Emotional Bureaucracy

This study casts doubt on the classic model of bureaucracy and its relevance to developing areas. In particular, Hodder challenges the Weberian distinction between the role of emotion and a modern bureaucracy’s impersonal and rational qualities. He suggests that bureaucracies function differently, and offers a different perspective. The focus is the Philippines, but Hodder’s conclusions are applicable to other developing areas. Two main themes are discussed. The first explores the classic Weberian model of bureaucracy. The second concerns ways of thinking about the social features of bureaucracy. The focus is dimensions of bureaucracy that are less dependent upon structure. What emerges is an innovative description of the social world of bureaucracy and its attributes. Hodder observes that discussions with civil servants and politicians in developing countries suggest that deepening emotion, a strengthening sense of the importance of social relationships, and informality are vital to the emergence of professional and stable organizations. Hodder believes it is possible to account for these social features of bureaucracy by understanding participants’ representations and practices. While these ideas are discussed in the context of the Philippines, they have wider relevance to other states, especially those whose bureaucracies are characterized as weak and personalistic. The author suggests that these characterizations, and possible remedies, may need to be reconsidered. He argues that through informality and emotion, effective and stable organizations can be built: excessive formalism may exacerbate the problems that governments of developing countries are trying to solve. The means to strengthen bureaucracies in developing countries are already available and, rather than be ignored or suppressed, need be identified and encouraged.

This study casts doubt on the classic model of bureaucracy and its relevance to developing areas. In particular, Hodder challenges the Weberian distinction between the role of emotion and a modern bureaucracy's impersonal and rational qualities. He suggests that bureaucracies function differently, and offers a different perspective. The focus is the Philippines, but Hodder's conclusions are applicable to other developing areas. Two main themes are discussed. The first explores the classic Weberian model of bureaucracy. The second concerns ways of thinking about the social features of bureaucracy. The focus is dimensions of bureaucracy that are less dependent upon structure. What emerges is an innovative description of the social world of bureaucracy and its attributes. Hodder observes that discussions with civil servants and politicians in developing countries suggest that deepening emotion, a strengthening sense of the importance of social relationships, and informality are vital to the emergence of professional and stable organizations. Hodder believes it is possible to account for these social features of bureaucracy by understanding participants' representations and practices. While these ideas are discussed in the context of the Philippines, they have wider relevance to other states, especially those whose bureaucracies are characterized as weak and personalistic. The author suggests that these characterizations, and possible remedies, may need to be reconsidered. He argues that through informality and emotion, effective and stable organizations can be built: excessive formalism may exacerbate the problems that governments of developing countries are trying to solve. The means to strengthen bureaucracies in developing countries are already available and, rather than be ignored or suppressed, need be identified and encouraged.

This study casts doubt on the classic model of bureaucracy and its relevance to developing areas. In particular, Hodder challenges the Weberian distinction between the role of emotion and a modern bureaucracy's impersonal and rational qualities. He suggests that bureaucracies function differently, and offers a different perspective. The focus is the Philippines, but Hodder's conclusions are applicable to other developing areas. Two main themes are discussed. The first explores the classic Weberian model of bureaucracy. The second concerns ways of thinking about the social features of bureaucracy. The focus is dimensions of bureaucracy that are less dependent upon structure. What emerges is an innovative description of the social world of bureaucracy and its attributes. Hodder observes that discussions with civil servants and politicians in developing countries suggest that deepening emotion, a strengthening sense of the importance of social relationships, and informality are vital to the emergence of professional and stable organizations. Hodder believes it is possible to account for these social features of bureaucracy by understanding participants' representations and practices. While these ideas are discussed in the context of the Philippines, they have wider relevance to other states, especially those whose bureaucracies are characterized as weak and personalistic. The author suggests that these characterizations, and possible remedies, may need to be reconsidered. He argues that through informality and emotion, effective and stable organizations can be built: excessive formalism may exacerbate the problems that governments of developing countries are trying to solve. The means to strengthen bureaucracies in developing countries are already available and, rather than be ignored or suppressed, need be identified and encouraged.

