Emotional Labour in New Zealand Public Libraries: An exploratory study

Abstract

In order to provide good customer service, library employees need to know the expected standard for emotional display and modify their emotions to meet it, a concept known as emotional labour. Research suggests that, while emotional labour is essential to customer service, it can have negative outcomes for individuals. A clear understanding of emotional labour is needed to find ways of mitigating its costs and promoting its benefits. There are few studies of emotional labour in librarianship and this qualitative study is intended to explore the experience of employees in one public library network.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of eighteen employees, including qualified and non-qualified staff. The findings show that library employees performed emotional labour on a daily basis with customers, using both surface and deep acting techniques. Both strategies produced some positive outcomes, such as an increased sense of accomplishment, but surface acting was also associated with negative outcomes such as burnout.

The findings suggest that employees should be encouraged to develop deep acting techniques and library management should support employees by providing training and developing an organisational culture which recognises the effort required to manage emotions. This study contributes towards a greater knowledge of emotional management in libraries and suggestions for further research are provided.