in the way of reasonable and sound
judgment. This view is ending as more researchers are finding how workplace emotions help to
explain important individual and organizational outcomes. Emotional display rules are
influenced by relational, professional and cultural expectations. Display rules significantly affect
the purchasing behavior of customers and as in the long term organizations heavily rely on their
loyal customers. The employees should take care of the need of the customers and they should
assist them in a professional way without degrading themselves.
ABSTRACT
Purpose:
Emotional display rules are influenced by relational, professional and cultural expectations. The
issue in this report analyzes, is whether there are more benefits or cost of Organizational Display
Rules. We analyzed results from existing researches and in addition we analyzed other
Organizational Behavior related issues in practical work place environment, and conclude and
recommended use for our findings.
Findings:
As mentioned and discussed earlier negative emotions can be directed towards colleagues, it can
also be slightly leaked towards supervisors but it should almost never be directed towards or
shown to customers. From the data that we have gathered from journal articles and the survey we
have conducted it is fairly safe to assume that display rules significantly affect the purchasing
behavior of customers and as in the long term organizations heavily rely on their loyal customers
that is why customer representative should observe display rules provided to them by the
organization. Unless the CSR‟s or the sales personnel are polite and eager to help the customers,
they would gladly choose to take their business elsewhere.
Method:
For this report existing research has been used. Also we used the conducted several surveys and
interviews.
Introduction
In the past, emotions were ignored in the study of organizational behavior. The workplace was
viewed as a rational environment, where emotions would get in the way of reasonable and sound
judgment. Thus, at workplaces emotions were not considered important at all. This view is
ending as more researchers are finding how workplace emotions help to explain important
individual and organizational outcomes.
More specifically, researchers are beginning to explore how emotions are managed by
employees to improve work outcomes.
Servicer Industry
Service is a performance of labor for the benefit of another-(KTEC, 2005) and successful service
depends on emotional labor. Service encounters between the service providers and customers
demand that the service provider meets the needs of the customers in order to satisfy their needs
and make them happy with the deal. This has required service providers to perform at their best
level as their performances are evaluated by the customers and would determine whether or not
they were happy with the service delivered. Indeed, the performance of the service provider or
employees will be a key factor in customer evaluation and comparison with expectations in
deciding whether or not they are satisfied with the service. Accordingly, it is vital that the service
provider ensure that whatever is delivered can delight and make the customers happy. However,
that would not be an easy task for every service provider.
They many issues that may limit them from performing as required and the best they can. They
may not be able to perform well if the power that is given to them is restricted, or if they are not
allowed to make simple decisions or if they only have restricted flexibility in their jobs. On the
other hand, the levels of their service may also be affected if they are not in a positive mood to
do their job. These conditions may have some impact on the value quality that they deliver which
may well have some influences on the customer‟s evaluation and possible dissatisfaction.
Previous researches have provided evidence and proposed that empowerment of employees may
benefit their performance in various ways: such as motivating the employees, enhancing job
satisfaction, increasing organizational commitment and being more responsive to customers‟
needs. In addition employees who are in a positive state of mind may contribution a positive
impact to the service outcome.
Service Industry and Display Rules
An assumption in service research is that both management and customers expect front-liner
staff to be friendly, caring and perhaps even enthusiastic-(Hochschild, 1983). These expectations
are communicated via formal internal policies (e.g., selection, monitoring, and training) in
addition to informal social rewards and punishments, and guide what are appropriate emotional
displays. Such display rules for emotional expressions help guide employee behavior and
interpersonal performance, since there will without doubt be situations when employees do not
feel such positive emotions such emotional labor.
However, till date there is mixed evidence on whether display rule perceptions are associated
with job performance and job strain in the ways proposed. We argue that more attention is
needed to how workplace display rules vary by emotion, target and cultural context. First,
display rules research often asks about „positive‟ is „negative‟ emotions, but this makes
variability within each category ambiguous.
