Title: Emotional labour in transcending the feeling rules of the Kesarwani community

Authors: Amrita Mukhopadhyay

Addresses: Business School University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Abstract: Emotional labour is conceived as a commodity that is exchanged in return for a wage and the performance of which requires management of emotions by adhering to the feeling rules of an organisation. Using ethnography, this paper examines the concept of emotional labour performed by a woman at the start-up phase of a home based business enterprise within the Kesarwani community in India. It outlines the 'feeling rules' for women in the Kesarwani caste group and argues that emotional labour is performed in transcending the 'feeling rules' but remains, unrecognised and unpaid, primarily because it is performed within the home.

Keywords: emotion; emotional labour; feeling rules; business; Kesarwani; ethnography; India; home based business; homeworking; women.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWOE.2012.048591

International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion, 2012 Vol.5 No.1, pp.41 - 55

Published online: 27 Nov 2014 *

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