‘While you’re there, can you just…’ the emotional labour of role extending in public services

Catherine  Needham; Elizabeth  Griffiths; Catherine Mangan

doi:10.1080/09540962.2021.2001180

‘While you’re there, can you just…’ the emotional labour of role extending in public services

Catherine Needham, Elizabeth Griffiths, Catherine Mangan

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Abstract

Public service professionals are being exhorted to ‘make every contact count’, taking on additional tasks. A case study of the fire service shows that this role extension reduces the mitigating factors helping workers manage emotional labour. Interviews with firefighters engaged in public health work found that role extending was less emotionally intense than emergency response, but evoked more negative emotions—challenging display rules; undermining role preparedness; and creating emotional dissonance. Role extending is not an easy add-on, but requires appropriate training and support.

Original language	English
Journal	Public Money & Management
Early online date	18 Nov 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2021.2001180
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 18 Nov 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

Emotional labour
fire service
public health
public services
role extension

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Business,Management and Accounting
Sociology and Political Science
Public Administration

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10.1080/09540962.2021.2001180Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)

NeedhamC2021WhileFinal published version, 996 KBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)

Cite this

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‘While you’re there, can you just…’ the emotional labour of role extending in public services

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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Cite this