We focused on display rules for two emotions important for the work environment – anger and
happiness – because they motivate anti- and pro-social action tendencies, respectively). The
customer target involves stronger display rules than would a general norm for “niceness” within
the organization, but this is rarely tested.
All of this could have a direct influence on their performance which can be directly linked to the
levels of service quality in service delivery to customers. Our focus here is primarily to analyze
displayed emotions by employees and their consequences. The most important consequence of
displayed emotions in organizations is the emotional labor experienced by the employees in the
service industry.
Emotional Labor
Emotional labor is the control of a person‟s behavior to display the appropriate emotions-(Chu,
2002). This means that a person evokes or suppresses certain emotions to conform to social
norms. Another definition states „Emotional labor refers to the regulation of one's feelings and
emotional displays for a wage‟-(Hochschild, 1983).
Arlie Hochschild first coined the term „Emotional Labor‟ in her book published in 1983 titled
“The Managed Heart”. Hochschild pointed out that people control their emotions in personal and
work life (Hochschild, 1983). Whenever a person alters their outward behavior (emotions, verbal
ques body language) to conform to an ideal, something that every human does, it is emotional
labor. Therefore it is necessary to look more deeply into the subject.
Hochschild describes two types of acting: surface acting and deep acting. Surface acting is
expressing some emotion without feeling that emotion (Hochschild, 1983). This is the most
important type of acting concerned in the workplace because it has some very serious
consequences. Generally surface acting involves the masking of negative emotions such as
frustration, anger, annoyance, depression etc. with contrary emotions such as happiness, joy etc.
Deep acting refers to two different emotional actions. The first method is to show actual felt
emotions, the other is to recreate or act bases on some previous felt emotion. Also known as
method acting, for the due remainder of this report whenever deep acting is mentioned it will
mean method acting.
Display Rules
In order to understand the true concept of emotional labor it is crucial to identify the correct
response to a situation. Hoschschild defined a set “Feeling Rules” or “Display Rules” by which
people identify what correct behavior is. They can be a part of training or could just simply be
manners.
As mentioned earlier in the report most organizations have a set of policies, most of which likely
cover conduct with customers. This is a form of written guidelines by which employees can
judge the correct response.
Feeling rules are also connected to culture of the region but due to time and resource limitations
we will not discuss these. Emotional labor is most evident when a service deal is going wrong,
when the customers are unhappy for multiple reasons. In most of the time the employee will
remain calm, composed and polite to the customer while the customer will irritate and even
sometimes verbally abuse the employee and or the organization. This behavior show by the
employee is a form of self control, suppressing negative emotions and evoking more positive
emotions. Display-rules are the main reason that why employee knows to be polite. The
employee has a set of display rules by which he/she may operate, whilst the customer have an
expectation of good service. These are defined by ten dimensions including trustworthiness,
courtesy, approachability and understanding-(Ashforth, 1993). These dimensions would change
depending on the expectations of the customer. Hence it is very much possible and is true in
some cases when customers have unreal expectations of good/services and they cannot be
satisfied.
Some service industries are subject to higher expectations than other such as medical
professionals, call center operators and airline attendants. These industries spend a lot of time
with people. This interaction includes an expectation by the customer good service. For example,
goods service form a doctor would include a caring attitude politeness, friendliness, happiness
etc. this is also known as “Bedside manners” and are increasingly becoming important for
doctors. Feeling rules must also be changed on the basis of age.
Emotional labor occurs when a person suppresses or evokes emotions to conform to display
rules. Display rules are scripts by which people try to correct emotional response to a situation.
When the system breaks down, however, there are harmful consequences for the individual.
Problems with Emotional Labor
“A professional act as they must, not as they feel”.-(Academy of management journal)
Inter action with customers is an essential part of the service industry. Their job requires
customers to be nice and courteous to customers regardless how the customer is treating the
employee. Such treatment of employees will lead to emotional dissonance and will create stress
in employees. “This stress could cause hypertension, heart disease, even exacerbate cancer.”-
(Manns.S). This is because people to a large extent tend to surface act and surface acting can
cause sufferers to experience detachment from their own emotions, and may suffer burnout as a
result.
