Thriving on challenges: how immigrant academics regulate emotional experiences during acculturation

Transnational academic mobility is of growing importance in higher education. Yet, the acculturation for individual academics is challenging. Taking a phenomenological approach, we interviewed twenty foreign-born academics, who had been living and working in the UK for at least one year, and analysed their emotional experiences of acculturation by chronological stages. Then, using Gross's (Gross, J. J. 1998. “Antecedent-and Response-Focused Emotion Regulation: Divergent Consequences for Experience, Expression, and Physiology.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74 (1): 224–237; Gross, J. J. 2014. “Emotion Regulation: Conceptual and Empirical Foundations.” In Handbook of Emotion Regulation, 2nd ed., edited by J. J. Gross, 3–20. New York: Guilford) model of emotion regulation, we analysed how participants used emotion regulation processes throughout their adaptation to their new environments. The study makes an original contribution firstly by applying a model of emotion regulation not previously used in researching academic life. Secondly, this study shows that, unlike stage theories, acculturation is not experienced primarily in linear stages, but as an ongoing process during which immigrant academics actively work on changing the things that challenge them. Thirdly, the findings emphasise the contributions rather than deficits of immigrant academics. Implications for supporting immigrant academics’ acculturation are discussed

An exploration of the emotional experiences of Cypriot academics

The objective of this thesis was to investigate and explore the emotional experiences of academics in their work settings. The study took a qualitative phenomenological approach and investigated the particular emotions, the specific events and situations that influence their emotions, their consequences and the coping strategies that academics use to deal with each emotion. Narrative interviews were carried out within a sample of 12 Cypriot academics. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyse and interpret the collected data. The stories revealed that emotions play an important role during academics’ work making it an extremely emotional profession. Four themes were identified from the collected data: 1) Emotions, expressive ways and subjective experiences, 2) Events and situations leading to emotional experiences, 3) Immediate and long-term consequences of emotional experiences, and 4) Ways in which academics manage their emotional experiences. Based on the findings of this study, some of the emotions that academics experienced were anger, frustration, indignation; guilt; relief; embarrassment; love; hate; fear; confidence; compassion, pity; envy; admiration; and pride. The specific events and situations that elicited these emotions were related to social interactions with students, colleagues, managers and students’ relatives. Some of the events included students’ misbehaviour, managers’ leadership style, forming friendships with students and colleagues, the display of wealth from students and their relatives, students’ and colleagues’ personal suffers, competition among colleagues, and students’ relatives complains and criticism. These emotions were in turn found to be associated with a range of beneficial and damaging effects for the individual as well as for the organisation including: revenge, low and increased self-esteem, increased sense of purpose, motivation and helping behaviour, job dissatisfaction and satisfaction, and health problems. In order to deal with their emotions, academics adopted a variety of coping mechanisms including: social support, planning and preparation, engagement and education, acceptance, withdrawal, and humour. It was also found that participants make use of emotion work and emotional intelligence skills to regulate and manage their emotions. The participating academics showed a conscious awareness that commoditising their emotions is part of the job and claimed to fake emotional reactions that are considered as inappropriate. In the light of the findings, it is argued that these emotions are integral in the workplace of academia of Cyprus and require further investigation. This thesis reaches the conclusion that allowing the free expression of emotion and ensuring the tactful guidance, rather the prescription or direction, of emotion display rules and coping strategies may improve the emotional skills of academics to deal with difficult situations and avoid damaging outcomes

Prologue - In search of decent work

‘Decent work’. The very phrase conjures up a range of images and interpretations. But what does it mean for practitioners? What does it mean for academics? Much has been spoken, and even more has been written, but there is still little consensus as to how these questions can be answered. This book aims to offer some answers by exploring the increasingly relevant topic of decent work from a range of perspectives. This initial chapter introduces readers to the purpose, rationale and structure of the book. It offers a description of the concept of decent work, and introduces readers to the work of the Decent Work and Productivity Research Centre of Manchester Metropolitan University

"Can I join you?” Refugees’ Emotion Regulation Experiences during Resettlement

Refugee experiences of integration is of growing importance, yet we know little about the lived emotional experiences faced by refugees themselves, the effects of their inclusion on organisational outcomes and the ways they regulate their emotions. Drawing on phenomenological interviews, this study probed the emotional experiences often refugees residing and already working in the UK. Utilising Gross’s (1998, 2014) model of emotion regulation, we analysed how refugees used emotion regulation processes as they adapted to their new work and social environments. Findings illuminate the unfamiliarity experienced throughout their attempt to navigate to the labour market, with racism and harassment challenging their integration. However, their accounts revealed resilience and persistence to survive under adversity, which helped them develop career adaptability and contribute to their profession. This study is significant because it extends knowledge of refugee integration and highlights the ways in which refugees actively fight to survive in their new environments, ratherthan emphasising on their deficits

Thriving on challenges: how immigrant academics regulate emotional experiences during acculturation

