Abstract

QUINONES HERRERA, Marcela  and  DIAZ PEREZ, Florencia. Emotional labor in business consulting advisors for Chilean entrepreneurs and microenterprises. Interdisciplinaria [online]. 2021, vol.38, n.3, pp.287-302. ISSN 1668-7027.  http://dx.doi.org/10.16888/interd.2021.38.3.17.

Emotional labor is a multidimensional concept that includes the interactions between emotional requirements of the jobs, how emotions are expressed and the regulation strategies that it entails. In the last decades it has increased its importance due to its rising prevalence and its severe consequences for employee’s health and organizational performance. Within this context, the present study seeks to address the different components of emotional labor and its effects on business consulting advisors for Chilean entrepreneurs and microenterprises, working in public-funded small business development centers. In doing so, four focus groups were carried out in four small business development centers located in Santiago of Chile. Analyses revealed that mentoring entrepreneurs and micro-enterprises is more complex than it appears, showing that advisors must provide support and comfort to their clients to succeed in their job goals. These demands go beyond their work role and exceed their competencies, which negatively impacts job performance and mental health of business advisors. In order to cope with the job demands, business advisors display several individual and collective strategies. As part of the individual strategies, the following was found: establishing boundaries with clients, regulating clients’ expectations of the mentoring sessions, developing “emotional hardening”, practicing self-care throughout emotional self-exploration, and in some cases, looking for psychological counseling. Interestingly, the term “emotional hardening” matches the definition of the superficial strategy formulated by Alicia Grandey, in which employees simulate or perform the emotion required by a job without changing their inner selves. Vast evidence has demonstrated that the use of this strategy is associated with serious health consequences for employees, therefore, this finding may be considered as a warning sign for the small business development centers. As a collective strategy, business advisors rely on their work teams. Specifically, advisors look for support and comfort from their co-workers and when confronted with complex clients the team referrers them to more experienced advisors. In addition, analyses showed other aspects that hinder the work of business advisors, such as the high amount and diversity of job tasks that are asked from business advisors, combined with several deadlines coming from government institutions and the centers. Furthermore, woman business advisors expressed they face more obstacles at work compared to their male co-workers, most of these obstacles are related to a gender-based discrimination coming from some clients, who doubt their expertise and competences as female advisors, and prefer to deal with male advisors. Overall, results aligned with the literature on emotional labor, showing that emotional labor is characterized by being a secondary and veiled issue in mentoring entrepreneurs and micro-enterprises. Furthermore, using the strategies revealed that emotional labor involves visible processes but also intrapsychic processes that led to a decrease in employees’ resources and energy. Considering the effects of emotion labor in the context of business advisory, our results may help to strengthen the main Chilean strategy, and a well-known international program, to promote the development of entrepreneurs and microenterprises. This is even more relevant in the context of the social and employment crisis that Chile and most of the countries undergo, where entrepreneurship (formal and informal) has emerged as the main alternative to cope with unemployment. In conclusion, despite the long tradition of research on emotional labor and its serious consequences, it remains an invisible and secondary process within organizations. This research highlights the importance of identifying and managing emotions as a nuclear part of the job of business consulting advisors for Chilean entrepreneurs and microenterprises.

Keywords : emotional labor; surface acting; deep acting; psychosocial work-related risks; occupational health.

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