“They Say They Support Diversity Initiatives, But They Don’t Demonstrate It”: The Impact of DEI Paradigms on the Emotional Labor of HR&DEI Professionals

Past research indicates that certain factors, such as employee personality or job requirements, are key antecedents to what is often a draining emotional labor process for customer-facing employees. The current mixed-methods study considers the emotional labor experienced by internally-facing employ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of business and psychology Vol. 39; no. 2; pp. 411 - 433
Main Authors Weeks, Kelly P., Taylor, Nicolina, Hall, Alison V., Bell, Myrtle P., Nottingham, Anna, Evans, Louwanda
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Springer US 01.04.2024
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Burnout
Business and Management
Community and Environmental Psychology
Diversity equity & inclusion
Emotional regulation
Emotions
Employees
Employment
Human resources
Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Original Paper
Personality and Social Psychology
Professionals
Psychology
Social Sciences
Workplace diversity
Burnout
Inclusion
Diversity
Equity
Emotional Labor
Surface acting
Diversity Paradigms
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Summary:Past research indicates that certain factors, such as employee personality or job requirements, are key antecedents to what is often a draining emotional labor process for customer-facing employees. The current mixed-methods study considers the emotional labor experienced by internally-facing employees who have especially emotionally demanding positions (Human Resources and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion-HR&DEI- professionals). Study 1 uses a qualitative methodology for an in-depth analysis of emotional labor via 23 interviews with HR&DEI professionals. Study 2 replicates results with a quantitative study using a sample of 280 HR&DEI professionals. Results indicate that the way organizations approach and handle diversity greatly impacts the emotional labor process of their HR&DEI employees. Specifically, organizational diversity paradigms create an important antecedent to understanding the experiences of emotional labor. In addition, certain factors are found to mitigate the draining effects of emotional labor (e.g., social support as a coping technique). Future research and implications are discussed.
ISSN:0889-3268
1573-353X
DOI:10.1007/s10869-023-09886-8