Sanjeewa Perera

Charted Courses and Meandering Trails: Pathways to Success in Academia

Success in academia is relatively clearly defined. Yet pathways to achieve success in academia remain nebulous. We use case studies of five highly successful academics to highlight six dimensions t...

Using Expertise as a Firewall: Exploring Emotion Work of Novices and Experts

Abstract Emotion work benefits service organizations, but high emotion-workloads lead to negative consequences for employees. We examined differences between employees highly competent in emotion work (Experts) and those who are less competent (Novices). We found that Novices conformed to organizational level display rules, used simple strategies and felt overwhelmed by their emotion-workload. In contrast, Experts followed interaction level display rules, used proactive strategies, and found emotion work to be effortless. This suggests that emotion work competence can act as a firewall buffering employees from negative consequences. Hospitality organizations can benefit from encouraging employees to increase their emotion work competence.