Dealing with emotions is a central feature of everyday police work. This is especially the case in relation to criminal investigation work, in which police investigators must grapple with both their own emotions and those of the victims and families with whom they deal. Despite the importance of emotional labor in understanding criminal investigation work, this aspect of their work remains understudied. This study is based on data from 13 in-depth qualitative interviews with members of the Canadian police services. Within it, we explore how officers engage in emotional labor, as well as its impact on these individuals. Although our results are preliminary in nature, they do reveal how managing emotions according to organizationally sanctioned display rules can affect officers’ well-being, and highlight the need for future research to enable police organizations to deal more effectively with this form of work-related stress.
AshforthBEHumphreyRH (1993) Emotional labor in service roles: the influence of identity. Academy of Management Review18: 88–115.
2.
BakkerABHeuvenA (2006) Emotional dissonance, burnout, and in-role performance among nurses and police officers. International Journal of Stress Management13: 423–440.
3.
BarakY (2006) The immune system and happiness. Autoimmunity Reviews5: 523–527.
4.
BechtoldtMNRohrmannSDe PaterIEBeersmaB (2011) The primacy of perceiving: emotion recognition buffers negative effects of emotional labor. Journal of Applied Psychology96: 1087–1094.
5.
BurkeRJ (1994) Stressful events, work–family conflict, coping, psychological burnout, and well-being among police officers. Psychological Reports75: 787–800.
6.
ButlerEAGrossJJ (2004) Hiding feelings in social contexts: out of sight is not out of mind. In: PhilippotPFeldmanRS (ed.) The Regulation of Emotion. New York: Erlbaum, 101–126.
7.
ChapmanD (2009) Emotional labor in the context of policing in Victoria: a preliminary analysis. International Journal of Police Science & Management11: 476–492.
8.
CopesK (2004) Policing and Stress. New York: Prentice Hall.
9.
DausCSBrownS (2012) The emotion work of police. In: AshkanasyNMHärtelCEJZerbeWJ (eds) Research on Emotion in Organizations (Vol. 8). Emerald, UK, 305–328.
10.
DiefendorffJRichardE (2003) Antecedents and consequences of emotional display rule perceptions. Journal of Applied Psychology88(2): 284–294.
11.
DignamJTBarreraMWestSC (1986) Occupational stress, social support, and burnout among correctional officers. American Journal of Community Psychology14: 177–193.
12.
DonovanE (1994) Programs need caring touch to reach law enforcers. Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly6: 3–4.
13.
DorfmannCZapfD (2004) Customer-related social stressors and burnout. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology9: 61–82.
14.
EricsonR (1991) Making Crime: A Study of Detective Work. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
15.
GiardiniAFreseM (2006) Reducing the negative effects of emotion work in service occupations: emotional competence as a psychological resource. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology11: 63–75.
16.
GlaserBG (1978) Theoretical Sensitivity. Mill Valley, CA: Sociology Press.
17.
GlaserBGStraussAL (1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago: Aldine.
18.
GrandeyAA (1999) The effects of emotional labor: Employee attitudes, stress and performance. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Colorado State University, USA.
19.
GrandeyAA (2000) Emotional regulation in the workplace: a new way to conceptualize emotional labor. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology5: 95–110.
20.
GuyMENewmanMAMastracciSH (2008) Emotional Labor: Putting the Service in Public Service. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
21.
HenryVE (1995) The police officer as survivor: death confrontations and the police sub-culture. Behavioral Science and the Law13: 93–112.
22.
HenryVE (2004) Death Work: Police, Trauma and the Psychology of Survival. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
23.
HochschildAR (1979) Emotion work, feeling rules and social structure. American Journal of Sociology85: 551–575.
24.
HochschildAR (1983) The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.
25.
HolmanDMartinez-InigoDTotterdellP (2008) Emotional labour, well-being and performance. In: CooperCLCartwrightS (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Well-being. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 331–355.
26.
HsiehCWGuyME (2009) Performance outcomes: the relationship between managing the ‘heart’ and managing client satisfaction. Review of Public Personnel Administration29(1): 41–57.
27.
InnesM (2002) The ‘process structures’ of police homicide investigations. British Journal of Criminology42: 669–688.
28.
JosephDLNewmanDA (2010) Emotional intelligence: an integrative meta-analysis and cascading model. Journal of Applied Psychology95(1): 54–78.
29.
ManuciaGKBaumannDJCialdiniRB (1984) Mood influences on helping: direct effects or side effects?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology46: 357–364.
30.
MartinSE (1999) Police force or police service? Gender and emotional labor. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences561: 111–126.
31.
MastracciSHNewmanMAGuyME (2006) Appraising emotion work: determining whether emotional labor is valued in government jobs. American Review of Public Administration36(2): 123–138.
32.
McCaffertyFLDomingoGDMcCaffertyEA (1990) Posttraumatic stress disorder in the police officer: paradigm of occupational stress. Southern Medical Journal83(5): 543–547.
33.
MumbyDPutnamL (1992) The politics of emotion: a feminist reading of bounded rationality. Academy of Management Review17: 465–485.
34.
PierceJL (1995) Gender Trails: Emotional Lives in Contemporary Law Firms. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
35.
PogrebinMRPooleED (1991) Police and tragic events: the management of emotions. Journal of Criminal Justice19: 395–403.
36.
RafaeliASuttonRI (1987) Expression of emotion as part of the work role. Academy of Management Review12: 23–37.
37.
SaakvinteKWPearlmanLA (1996) Transforming the Pain. New York: W.W. Norton.
38.
SchaibleL (2006) The impact of emotional labor, value dissonance, and occupational identity on police officers levels of cynicism and burnout. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Washington State University, USA.
39.
SchaibleLGekasV (2010) The impact of emotional labor and value dissonance on burnout among police. Police Quarterly13: 316–341.
40.
ShulerSSypherBD (2000) Seeking emotional labor: When managing the heart enhances the work experience. Management Communication Quarterly14: 50–89.
41.
SteinrossBKleinmanS (1989) The highs and lows of emotional labor: Detectives’ encounters with criminals and victims. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography17: 435–452.
42.
TracyS (2000) Becoming a character for commerce. Management Communication Quarterly14(1): 90–128.
43.
TsaiWHuangY (2002) Mechanisms linking employee affective delivery and customer behavioral intensions. Journal of Applied Psychology87: 1001–1008.
44.
UrsanoRJMcCarrollJE (1990) The nature of a traumatic stressor: Handling dead bodies. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease178: 396–398.
45.
Van GelderenBRKonijnEABakkerAB (2011) Emotional labor among trainee police officers: The interpersonal role of positive emotions. The Journal of Positive Psychology6(2): 163–172.
46.
Van PattenITBurkeTW (2001) Critical incident stress and the child homicide investigator. Homicide Studies5: 131–152.
47.
WhartonAS (1993) The affective consequences of service work. Work and Occupations20: 205–232.
48.
WhartonAS (2009) The sociology of emotional labor. Annual Review of Sociology35: 147–165.
