The politics of smiling: the interplay of emotion, power and discourse in sensegiving and sensemaking

IF 0.9 Q4 MANAGEMENT

Journal of Organizational Ethnography Pub Date : 2024-01-30 DOI:10.1108/joe-05-2023-0028

Yi Zhu

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

PurposeThis research investigates the politics of smiling as a central driver for employees to navigate power dynamics within the prevailing discourse at a Japanese retailer in Hong Kong. Existing critical management studies emphasize power in organizational language, often neglecting the role of employees’ emotions in sustaining discourse. This paper examines employees’ smiles as tools for legitimizing (sensegiving) and interpreting (sensemaking) discourse. It explores how the use of their emotional display influenced the outcome of the company’s attempt to legitimize discourse. This research divides the discourse process into five phases: formation, codification, implementation, monitoring and adaptation.Design/methodology/approachUsing the critical sensegiving and sensemaking approach, this paper discusses how employees’ interpretations of corporate policies shape the perpetuation of dominant discourse and outcomes. Data were collected through the author’s long-term participant observation in the Hong Kong branches of Japanese retailers.FindingsThe formation phase discusses the emergence of a dominant discourse favoring Japanese practices in the company’s Hong Kong operations. Codification involves the conceptualization of standard smiles in customer service policies. In practice (implementation, monitoring and adjustment), employee smiles serve as tools for negotiating power—shaping careers, earnings and shift preferences. This paper argues that this discourse shapes organizational norms while employees’ sensemaking influences the discourse implementation. Furthermore, this paper highlights the transnational impact of Japanese culture in Hong Kong, which has shaped the way Japanese top management and local employees interpret the dominant discourse.Originality/valueThis study demonstrates the importance of discussing the display of emotions and employees’ intentions to understand their impact on the outcome of discourse implementation. This study also reiterates the significance of discussing the influence of one culture on another to understand the broader social context that affects the perpetuation of discourse.

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微笑的政治：情感、权力和话语在感觉给予和感觉建立中的相互作用

研究目的本研究探讨了在香港一家日资零售企业中，微笑作为员工驾驭主流话语中权力动态的核心驱动力所具有的政治性。现有的批判性管理研究强调组织语言中的权力，但往往忽视了员工情绪在维持话语中的作用。本文探讨了员工的微笑作为使话语合法化（感觉给予）和解释话语（感觉制造）的工具。本文探讨了员工的情绪表现如何影响公司试图使话语合法化的结果。本研究将话语过程分为五个阶段：形成、编纂、实施、监控和适应。设计/方法/途径本文采用批判性的 "感觉给予 "和 "感觉制造 "方法，讨论了员工对企业政策的解释如何影响主导话语的延续和结果。作者通过对日本零售商香港分公司的长期参与式观察收集数据。研究结果形成阶段讨论了公司在香港业务中出现的倾向于日本做法的主导话语。编纂涉及客户服务政策中标准微笑的概念化。在实践中（实施、监督和调整），员工的微笑成为塑造职业、收入和轮班偏好的权力谈判工具。本文认为，这种话语塑造了组织规范，而员工的感性认识则影响了话语的实施。此外，本文还强调了日本文化对香港的跨国影响，这种影响塑造了日本高层管理人员和本地员工对主流话语的解读方式。本研究还重申了讨论一种文化对另一种文化的影响以了解影响话语延续的更广泛社会背景的重要性。

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来源期刊

Journal of Organizational Ethnography MANAGEMENT-

CiteScore

1.90

自引率

37.50%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Organizational Ethnography (JOE) has been launched to provide an opportunity for scholars, from all social and management science disciplines, to publish over two issues: -high-quality articles from original ethnographic research that contribute to the current and future development of qualitative intellectual knowledge and understanding of the nature of public and private sector work, organization and management -review articles examining the history and development of the contribution of ethnography to qualitative research in social, organization and management studies -articles examining the intellectual, pedagogical and practical use-value of ethnography in organization and management research, management education and management practice, or which extend, critique or challenge past and current theoretical and empirical knowledge claims within one or more of these areas of interest -articles on ethnographically informed research relating to the concepts of organization and organizing in any other wider social and cultural contexts.