Abstract
This project examines the emotional culture of the Danish Departments of Social Service called “ydelsesafdelinger” by examining the attitudes of employees regarding which feelings are legitimate or illegitimate to express towards the respective clients and colleagues after exposure to violence or threats of violence caused by clients. Moreover, it examines the employees’ attitudes towards handling emotional distress and how they in fact handle emotional distress.
The project primary examines the attitudes of employees from the social service departments, which decide whether or not clients are entitled to cash benefit.
We found these questions interesting, as they might indicate social norms regarding emotions, which would hopefully enlighten us about how this could possibly affect the work environment in the social service departments.
We also found this interesting, as it had not previously received any research attention in a Danish context. We decided to name episodes in which a person reacts emotionally on violence or threats of violence emotional events.
The empirical material on which this survey is based includes both quantitative data and qualitative data collected by use of the vignette technique (a vignette-questionnaire) and by carrying out focus group interviews. One-third of the country's social service departments participated in the vignette survey, and three departments were interviewed.
The study shows that there is considerable disagreement among participants about whether it is legitimate to express vulnerable feelings toward clients during emotional events while there is consensus among participants regarding the legitimacy of expressing feelings toward colleagues during and especially after emotional events.
Among some of the participants there is a belief that it is a natural reaction to show vulnerability towards a client by crying during a client-related emotional event. Contrary to this, there is a large proportion of participants who believe that it is unprofessional to show vulnerable feelings towards clients during an emotional event. After the analytical processing of the empirical data we found indications of an existing toughness norm, which prescribes that one should exhibit a tough personality during client-related work. This involves a belief that you should mark your boundary clearly towards clients who act violently or that you should leave the work-floor to seek social support. Some empirical findings suggest that in some workplaces a formalized feeling rule regarding the need to be an emotionally tough employee is present, since some employers ask for a tough personality among applicants at job interviews. Among employees who believe that it is unprofessional to express vulnerable feelings toward clients there is a belief that expressions can be legitimized on two conditions, namely that the person has had a hard day and is willing to acquire knowledge on conflict management theory.
In addition, there is a majority of participants who believe that it is legitimate to express feelings towards one's colleagues during and especially after emotional events. The empirical data shows in particular that there is an opinion that one should accept help from one’s colleagues during emotional events and that the surrounding colleagues should show social support during and after emotional events. In addition, there is a widespread opinion that the employees should always be aware of their colleagues' well-being and be ready to step in during a client-related emotional event. After the analytical processing of the empirical data we found that these opinions could indicate an existing security norm among the employees.
Regarding the question about how employees cope with distressing feelings caused by emotional events, the following three coping strategies were found only by using qualitative data: to vent one's feelings by talking with colleagues after emotional events, to share and express angry feelings with one’s colleagues, to express distressing feelings through the use of humour.