Keywords

Emotions, Employees -- Florida -- Walt Disney World, Impression formation (Psychology) -- Florida -- Walt Disney World, Organizational behavior -- Florida -- Walt Disney World, Self preservation -- Florida -- Walt Disney World, Walt Disney Company, Walt Disney World (Fla.)

Abstract

The objective of this study is to examine the emotional regulation strategies used by Walt Disney World on-stage employees as a way to fulfill requirements set forth by the company. Ten Disney on-stage employees were interviewed off-property in Orlando. The emotional regulation framework was divided into several categories: (1) a distinction between deep acting and surface acting, (2) emotional deviance, and (3) emotional exhaustion. “Surface acting” is a strategy by which employees display company-imposed emotions not genuinely felt, whereas “deep acting” occurs when employees do feel the emotions that they are required to express (Hochschild, 1983). Throughout the data reduction process, five key themes surfaced as the most relevant to the initial research questions: (1) Self-Motivated Deep Acting, (2) Organizational Expectations for Surface Acting, (3) “Back-Stage” vs. “Front-Stage” Dichotomy, (4) Benefits of Emotional Training, and (5) Negative Effects of Emotional Regulation. Overall, the researcher found that a key strategy of emotional regulation that Disney employees use frequently is surface acting, although deep acting was found to be more successful. In addition, while emotional exhaustion was a common problem among employees, very few of them will actually engage in emotional deviance in order to avoid the negative consequences of surface acting. Lastly, it was found that highly skilled Walt Disney World employees will have already internalized emotional regulation training and display rules that manage emotional behavior. Therefore, it becomes less essential for the Disney Company to formally monitor its employees’ facial expressions and emotional behavior in the future

Notes

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Graduation Date

2011

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Matusitz, Jonathan

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Communication

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0003684

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0003684

Language

English

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Sciences, Sciences -- Dissertations, Academic

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Communication Commons

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