Can Emotional Labor of Teachers Really Improve Teaching Effectiveness? A Study on Taiwanese Colleges Shu-Li ZHENG 1,2

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1 2016 2nd International Conference on Education Science and Human Development (ESHD 2016) ISBN: Can Emotional Labor of Teachers Really Improve Teaching Effectiveness? A Study on Taiwanese Colleges Shu-Li ZHENG 1,2 1 Zhejiang Gongshang University, No.18 Xuezheng Street Xiasha Hangzhou China 2 Zhejiang University of Water Resource and Electric Power, No. 583 Xuelin Street Xiasha Hangzhou China Zhengshl2005@163.com Keywords: Emotional labor, College teachers,, Emotional rule. Abstract. Considering the emotional rule of the traditional Chinese culture and the decrease in the young population, the teachers in the Taiwanese colleges pay more and more attention to the role of emotional labor in the teaching job. The focus of this paper is to study whether the emotional labor of teachers can really improve the effectiveness of teaching. It has been proven that the invested emotional labor has a reverse U-shaped relationship with the teaching effectiveness overall; the surface acting of the emotional labor strategy does not have significant influence on teaching effeteness, while the active deep acting and passive deep acting has a positive impact. This implies that there is an appropriate degree of emotional labor that the teachers put in. And a high sense of professional self-identity is requested to tap the potential of emotional labor for improving teaching effectiveness. Introduction Since it was first proposed by Hochschild (1983) in The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling, the concept of emotional labor has existed as the third type of labor differentiated from physical labor and mental labor. While it garnered a lot of interest from the academia, it mainly targets the flight attendants, hotel servants and medical care staff as the research subjects (Hochschild, 1983; Henderson, 2001; Wang et al., 2007; Randall,2008). College students exhibit varying levels in terms of learning motivation, learning desire and learning ability. To effectively "preach, teach and answer", college teachers usually put in emotional labor to arouse the students interests (Liu, 2007; Brown, 2011), making it one of the occupations with the highest requirements on emotional labor (Truta, 2014). The emotional rule refers to the set of rules that governs the unfolding of emotional activities by creating and controlling the right and duty of emotional exchange. It is hidden in a person s subconscious and can govern that person s subconscious behaviors (Hochschild, 1983). In 2001, Dai Shuyan defined the emotional rule as a set of behavioral scripts specified by the strong culture that have the ability to implicitly exert decisive role on members in the scenario. From the macro perspective, the most powerful emotional rules of a society are generated by this nation s history and culture. Examples of these rules within the traditional Chinese culture are Analects of Confucius created during the Spring and Autumn Period, Book of Study written in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and Shishuo by HanYu, which define the teacher as the constructor and inheritor of spiritual civilization. The people have high moral expectations regarding this occupation. Teachers are expected to have both ability and

2 moral integrity, set themselves as an example to students, devote themselves to teaching, love their students, and be knowledgeable and skilled in teaching. While imparting the knowledge, the teachers are bound to put in emotional labor under the influence of these emotional rules (Cui, 2008). The fertility of the Taiwanese population has been declining for many years; it has dropped to 7.20 in 2010 and rose slightly in Inability to enroll sufficient students due to the decrease in the young population has become a serious issue for higher education institutions. Severe lack of students occurred in 2007 and 20 schools including Aletheia University, MingDao University and Nanhua University were unable to enroll sufficient students in Until 2014, 9 private colleges that closed although the college enrollment rate was as high as 95.73%, and some public colleges were combined to reduce the number of colleges. This situation imposed pressure on the existence of colleges, especially the private ones. To compete for higher enrollment, the schools pay more attention to how satisfactory they are to the society and students. For college teachers, the decreasing enrollment will inevitably result in the lack of learning motivation among some students. In addition, the institutions are requiring them to put in more emotional labor in their classrooms (Yilmaz, Altinkurt, Guner, & Sen, 2015). Quality and features have been critical to college existence and competition for enrollment. The impact of the teacher s emotional labor to the overall teaching activity needs to be studied. Related Work In the book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life published in 1959, Erving Goffman proposed the imagery of the theater, portraying life as a play, the society as a stage and each member of the society is a performer. Each performer is concerned about how to create an acceptable image before the audience (the others). The basis of performance is called framework, referring to the internalized social rules and regulations, or a series of conventions and common understandings. Goffman s theories regarding the theatre performance of everyday life and the symbolic interactionism form the theoretical framework for the subsequent study conducted by Hochschild on emotional labor. In 1983, Hochschild defined emotional labor as the control over emotions such that the public can observe facial and bodily expressions. He stated that there were six jobs in most need of emotional labor: special and technological job, operation and management, sales, office work, service, and private domestic work. The in-depth investigation that followed into emotional labor implied that for any job that involved human interaction, emotional labor from employees was requested, regardless of the profession, rank and position (Hochschild, 1993). The research shows that the causes of emotional labor include personal factors, scenario factors and organization factors, while the results of emotional labor encompass job burnout, job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion. Morris and Grandey are the relatively complete models proposed in (Morris & Feldman, 1996; Huang et al., 2010; Wróbel, 2013). In the empirical study, the emotional labor was measured at varying scales. In 1997, Hochschild described three representations of emotional labor: surface acting, active deep acting and passive deep acting. Based on this, Kruml performed an empirical study on 358 servants in 2000, verifying two measuring scales of emotional effort and emotional imbalance. In 2003, Grandey adopted a 2-D measuring scale of surface playing and deep playing. In 1996, Morris & Feldman constructed a 4-D set of metrics of emotional expression frequency, devotion to expression rules, emotional expression diversity and emotional expression distinctiveness.