Emotional labor can also be a source for job satisfaction; it all depends on whether the employee
experiencing surface acting or deep acting, the high level of emotional labor can be very
rewarding. If the person is only surface acting, the strain of masking emotions can cause serious
stress.
Surface acting is especially dangerous with care professions, such as doctors, nurses and airline
attendants. As previously discussed, the concept of care is driven by emotional labor. So when
care is lost due to emotional stress/burnout, the key expectation of the job is gone and the
customer expectations cannot be satisfied.
It is possible to lose a job due to poor emotional labor, or letting the wrong emotion leak out.
Emotional labor is becoming increasingly important in organizations and these set guidelines for
emotional display are a crucial element of customer service. But since more and more people
practice surface acting they become more prone to the consequences of emotional labor i.e. it
becomes harder for them to retain control of their emotions and stress builds up. Otherwise you
are not doing your job of providing customer service because the 50th person has no idea that
you have answered the same question 50 times. They just need an answer. Another dilemma with
emotional labor is its strong connection with stress. It has been found that faking emotions
through surface acting can lead to high levels of stress. Stress is becoming more and more
prominent in the work place; in the developed world some organizations even give „stress leaves‟
apart from the conventional „sick leave‟. When a person continues to surface act they build up
stress as a result-(Persaud, 2010).
This stress can hinder their performance of emotional control, and decrease job performance.
This may in turn cause the individual to feel dishearten and dissatisfied with their work, which as
previously discussed can lead to quitting.
Member s Point of View
Tanzeela and Komal’s View:
In our opinion organizational display rules are crucial for effective service management and
sales. When a customer pays for a service he/she has certain expectations form the employee and
the organization. One such example can be looked at in the hotel industry; a customer who pays
$100 per night in a 5 star hotel expects the management to be friendly, cooperative and overall
nice in behavior. In addition the housekeeping, waiters, bellhops etc all are part of the hospitality
industry and customers expect to be treated accordingly.
Therefore organizational display rules have to be maintained in order to survive in the longer run
and emotional display in organizations is very important and is directly proportional to the
profits and benefits of an organization.
Amina and Maryam’s View:
We believe that emotional Labor is inevitable; you cannot force people to smile or be nice and
polite when they do not want to do so. This is an unrealistic expectation by the customers and
cannot be satisfied. And is against the rights of the employees, because the company should
realize that they too have feelings and should not expect them to be punch bags that the
customers are hurling insults at them and they just paste a smile on their face.
Also this causes a dissonance between the employer and employee and leads to dissatisfaction
from the job. Being forced to disguise their actual emotions can also lead to stress in the
employees.
Therefore it is better to have display rules that minimize emotional labor e.g. feeling rules that
state a neutral/pleasant expression that will be required by all employees to display, a calm and
rational behavior. Expecting employees to go beyond the rational service norms is asking for
trouble.
Consensus Building
Issue
We were to chose in favor or against the topic i.e. Organizational Display Rules, and reach a
consensus. Following our consensus we were to justify our decision by supporting research and
own findings. This has been done in the following section.
Method
After submitting the written argument/point of views each group member read the views of
remaining group members. An informal debate was held and points were noted, these points
were then considered and a consensus was reached.
The Decision
After analyzing the points of view, and a long debate we came to the decision that emotional
display rules have more costs than benefits, as it leads to dissonance, dissatisfaction from job and
stress in employees. Two of our group members who were determined that emotional display
rules are very beneficial for an organization were convinced by verbal arguments and in the end
they too were of the opinion that display rules cause more trouble than they are worth of.
Research Methodology
The Survey Method
This survey is aimed to help indentify perspective elements of organizational display problems.
We would first need to explain the survey method in order to make our analysis more effective
and understandable for the user.
Definition
A survey is an evaluation targeted to achieve a specific aim.