Transnational academic mobility is of growing importance in higher education. Yet, the acculturation for individual academics is challenging. Taking a phenomenological approach, we interviewed twenty foreign-born academics, who had been living and working in the UK for at least one year, and analysed their emotional experiences of acculturation by chronological stages. Then, using Gross's (Gross, J. J. 1998. “Antecedent-and Response-Focused Emotion Regulation: Divergent Consequences for Experience, Expression, and Physiology.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74 (1): 224–237; Gross, J. J. 2014. “Emotion Regulation: Conceptual and Empirical Foundations.” In Handbook of Emotion Regulation, 2nd ed., edited by J. J. Gross, 3–20. New York: Guilford) model of emotion regulation, we analysed how participants used emotion regulation processes throughout their adaptation to their new environments. The study makes an original contribution firstly by applying a model of emotion regulation not previously used in researching academic life. Secondly, this study shows that, unlike stage theories, acculturation is not experienced primarily in linear stages, but as an ongoing process during which immigrant academics actively work on changing the things that challenge them. Thirdly, the findings emphasise the contributions rather than deficits of immigrant academics. Implications for supporting immigrant academics’ acculturation are discussed

The power of phenomenology in examining how organisational members give meaning to emotions

Phenomenology has been a fertile source of inspiration for researchers working in a range of fields, such as psychology, psychoanalysis, and nursing. However, there has been little explicit engagement of the methodology by management scholars. This article discusses the implications of undertaking phenomenological research into emotions in organizations. This is a powerful tool that seeks to explore how organizational members subjectively experience and give meaning to certain emotions. A phenomenological study is used as an example to illustrate how the scope of phenomenology is suitable and timely in exploring significant events that illuminate the meaning that professionals give to their organizational emotions. This approach can be regarded as a methodological contribution to knowledge, as phenomenological studies in management are rare, particularly within under-researched contexts such as higher education. The case concludes with a discussion on the implications for employing phenomenology as an opportunity for developing new insights within current and popular bodies of organizational research

Holding True or Caving in? Academics’ Values, Emotions, and Behaviors in Response to Higher Education Reforms

Higher education (HE) in many countries has been characterized by increased marketization, external accountability and managerialism. This article examines how academics feel about and respond to HE reforms in Cyprus, a country whose HE sector is heavily commercialized and affected by austerity measures. We analyzed interviews with twenty-three Cypriot academics in four universities, who had been working in business schools from three to twenty-nine years. Interviewees described experiences of being an academic in Cyprus, highlighting contextual factors that triggered emotional events in their day-to-day lives. Integrating previous literature, we present six different behavioral responses to the events they described, including compliance, resistance and flight. We explain how academics chose different responses at different times based on their interpretations of value congruence/incongruence, their felt emotions, and the need to comply with emotional display rules. Considering these elements together, highlighted the emotional labor associated with various behavioral responses. The study contributes theoretically by showing how values, perceived emotional demands within particular events, and emotions influence behavior, including different types of emotional labor. We suggest that further research on academics’ responses to HE reforms should focus on particular events and on particular contested academic values, such as autonomy or collegiality

Using Phenomenology in Careers Research: Student Experiences of Unpaid Work

Career guidance has been criticised for focusing too heavily on individual agency, complying with discourses that ‘responsibilize’ individuals to manage their careers. A social justice approach to guidance argues for a more nuanced recognition of the interplay of structure and agency, which raises questions about how to do this in practice, policy, and research? This paper argues for the value of interpretive phenomenology which challenges what is taken-for-granted, illuminates the nature of shared experience, and enables a deeper understanding of individuals within their environment and over time. Through data gathered from interviews with higher education students and recent graduates, we illustrate how experiences of unpaid work are intricately interwoven with and influenced by biography, relationships, location, and resources over time. We illustrate how van Manen’s (1990) pragmatic phenomenological approach offers theoretical tools of value to social justice approaches to guidance practice and research

Family status and changing demands/resources: The overlooked experience of solo-living employees transitioning to homeworking during the Covid-19 pandemic

Solo-living employees are a growing segment of the workforce, yet their work-life experiences are under-researched. Taking a biographical narrative approach, we interviewed 35 solo-livers from different countries to explore their transition to homeworking during the Covid-19 lockdowns. Drawing upon the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model and key concepts from the work-life interface literature, we explored both lost/reduced and new/increased job and personal demands and resources at this time. We found that the transition to homeworking during lockdown created several challenges for solo-living staff, often exacerbated by changes to the demands and resources of others – namely those with childcare responsibilities. We argue that ‘sense of entitlement to support for work-life balance’ is an important personal resource, which impacts the work-life interface, and which solo-living staff often lack. Our findings offer solo-friendly recommendations for organisational practice

Exploring the Kaleidoscope Career Model in austerity

The Kaleidoscope Career Model (KCM) has been proposed as a metaphor from which to view careers (Mainiero & Sullivan, 2006). The model has three parameters: authenticity, balance and challenge. Although it is now a decade old, the model remains highly relevant, and this paper uses it as its framework to examine findings from a qualitative study that analyses the thoughts of thirty- three Hellenic civil servants in order to explore the career needs of the participants in the context of austerity. Findings show that austerity frames and shapes career perceptions, with the context depressing the ambition and expectation of participants. These findings contradict the results of previous KCM studies. We therefore argue that the KCM has limitations and we show how the model can be modified to take account of these new findings whilst remaining true to its traditional purpose