3 The scales proposed by Chua in 2006 for the service sector included two sub-scales of emotional disorder and emotional effort. In this paper, the 3-D measuring scale by Hochschild is used. Studies on the teacher s emotional labor focused on its existence, the selection of the strategy for emotional labor, and its impact on job burnout and teacher flows. In 2015, Yilmaz.K reported that the teachers had many roles to play: they need to guide the students by setting an example, help students develop correct values, and prevent the interpersonal relationships at school from being affected by personal emotions. While confirming the contribution of emotional labor to teaching abilities, Yilmaz.K discovered the positive impact of surface acting on job burnout. After studying schools in Israel, Cyprus, and Northern Ireland in 2009, Zembylas confirmed the diversity among students and the challenges of teachers. Zembylas believed that teaching involved a large amount of emotional labor, requiring the teachers to try to express appropriate emotions. By studying 102 married female teachers in Malaysia, Noor and Zainuddin (2011) recognized the positive impact of emotional labor on job burnout and the intermediate role of emotional labor in the job-family conflict. Based on an investigation of 1281 teachers in China, Yin & Lee (2013) found that the level of emotional labor from teachers had significant impact on teaching satisfaction and the use of emotional labor strategies. Among the three emotional labor strategies, only the natural emotional expression has significant impact on teaching satisfaction. These observations can explain the difference in property and function between various emotional labor strategies. Schutz & Mikyoung (2014) considered the classroom as a place fraught with emotions; they believed that the labor of teachers intrinsically involved emotions, and that the scenario factors may influence professional self-identity and turnover among teachers. And empirical researches show that emotional regulation strategy can influence the teachers working intensity in the class.(hu,2016) Research Design The objective of this paper is to study the contribution of the college teacher s emotional labor to teaching effectiveness. Taiwan is chosen as the study region because Taiwan makes unique efforts to carry on the traditional Chinese culture, creating special social emotional rules. On the other hand, Taiwan is small. Low enrollment combined with the college extensions result in fierce competition between colleges and mounting pressure on the survival of teachers. This context highlights the importance of the teacher s emotional labor. To underscore the research objective and improve the feasibility and practical value of this paper, the model in this paper is simplified to only capture the relationship between two variables, emotional labor and teaching effectiveness, where the former is the latent variable that can be measured with three observed variables, i.e., surface acting, deep active behavior and passive active behavior. There are five statements to evaluate the surface acting, e.g., I usually find it necessary to disguise myself in the face of students, I will pretend to be happy when I am with the students, showing appropriate expressions and attitudes at work is like playing a role to me. There are also five statements for active deep acting, e.g., I usually remind myself of the need to feel the emotions requested by the school, When I need to show happiness in front of students, I will image pleasant events in the life, I try to control my emotions at work and show positive emotions sincerely. The five statements for passive deep acting include The emotions that I show to students are true, The emotions I feel at job are in agreement with the emotions I show, and It is easy for me to feel the