Introduction
The most common tool for researchers is the need for data for which they conduct a survey. A
survey is a tool mostly used by social psychologists in which cognitive questions are asked,
aimed to extract certain information from the respondent. Only questions of interest to the
researcher are asked, recorded and analyzed. Time and money is not spent on broad questions.
Surveys were introduced in the 1940‟s and are used for collecting information from very large
number of people in very less time. Surveys are a basic tool to get opinion from people about
something, Industrial psychology has wide applications of surveys for example consumer
choices, preferences etc. these surveys usually contain questionnaire with fixed or open ended
questions which indicate the respondents characteristics or opinion. Following are some
advantages and disadvantages of the survey method.
Advantages
• It is an efficient way of collecting information from a large number of people.
• This method is mostly used in social psychology.
• Very large samples are possible.
• Statistical techniques can be used to determine validity, reliability, and statistical significance.
• Surveys are flexible in the sense that a wide range of information can be collected.
• They can be used to study attitudes, values, beliefs, and past behaviors.
• Because they are standardized, they are relatively free from several types of errors.
• They are relatively easy to administer.
Disadvantages
• Surveys depend on subject‟s motivation, honesty, memory, and ability to respond.
• Subjects may not be aware of their reasons for any given action.
• They may have forgotten their reasons.
• They may not be motivated to give accurate answers; in fact, they may be motivated to give
answers that present themselves in a favorable light.
• Surveys are just a snapshot of behavior at one place and time.
Steps involved in conducting a survey
1. Understanding the problem
2. Design the instrument
3. Sampling
4. Interview
5. Analysis of the result
1. Understanding the problem
The research topic should be very clear and the problems involved in it should be pre
determined. The problem should be very clear and well planned. The research topic should be a
general one because samples for it can easily be collected. You must have some prior knowledge
about the problem and further research from references must be done.
2. Design the instrument
After having decided to conduct a survey research one should search the literature for measures
of your research area of interest. This is the theory part in designing an instrument one should be
very clear about their goal. The next step is to create the tool which is most cases is a
questionnaire and or interviews. The questions should be prepared in such a way that only useful
information can be collected. The questions must be clear and easily understandable for the
respondent. The questions should be very clear on what is being asked.
Survey questionnaires include two types of questions
• Open Ended
• Fixed Ended
Open Ended: these type of questions let the respondent express their own views in words. They
are relatively harder to analyze
Fixed Ended: these are the questions which are more frequently used and usually give the
respondent options either YES or NO or provide a simple statement.
Sampling the population
Random sampling:
Is the form sampling each member of the population is selected randomly, this method is
difficult when large populations are selected.
Convenience sampling:
This method is used for approximate truth among the sample population. In other words just an
estimate. It is very less time and money consuming.
Quota sampling:
This type of sampling focuses on a particular group/area of respondents. This are limited type of
survey sampling in only which limited number of people are involved.
Interview:
This method is used by psychologist/analyst the respondent can be contacted through telephone
or face to face questions may be asked. In this method the researcher‟s argumentative and
communications skills should be good also he/she should have total command over their field of
study.
Analysis Tools:
1. A questionnaire has been used for our small scale research.
2. There were ten fixed ended questions to fulfill the topics demands.
Sampling:
Sample populations of 50 individual was chosen which included 15 professionals (Executives,
Government Officials, Businessmen) from various companies, 15 housewives from different
localities and 20 university students, both male and female in equal proportion and the
respondents were asked to fill out a specifically prepared questionnaire consisting of 10 close
ended-questions pertaining to the research topic
Statistical Analysis:
We have used fixed ended questions. We tabulated the results and calculated percentages on both
sides of the argument that are to be done using the Mean-method and other statistical methods.
Limitations:
The survey we conducted may have a limitation to it as our sample does not include a large
population and the topic that we are dealing with involves the entire nation. Hence we have
assumed that the opinions of our sample reflect the opinions or reflections of the entire nation.
