AN ALTERNATIVE TO BUREAUCRATIC IMPERSONALITY AND EMOTIONAL LABOR - BOUNDED EMOTIONALITY AT THE BODY-SHOP

Using qualitative data from a large, successful private sector corpora tion (The Body Shop International), which was managed and staffed by a n unusually high proportion of women, this paper questions whether nor ms of impersonality need be a defining characteristic of large organiz ations. We also ask whether displays of emotions in organizations need to be managed primarily for instrumental purposes, a form of emotiona l labor that entails costs for employees. This paper explores the viab ility of an alternative emotion management approach, ''bounded emotion ality,'' which encourages the constrained expression of emotions at wo rk in order to encourage community building and personal well-being in the workplace. We show how bounded emotionality was enacted and explo re difficulties in its implementation, including pressures on employee s who prefer impersonality and the dangers of a deeper and more intima te form of controlling employees. Results show that rapid firm growth, a limited labor market, and the pressures of a competitive marketplac e serve as boundary conditions for the maintenance of bounded emotiona lity.