Emotional Suppression to Regulated Empathy: From One Face of Control to Another

Abstract

During the 1970s the neutral face of bureaucracy in the Australian national employment service was partially replaced by emotional expression. New recruits introduced emotions as a coping strategy in response to work intensification and insufficient training. As government policies subsequently weakened bureaucratic control mechanisms of internal labour markets while also adopting private sector management techniques, emotions became recognised as part of improved service delivery. Measurement and evaluation followed, moving the use of emotions full circle—from suppression, to autonomous use, to recognition, to prescription (or regulated empathy). Two key points are argued. Firstly, workers did not experience emotional labour equally. Secondly, part of the motivation for management s recognition and incorporation of emotions into policy must be perceived as an attempt to tighten behavioural controls over workers, through a customer service focus.