This has the tendency to be misleading; hence, this limitation should be taken into account before
taking the survey into consideration
Discussion
The above mentioned issue is directly related OB problems, as mentioned previously these
display rules have taken the form of expectations in the customers mind from the organizations.
We have many living examples of organizations which have policies that influence employees to
observe display rules in almost all aspects of their work. One such example can be taken from
the telecom sector e.g. Ufone, Warid Telecom, Mobilink and Telenor. The Customer Sales
Representatives are trained to provide memorable experience to their customer and they are also
expected by not only the customer but also by their employers to show polite and understanding
behavior regardless of how the customer is behaving with CSR. They employ the “The customer
is Always right” motto. This is mainly due to the volatile nature of telecom customers who
would without much deliberation change to a different service provider, if they are not given
their due protocol when talking to the CSR‟s.
To find out if this phenomenon was generally applicable to the organizations we proposed to
take a survey of customers regarding the dealings of the CSR‟s/Salesmen when they went to buy
a product.
In our survey we asked the respondents if they wanted the salesman to be smiling when they
approach him and talk to him. 54% of the respondents answered they would want the customer
representative to be smiling which showed that a smile and 46% answered negatively, smile
which is one of many display rules that organizations have in their policies. This also indicates
that the customer is looking for a pleasant experience while purchasing or interacting with the
customer sales representative or the sales personnel.
Another question which provided further insight was “Would you prefer buying the product if
the CSR/Sales personnel is an extrovert?” A staggering 80% responded positively that they
would definitely buy the product if the CSR is an extrovert and openly gives his suggestions to
the customer. This clearly shows that the buying behavior is massively influenced by the
dealings of the Sales people.
A very interesting finding that we were able to unearth was that if the consumer was in an
emergency and the need of a particular product was very great then regardless of the behavior of
the representative the consumer will buy that product. In question 4 of the survey 78% of the
respondents said that they would by the product regardless of the behavior of the CSR because
the product was very important where as 22% said they would still not buy the product because
the sales personnel were rude or indifferent. This greatly emphasizes on the fact that if the
product is not of great importance the attitude, behavior and the emotions that the employees of
the organizations show influence the purchasing behavior of the customers. They would gladly
choose to take their business elsewhere.
Conclusion
As mentioned and discussed earlier negative emotions can be directed towards colleagues, it can
also be slightly leaked towards supervisors but it should almost never be directed towards or
shown to customers. From the data that we have gathered from journal articles and the survey we
have conducted it is fairly safe to assume that display rules significantly affect the purchasing
behavior of customers and as in the long term organizations heavily rely on their loyal customers
that is why customer representative should observe display rules provided to them by the
organization. Unless the CSR‟s or the sales personnel are polite and eager to help the customers,
they would gladly choose to take their business elsewhere. So the display rules are crucial for the
existence of an organization and employees should be professional enough to embrace this
concept.
Consumer Sample Survey
Gender:
Age:
1. Do you prefer salesmen to be smiling?
Yes No
2. Would you prefer buying the product if the salesman is an extrovert?
Yes No
3. Would you buy the product if the salesman is rude?
Yes No
4. If the product is extremely important would you still buy it, if the salesman was rude in the
dealing?
Yes No
5. While the salesman is taking your order, would you like it if they are smiling?
Yes No
6. If the product is relatively not important would you still buy it, if the salesman was rude in the
dealing?
Yes No
7. If the salesman is indifferent towards you would you make a purchase?
Yes No
8. If the salesman is polite and answered your queries enthusiastically would you come back to
the same shop again?
Yes No
9. If the salesman is eager and enthusiastic about helping you will it compel you to buy the
product?
Yes No
10. Do you think a polite and friendly attitude is important for the salesman when talking to a
customer?
Yes No
References
Abraham, R. (1998). Emotional dissonance in organizations: Antecedents, consequences, and moderators. Genetic, Social,
and General Psychology Monographs, 124(2), 229-246.