The Palgrave Handbook of Global Perspectives on Emotional Labor in Public Service challenges traditional public administration theory and its disavowal of the emotive component to public service delivery. Providing a comprehensive and comparative overview of the current research in this previously understudied area, this handbook situates emotional labor within public service and establishes emotional labor within individual, organizational, cultural, and situational scenarios. With chapters spanning twelve different countries across six continents, this handbook provides groundbreaking survey research that probes the daily work experience of public servants, paying special attention to the relational aspect of public service delivery. It ultimately seeks to revise the current public service paradigm, and will be an invaluable resource to researchers, public managers, and international public service organizations as the first of its kind for the public administration market.

This open access monograph provides sociological insight into governmental action on the administration of asylum in the European context. It offers an in-depth understanding of how decision-making officials encounter and respond to structural contradictions in the asylum procedure produced by diverging legal, political, and administrative objectives. The study focuses on structural aspects on the one hand, such as legal and organisational elements, and aspects of agency on the other hand, examining the social practices and processes going on at the frontside and the backside of the administrative asylum system. Coverage is based on a case study using ethnographic methods, including qualitative interviews, participant observation, as well as artefact analysis. This case study is positioned within a broader context and allows for comparison within and beyond the European system, building a bridge to the international scientific community. In addition, the author links the empirical findings to sociological theory. She explains the identified patterns of social practice in asylum administration along the theories of social practices, social construction and structuration. This helps to contribute to the often missing theoretical development in this particular field of research. Overall, this book provides a sociological contribution to a key issue in today's debate on immigration in Europe and beyond. It will appeal to researchers, policy makers, administrators, and practitioners as well as students and readers interested in immigration and asylum.

The Dark Side of Emotional Labour explores the work that the rest of society would rather not think about, the often unseen work that is emotionally disturbing, exhausting, upsetting, and stigmatising. This is work that is simultaneously undesirable and rewarding, work whose tasks are eschewed and yet necessary for the effective function of individual organisations and society at large. Diverse and challenging, this book examines how workers such as the doorman, the HR manager, the waiter and the doctor’s receptionist experience verbal aggression and intimidation; how the prison officer and home carer respond to the emotions associated with physical violence, and; how the Samaritan, banker and veterinarian deal in death and despair. It also considers how different individuals develop the emotional capital necessary to cope with the dark side of emotional labour, and how individuals can make sense of, and come to take satisfaction and pride in, such difficult work. Finally, the book considers what is to be done with darker emotional work, both in terms of the management and care of those labouring on the dark side. Challenging and original, this book gives a voice to those who undertake the most demanding work on our behalf. It will be of interest to researchers and students of organisation studies and its related fields, and to every one of us who is called on to work or manage on the Dark Side.

In exploring the relationship between bureaucratic schooling and the individual child, Waters describes the persistence of educational inequality, child development, and the nature of bureaucracy. The conclusions point out how education bureaucracies frame both schooling and childhood as they relentlessly seek to create ever more perfect children.

"Like it or not, all of us who live in modern society are organization men and women. We tend to be caught in the traditional patterns of dominance and subordination. This book is both pessimistic and hopeful. With devastating thoroughness, the author shows how pervasive these patterns of relationship are in our work lives and personal lives, and how deep they run -- into the very language of the organization and of ordinary life. This is not a book about how women can succeed in business, but a criticism of books like those success manuals and notions like that idea of success. The author sees bureaucrats and clients as the 'second sex'. To fit in properly, they just learn the skills necessary to cope with subordinate status, skills that women have always learned as part of their 'femininity'. Liberal reforms -- placing more women in management positions, for example -- are not enough. What is required is the emergence of an alternative voice, one grounded in the experience and perceptions of women, that will challenge the patterns of control found in every aspect of modern life. Public discourse today is not the language of women even when women speak it. In this brilliant synthesis of the feminist literature and the literature on organizational theory and practice, the author suggests how a feminist discourse could interject into public debate a reformulation of the basic political questions of power, reason, and organization and thereby legitimate a concern of both autonomy and community. In the face of the massive incursions of bureaucracy into daily life, this is an important contribution to the project of human liberation."--Publisher description.