Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Human Relations
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (3)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by O’Donohoe, S.
Right arrow Articles by Turley, D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Compassion at the counter: Service providers and bereaved consumers

Stephanie O’Donohoe

The University of Edinburgh, UK, s.odonohoe{at}ed.ac.uk

Darach Turley

Dublin City University, Ireland, darach.turley{at}dcu.ie

Although the emotional labour required of service providers has received considerable research attention, few studies have examined service workers’ experiences of emotionally charged service encounters. In this article we review literature on emotion management and compassion in the workplace. We then describe a qualitative study which examined the service encounter occurring when bereaved Irish consumers contacted their local newspaper to place In Memoriam notices on the anniversary of a close family member’s death. We suggest that these newspaper employees engaged in philanthropic emotion management when dealing with bereaved customers, and we locate this within the broader context of compassion as interpersonal work and as organizational accomplishment. We also suggest that compassion in organizations is not amenable to managerial systematization and control.

Key Words: bereavement • compassion • emotional labour • philanthropic emotion management • service encounters

Human Relations, Vol. 59, No. 10, 1429-1448 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0018726706071648
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Work Employment SocietyHome page
P. Brook
In critical defence of 'emotional labour': refuting Bolton's critique of Hochschild's concept
Work Employment Society, September 1, 2009; 23(3): 531 - 548.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Work Employment SocietyHome page
S. C. Bolton
Getting to the heart of the emotional labour process: a reply to Brook
Work Employment Society, September 1, 2009; 23(3): 549 - 560.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Journal of Management InquiryHome page
B. B. Caza and A. Caza
Positive Organizational Scholarship: A Critical Theory Perspective
Journal of Management Inquiry, March 1, 2008; 17(1): 21 - 33.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Human RelationsHome page
R. Loveridge, P. Willman, and S. Deery
60 years of Human Relations
Human Relations, December 1, 2007; 60(12): 1873 - 1888.
[Abstract] [PDF]