Adelman, P. K. (1995). Emotional labor as a potential source of job stress. In S. L. Sauter & L. R. Murphy (Eds.),
Organizational risk factors for job stress (pp. 371 – 381). Washington, DC: American Psychological Associassion.
Ashford, B. E. & Humphrey, R. H. (1993). Emotional labor in service roles: The influence of identity. Academy of Management
Review, 18(1), 88-115.
Brotheridge, C. M., & Grandey, A. A. (2002). Emotional labor and burnout: Comparing two perspectives of ‘people work'.
Journal of Vocational Behavior, 60, 17-39.
Brotheridge, C. M. & Lee, R. T. (2002). Testing a conservation of resources model of the dynamics of emotional labor. Journal
of Occupational Health Psychology, 7, 57-67.
Cropanzano, R., Rupp, D.E. & Byrne, Z.S. (2003). The relationship of emotional exhaustion to work attitudes, job performance
and organizational citizenship behaviors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(1), 160-169.
Diefendorff, J. M., & Richard, E. M. (2003). Antecedents and consequences of emotional display rule perceptions. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 88, 284-294.
Erickson, R. J., & Wharton, A. S. (1997). Inauthenticity and depression: Assessing the consequences of interactive service
work. Work and Occupations, 24(2), 188 – 213.
Friedman, H. S., Prince, L. M., Riggio, R. E., & DiMatteo, R. (1980). Understanding and assessing nonverbal expressiveness:
The affective communication test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 333-351.
Glomb, T.M., Kammeyer-Mueller, J. & Rotundo, M. (2004). Emotional Labor Demands and Compensating Wage Differentials.
Journal of Applied Psychology 89, 700-714.
Grandey, A.A. (2000). Emotion regulation in the workplace: A new way to conceptualize amotional labor. Journal of
Occupational Health Psychology, 5, 59-100.
Grandey,A., Dickter, D. & Sin, H.P. (2004). The customer is not always right: Customer verbal aggression toward service
employees. journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(3), 397-418
Grandey, A.A., Fisk, G.M. & Steiner, D.D. (2005). Must "service with a smile" be stressful? The moderate role f personal control
for American and French employees. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90 (5), 893-904.
Grove, S.J.& Fisk, R.P. (1989). Impression management in services marketing: a dramaturgical perspective. In Impression
Management in the Organization (Giacalone RA and Rosenfeld P, Eds) pp 427–438, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
Gross, J. (1998a). Antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation: Divergent consequences for experience, expression,
and physiology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(1), 224-237.
Gross, J. (1998b). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 271-
299.
Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press.
Ito, J., & Brotheridge, C. (2003). Resources, coping strategies, and emotional exhaustion: A conservation of resources
perspective. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 63, 490–509.
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.A. & Berry. (1988). SERVQUAL: A Multiple-Item Scale for Measuring Customer Perceptions of
Service Quality. Journal of Retailing, 12-40.
Pugliesi, K. (1999). The consequences of emotional labor in a complex organization. Motivation and Emotion, 23, 125-54.
Rafaeli, A. & Sutton, R. I. 1989. The expression of emotion in organizational life. Research in Organizational Behavior, 11, 1-
43.
Sutton, R. I. & Rafaeli, I. (1988). Untangling the relationship between displayed emotions and organizational sales: The case of
convenience stores. Academy of Management Journal, 31(3), 461-487.
Tracy, S. (2000) Becoming a Character for Commerce Emotion. Management Communication Quarterly, 14. 90-128
Wichroski, M. R. (1994). The secretary: Invisible labor in the workworld of women. Human Organization, 53(1), 33-41.
Wright, T.A. & Cropanzano, R. (1998). Emotional exhaustion as a predictor of job performance and voluntary turnover. Journal
of Applied Psychology, 83 (3), 486-493.
Zapf, D. (2002). Emotion work and psychological well-being. A review of the literature and some conceptual considerations.
Human Resource Management Review, 12, 237-268.