“I’ve found it extremely draining”. Emotional labour and the lived experience of line managing neurodiversity
| Pages | 1903-1923 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-08-2018-0289 |
| Date | 04 November 2019 |
| Published date | 04 November 2019 |
| Author | James Richards,Kate Sang,Abigail Marks,Susannah Gill |
| Subject Matter | Hr & organizational behaviour,Global hrm |
“I’ve found it extremely draining”
Emotional labour and the lived experience of
line managing neurodiversity
James Richards and Kate Sang
Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK
Abigail Marks
Department of Management Work and Organisation,
University of Stirling, Stirling, UK, and
Susannah Gill
Independent Researcher, London, UK
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to address a significant gap in the line manager, HRM and the
diversity management literature, that of exploring the role and significance of emotional labour (EL) in
relation to the lived experienced of line managing neurodiversity.
Design/methodology/approach –A qualitative approach was used to explore lived experiences of line
managers responsible for managing neurodiverse employees. Interviews were conducted with line managers
employed in the UK transport industry.
Findings –The findings provide rich insights into line managing neurodiversity. A key overall finding is
reasonable adjustments deemed essential to support neurodiverse employees require a myriad of hidden,
complex, time consuming and often emotionally draining interactions with disabled employees, the
employee’s wider team, and HRM and occupational health (OH) practitioners.
Research limitations/implications –This is an exploratory study and therefore limited by nature of the
research design, industry focus, scope of study and sample size.
Practical implications –The findings have the potential to inform HRM and OH practitioner support for
line managers responsible for managing neurodiverse employees.
Social implications –The study contributes to wider societal attempts to make employment more inclusive
to a range of historically disadvantaged groups.
Originality/value –The study fills an important gap in the HRM literature on line managing neurodiverse
employees. The study makes a specific and unique contribution to extensive literatures on line management,
disability and EL.
Keywords Qualitative, Disability, Emotional labour, Diversity management, Neurodiversity,
Line management, Transport industry
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
While there is no apparent consensus on what distinguishes the role of a line manager from
other management roles, line management essentially concerns responsibility for directing
non-managerial employees in the direction of accomplishing goals set at a higher organisational
level (Sims et al., 2001). What more broadly defines contemporary line management is the
impact of the external environment on practice, including the requirement of “leaner”or “flatter”
structures, resulting in line managers increasingly expected to take on the responsibilities and
pressures of middle management roles (Hale, 2005).
A further trend is the increased expectation of line managers to be involved in HRM
practice (Dick and Hyde, 2006). The upshot from this trend is more line manager
responsibility for putting HRM policies into practice. However, placing expectations on line
managers has proven to be problematic. For instance, research stresses a dissonance of
opinions between line managers and HRM practitioners on the detail of everyday HRM
practice (Whittaker and Marchington, 2003; Maxwell and Watson, 2006), line managers
Personnel Review
Vol. 48 No. 7, 2019
pp. 1903-1923
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-08-2018-0289
Received 4 August 2018
Revised 26 February 2019
27 March 2019
Accepted 19 May 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
1903
Lived
experience of
line managing
neurodiversity
report insufficient support in their new HRM role (Gibb, 2003) and line managers lack time
and resources to acquire sufficient confidence to take up specialist HRM roles (Beattie, 2006).
The result is a range of significant shortcomings in the HRM competencies of line managers
(McGuire et al., 2008).
A specialised HRM practice line managers are expected to increasingly observe is
managing diversity. Managing diversity concerns creating work-based cultures seeking,
respecting, valuing and harnessing difference (Schneider, 2001). Diversity defined by the
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2018) is:
[…] about recognising difference, but not actively leveraging it to drive organisational success. It’s
acknowledging the benefit of having a range of perspectives in decision-making and the workforce
being representative of the organisation’s customers.
There are many facets to diversity, with diversity conventionally associated with age, race,
gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious beliefs and disability. The focus of the
research is disability, defined as a product of social and economic structures, with structures
leading to institutional forms of exclusion and cultural attitudes embedded in social
practices (Terzi, 2004). Applied to the context of the current research, disability is the
contribution of employers to the disabling process.
The study, however, represents a departure from conventional takes on disability. The
current research concerns line manager responsibility for an emergent aspect of managing
diversity. This emergent aspect of diversity practice concerns managing “neurodiversity”,
involving an increased recognition by employers of employees who exhibit behaviour
associated with life-long conditions such as: dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia,
Tourette syndrome, ADD/ADHD and Asperger syndrome; conditions covered by the
Equality Act 2010, and conditions associated with high levels of employment exclusion.
To be expected with new and emergent issues, there is likely to be a haphazard range
of existing research on such matters, indicating a wide-range of options in terms of where
and how to close the knowledge gap surrounding neurodiverse conditions (NDCs). Careful
attention must also be given to the location and framing of a study of this kind. In brief,
the study ahead involves an exploratory study of an emergent facet to diversity
management –line managing neurodiversity. The aim of the study is to explore line
managing neurodiversity through a lens based on framing disability as a structural
process, as well as the lived experiences of line managers, or how line managers live
through and respond to their experiences (Boylorn, 2008). Further, given neurodiversity
practices are likely to be at an embryonic stage of development in even the best resourced
organisation, requiring line managers to work to some extent with HRM and occupational
health (OH) practitioners, a further aim is to frame the study using theories related to
emotional labour (EL) (Hochschild, 1983). EL is chosen as line managing neurodiversity
may in one sense involve applying a range of practical advice and information, the lived
experience is also likely to require extensive amounts of EL.
The study aims will be achieved via the following research questions:
RQ1. How and to what extent does EL feature in the myriad of interactions expected in
line managing neurodiversity?
RQ2. What is the impact of EL on line managers expected to manage neurodiversity?
RQ3. How might an approach based on EL, lived experience and the social model of
disability inform HRM practice in relation to managing neurodiversity?
To achieve study aims and answer associated research questions, the paper is structured as
follows. First, the literature relating to NDCs and neurodiversity, line management and
diversity/disability and EL, is discussed to guide and frame the study. Second, details of
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