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- Title
Maintaining Norms about Expressed Emotions: The Case of Bill Collectors.
- Authors
Sutton, Robert I.
- Abstract
A qualitative study of a bill-collection organization was used to identify norms about the emotions that collectors are expected to convey to debtors and the means used by the organization to maintain such norms given that collectors' expressed emotions are simultaneously influenced by their inner feelings. These data indicate that collectors are selected, socialized, and rewarded for following the general norm of conveying urgency (high arousal with a hint of irritation) to debtors. Collectors are further socialized and rewarded to adjust their expressed emotions in response to variations in debtor demeanor. These contingent norms sometimes clash with collectors' feelings toward debtors. Bill collectors are taught to cope with such emotive dissonance by using cognitive appraisals that help them become emotionally detached from debtors and by releasing unpleasant feelings without communicating these emotions to debtors. The discussion focuses on the implications of this research for developing general theory about the expression of emotion in organizational life.
- Subjects
COLLECTION agents; COMMUNICATION styles; SOCIOLOGY of emotions; COGNITIVE dissonance; WORK &; psychology; ORGANIZATIONAL socialization; OCCUPATIONAL sociology; ORGANIZATIONAL sociology research; EMOTIONAL intelligence; INTERPERSONAL relations
- Publication
Administrative Science Quarterly, 1991, Vol 36, Issue 2, p245
- ISSN
0001-8392
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/2393355