Emotional labour and communities of coping in academia

Emotional labour has been a burgeoning research area among scholars because of its significance for employees and organisations. However, there is scarce research on emotional labour among high professional service jobs as compared to customer service jobs. Moreover, little research has been done on emotional labour among academics and how they cope with the emotional labour requirements of their teaching role. To address this gap, this study focuses on examining the emotional labour requirements of academics and specifically on whether and how communities of coping allow academics to manage the emotional labour requirements of their teaching role. This thesis employs a qualitative case study methodology, utilising semi-structured interviews to collect data from Australian business schools’ academics. Findings show various emotional labour requirements for academics such as being enthusiastic, calm and mindful. Adhering to such occupational emotional labour requirements results in emotional exhaustion among academics. The study demonstrates that communities of coping play an imperative role in dealing with emotional labour requirements of academics. This research concludes that despite the significance of communities of coping in academia, its scope is narrowed down due to the encroachment of managerialism, intensified research expectations and increased workload. This study contributes to the emotional labour scholarship and extends existing research on the academic profession.