4 students emotions during communication with students. Measuring the teaching effectiveness relies on the assessment system used by several colleges home and abroad. Questions are categorized into Student s learning motivation, Student s understanding of the knowledge, Student s impression on the teacher, Student s ability to apply the theory, and Examination results. The Likert scale of 1 to 5 is used, representing strongly disagree, disagree, neither agree nor disagree, agree and strongly and agree. Model and Data Analysis Data on Respondent Profiles During my pursuit of studies in Taiwan, I had a chance to visit with college teachers there. Investigations were conducted in Taipei Normal University, Lunghwa University of Science and Technology, Tungnan University, Yuanpei University, and St. John's University. A total of 133 questionnaires were returned. Statistical description of the respondents is given below. Table 1. Profiles of respondents. Gender Numbers Proportions Titles Numbers Proportions Female lecturer Male Assistant professor Total Associate professor Professor Total Elimination of Invalid Problems through Factor Analysis To ensure validity of the problem, principal component analysis is first performed on independent variables using SPSS, generating a component matrix. Table 2. Rotated component matrix. Component Surface acting Surface acting Surface acting Surface acting Surface acting Active deep acting Active deep acting Active deep acting Active deep acting Active deep acting Passive deep acting Passive deep acting Passive deep acting

5 The rotated component matrix is given in Table 2. A new measuring problem is created after the elimination of invalid problems. Rotation method: the orthogonal rotation method supports the Kaiser normalization; the rotation process converges after five iterations. Reliability and Validity Analysis The data is analyzed using the exploratory factor analysis and descriptive statistic methods. The statements passive deep No.1 and passive deep No.5 are eliminated; the statement active deep No.5 is integrated into the dimensions of passive deep acting. Bartlett's sphericity test shows that KMO is 0.799, proving that the data in this paper is valid and suited for factor analysis. Next, principal component analysis is carried out to measure the Cronbach of the four latent variables where the coefficient αis 0.7. Their Cronbach values are , , and 0.880, respectively. This implies that the scale used in this paper is very reliable. Details of the results are shown in Table 3. Table 3. Statistical analysis of reliability. Average of the scale for deleted items Variance of the scale for deleted items Overall for corrected items Cronbach's Alpha values of deleted items Cronb ach's Alpha Surface acting Surface acting Surface acting Surface acting Surface acting Active deep Active deep Active deep Passive deep Passive deep Passive deep Passive deep

6 Correlation Analysis Correlation analysis is carried out on the four variables, i.e., surface acting, active deep acting, passive deep acting, and teaching effectiveness. Results are shown in Table 4. The coefficients of the three independent variables are , and 0.797, respectively. The results show that the surface acting does not have a significant with teaching effectiveness, while the active deep acting and passive deep acting do at a level of 0.01 (two-sided). Zscore(Q30) Surface acting Zscore(Q31) Active deep actings Zscore(Q32) Passive deep actings Zscore(Q33) Teaching effectiveness Pearson Significance (two-sided) N Pearson Significance (two-sided) N Pearson Significance (two-sided) N Pearson Significance (two-sided) N Table 4. Correlation analysis. Zscore(Q30) Zscore(Q31) Zscore(Q32) Zscore(Q33) **.643** ** 1.797** **.797** ** means significant at a level of 0.01 (two-sided) Regression Analysis The factor analysis method is applied to extract a factor from surface acting, active deep acting and passive deep acting, with their factor coefficient being , and 0.555, respectively. They are then combined with the original data to form an independent variable (i.e., emotional labor) of the model, with teaching effectiveness as the dependent variable of the model. Regression analysis is done on the two variables using SPSS. Results are as follows:

7 Table 5. Models and parameter estimation. Equations Models Parameter estimations R square F df1 df2 Sig. Constant b1 b2 Linear Logarithmic Quadratic The results imply that the quadratic equation provides the highest degree of fit, with the 2 Y fitting equation being = χ 0.081χ , where χ is the independent variable emotional labor, Y is the dependent variable teaching effectiveness. The two variables has a reverse U-shaped relationship. Conclusion The teaching process is a face-to-face human interaction between teachers and students. During this process, the teachers are expected to impart knowledge, inculcate values and perform emotional communication with students. As a service industry provider, teachers find it inevitable to put in emotional labor. However, the assessment of usefulness of emotional labor varies among teachers. Based on questionnaire investigation and analysis, the following conclusions can be made: The Emotional Labor Has an Inverse U-Shaped Relationship with Teaching Effectiveness Overall This implies that the emotional labor has a positive influence on teaching effectiveness at first. But after reaching a threshold, over-investment of emotional labor will cause negative impact. From the real-world observations, it can be seen that the ineloquent or inexpressive teachers are usually unwelcomed and the students are poorly motivated to learn at class, no matter how knowledgeable the teachers are. On the other hand, substantial improvements in teaching effectiveness can be achieved if the teachers are more eloquent, expressive and have more interaction with students. If teachers put in too much emotional labor at class, it may cause split personality resulting in job burnout. Moreover, it may create an impression that it is a show rather than a formal class, causing misunderstanding about the sacredness of teaching, knowledge and instruction. As a result, the students may show little respect for teachers, knowledge and class, and do not have a right attitude to learning; this reduces teaching effectiveness. Therefore, the extent to which the teachers put in emotional labor depends on actual situation. Active Deep Acting and Passive Deep Acting Should Be the Major Strategy of Emotional Labor for Taiwanese Teachers Relevant analysis has proven that surface acting does not have a significant impact on teaching effectiveness. This poses a serious challenge to the teachers. It can be explained by the fact that the college students have fully developed intelligence and emotion. If they find that the emotional expressions of teachers at class are faked and are only exhibited upon request of the institution, they will show scorn and disgust instead of interest. In this case, teaching obtains no benefit from emotional labor. The teaching effectiveness cannot be improved by emotional labor unless the teachers have a high sense of responsibility, appreciate the importance of the institutions, jobs and students and exhibit their feelings

8 sincerely. Only this sincere type of emotional labor can be recognized by students and gain positive response. In other words, in order to benefit teaching from emotional labor, the teachers should regard teaching as a sacred mission, loving the job and students from the bottom of their hearts. The emotions they express before students are true emotions; the patience and tolerance they show towards students are absolutely out of their own will. Only in this way can the teacher s emotional labor receive positive response from students and improve teaching effectiveness. References [1] Hochschild, A. The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling [M]. Berkeley: University of California Press [2] Angela, H. Emotional labor and nursing: an under-appreciated aspect of caring work [J]. Nursing Inquiry Vol. 8 (2): [3] Wang. C.X., Liu. Y.C., & Zhang. X.J (2007). The causes and effects of medical workers 'emotional labor. Journal of Sun Yatsen Universtity, 2, [4] Liu. Y.L. (2007). Research on Teacher s Emotion Work in Elementary and Middle School. Southwest University [5] Brown. E.L. Emotion matters: Exploring the emotional labor of teaching [D]. University of Pittsburgh [6] Brown, E.L. United States teachers' emotional labor and professional identities [J]. KEDI Journal of Educational Policy (11): [7] Camelia, T. Emotional labor and motivation in teachers [J]. Procedia- Social and Behavioral Sciences : [8] Dai. S.Y. (2001). Emotion Rule and Management virtue. Journal of Economic Times, 5, [9] Cui. Y.Q. (2008). The Teachers Morality Traditional Culture: Perspective of Chinese traditional culture. Journal of Education Forum, 6, [10] Yilmaz. K., Altinkurt, Y., Guner, M., Bilal. S. The relationship between teachers emotional labor and burnout level [J]. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 2015(59): [11] Hochschild, A.R. Emotion in Organization [M]. London: Sage, 1993: [12] Morris J.A. & Feldman D.C. The dimensions, antecedents, and consequences of emotional labor [J]. Academy of Management Review, 1996, 21(4): 986. [13] Huang. M.E., Wu Z.Q., Tang G.Q. How Does Personality Relate to Mental Health in Service Industry Setting? The Mediating Effects of Emotional Labor Strategies [J]. Acta Psychologica Sinica. 2010(12): [14] Wróbel. M. Emotional labor and burnout in teachers: The moderating role of emotional intelligence [J]. Social Psychology, 2013(1) [15] Hochschild, A.R. When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work [J]. California Management Review. 1997(4): 79.

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