ABSTRACT

Emotional competence is increasingly seen as essential across a wide range of jobs, and is often demanded of women in highly gendered and poorly rewarded jobs. Scholars have identified that emotion work extends beyond emotional labour to also include the triangle of power, in which emotion strategies are conducted between managers, workers and customers. We explored midwives’ notions of emotional competence, including the strategies used, and the role of the client in determining such strategies – one of the poles in the service triangle: between managers, workers, and customers, where the burden of emotional work is negotiated through alliances and coercion. These aims were explored through qualitative data generated from an online questionnaire with 192 New Zealand midwives. Midwives showed awareness of their own emotional competence, and most saw this as both an aspect of professionalism, and an inherent attribute along with associated skills such as empathy. Emotional competence was relational and situational. While authenticity was highly valued and enacted through strategies such as establishing genuine connections with clients, surface acting was still necessary and took its toll. We advocate that midwives receive more recognition for the positive strategies they enact, and also more planned support from their organisations.

摘要

情感能力越来越被视为在广泛的工作中必不可少，并且经常要求女性从事高度性别化和报酬低的工作。学者们已经确定，情感工作超越了情感劳动，还包括权力三角，其中情感策略在经理、工人和客户之间进行。我们探讨了助产士关于情绪能力的概念，包括所使用的策略，以及客户在确定这些策略中的作用——服务三角的极点之一：在经理、工人和客户之间，情绪工作的负担是协商的通过联盟和胁迫。这些目标是通过对 192 名新西兰助产士的在线问卷调查产生的定性数据进行探索的。助产士表现出对自己情感能力的认识，大多数人认为这既是专业精神的一个方面，也是与同理心等相关技能的内在属性。情绪能力是关系性的和情境性的。虽然真实性受到高度重视，并通过与客户建立真正联系等策略来制定，但表面行为仍然是必要的，并且会付出代价。我们提倡助产士因其制定的积极策略而获得更多认可，并从其组织中获得更多有计划的支持。