Formalised Emotional Labour in The Higher Education Sector: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Emotional labour has always been controversial and defining of the education sector, but with the recent global pandemic and technological advancements, it has taken on greater significance. As a result, academics feel extremely challenged in terms of preserving a service-oriented job. This study conducts a critical qualitative literature analysis on emotional labour in the educational sector in order to shed light on the literature and methodological approaches through a systematic literature review. This study evaluates a distinct set of data on academics' emotional labour and work performance from over twenty-two articles published between 2018 and 2022 to gain a deeper understanding of how this important facet of emotional labour emerges in the higher education sector. While academia is often viewed as a job that necessitates both mental and emotional agility, research has found that many academics struggle with all three of the emotional labour components—emotional labour, personal efficacy, and surface-level acting. In contrast, academics who engage in emotional labour and focus on personal effectiveness indicate better job performance and professional reputation. Research into the theoretical underpinnings of emotional labour and the ways in which these underpinnings are important to the educational quest of academics active in higher education is justified in light of these findings. Overall, this study finds that there is a positive correlation between surface acting and burnout on the job, but deep acting has a more complicated effect on burnout, which may ultimately prove to be a mitigating influence.