Emotional labor refers to the process by which workers are expected to
manage their feelings in accordance with organizationally defined rules
and guidelines. Hochschild’s (1983) The Managed Heart introduced this
concept and inspired an outpouring of research on this topic. This article
reviews theory and research on emotional labor with a particular focus
on its contributions to sociological understandings of workers and jobs.
The sociological literature on emotional labor can be roughly divided
into two major streams of research. These include studies of interactive
work and research directly focused on emotions and their management
by workers. The first uses emotional labor as a vehicle to understand
the organization, structure, and social relations of service jobs, while the
second focuses on individuals’ efforts to express and regulate emotion
and the consequences of those efforts. The concept of emotional labor
has motivated a tremendous amount of research, but it has been much
less helpful in providing theoretical guidance for or integration of the
results generated by these bodies of work.