Page 119 - The Disneyization of Society

THE DISNEYIZATION OF SOCIETY

to concentrate on these features is to miss the point: as Van Maanen observes,
there is a significant acceptance among Disney staff of the emotional require-
110 ments of the job. 35 Similarly, adherence to the Disney Way of service delivery
among Tokyo Disneyland cast members has been described as ‘remarkable’. 36
Even among some former cast members who have had adverse employment expe-
riences, there seems to be a certain ambivalence that combines a certain degree of
admiration with a recognition that the job was not for them. 37

Precursors of Emotional Labour

As with the other dimensions of Disneyization, emotional labour is not a new
phenomenon. Nurses, doctors, midwives and others involved in medical services
have frequently felt the need to engage in emotional labour: expressing joy at the
birth of a healthy baby or a sombre demeanour when having to deliver bad news.
Also, many jobs have a degree of emotional labour attached to them. We try not
to fall out with colleagues, to be helpful to visitors to our organizations, to be
solicitous when we need special consideration from a supplier, and to provide
encouragement towards new recruits to an organization. In all such instances, it
could be argued with some validity that emotional labour is being enacted.
What could be described as new in relation to the Disney theme parks and to
the other modern examples of the diffusion of emotional labour is the promi-
nence it is given, particularly in relation to commercial service delivery.
Therefore, it is the formally prescriptive nature of the expression of emotions as
part of the work role that is novel, even though emotional labour itself is not
new. However, it would be wrong to associate emotional labour solely with for-
mal prescription, since service workers are frequently fully aware of the signifi-
cance of cultivating good relationships with customers in the interests of the
performance of the organizations on which their jobs depend. Indeed, in some
cases they may chafe under the yoke of an overly prescriptive approach to the
display of emotional labour. For example, Rosenthal et al. show that workers in
one of the main supermarket chains in Britain were able, following the intro-
duction of an initiative that emphasized service quality for customers and
removed many previous restrictions on employees, to engage in emotional
labour in a way that suited them. 38 The more scripted approach that they had
previously had to follow had been disliked because they felt they possessed the
skills required to perform emotional labour. Emotional labour is not necessarily
performed as a result of direct enticement, although this undoubtedly happens
and is particularly prominent in Disney Parks, but also because employees fre-
quently recognize the need for it. Such a recognition can arise as a result of con-
tact with customer care programmes but also because there is a growing
recognition of emotional labour as a component of good service.