Caring with a Forced Smile: Emotional Labour Among Private Hospital Nurses in Sri Lanka. (December 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wanninayake, S. D. K.; O'Donnell, M. E.; Williamson, S.
• Is Part Of: South Asian journal of human resources management. Volume 8:Number 2(2021)
• Page Start: 219
• Page End: 239
• Publication Date: 2021-12
• Subjects: Emotional labour -- private sector -- nursing; Personnel management -- South Asia -- Periodicals; 658.300954
• DOI: 10.1177/23220937211037221
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2322-0937

Abstract

Emotional labour among nurses is researched extensively. However, whether nurses in market-oriented, for-profit and customer-focused healthcare contexts performed emotional labour similarly to other nurses is severely underexplored. The minimal research available on this phenomenon have focused on Western for-profit healthcare contexts. Therefore, this article explores how nurses from for-profit healthcare sector performed emotional labour in a non-Western context—Sri Lanka. Using 30 interviews with private hospital nurses, this qualitative study found that scripted and closely managed behaviour routines, being subordinate to patients and their relatives, constant exposure to service recipients' aggression and minimal organisational support led to a significant sense of powerlessness, loss of face, emotional exhaustion and tit-for-tat exchange of emotions with patients among nurses.