Title: Beyond emotion: interactive service work and the skills of women

Authors: Anne Junor, Ian Hampson, Alison Barnes

Addresses: School of Organisation and Management, Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Australia. ' School of Organisation and Management, Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Australia. ' Employment Relations Programme, School of Management, Parramatta Campus, University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 1797, Australia

Abstract: Jobs in the increasingly diverse service economy are often described using a knowledge worker/low skill dichotomy, with debate centred on where the line between the two is drawn. We problematise the generalised ascription of low skill to jobs in which women are concentrated, unpacking concepts such as routinisation and |social and aesthetic| competencies. Analysing examples from research in New Zealand, we argue for a wider conceptualisation of |emotional| and |aesthetic| labour in terms of its active cognitive, relational and ethical components, and extend the analysis to the |invisible| skills that link and integrate fragmented work processes.

Keywords: gender; emotional labour; emotion management; aesthetic labour; female skills; interactive service work; articulation work; New Zealand; emotion; women.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWOE.2008.022114

International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion, 2008 Vol.2 No.4, pp.358 - 373

Published online: 18 Dec 2008 *

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