Emotional Sustainability in Human Services Organizations: Cultural and Communicative Paths to Dealing with Emotional Work

Minkyung Kim () and Elizabeth A. Williams
Additional contact information
Minkyung Kim: Department of Communication, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61801, USA
Elizabeth A. Williams: Department of Communication Studies, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 22, 1-17

Abstract: Emotional sustainability in the human services sector is crucial for both the organizations and the constituents they serve. However, human services professionals consistently struggle with emotional work as they care for the vulnerable. Despite such challenges, individuals in the human services sector choose to work in emotionally demanding careers and are motivated to serve others. However, such career pathways may not be consistent in other cultures and can further impact the way individuals cope with emotional work. This study explores South Korean social workers and how they experience and sustain themselves through emotional work. Findings show that emotional work led to burnout yet also resulted in fulfillment. Social workers also were mostly led to work in the human services sector by their education system that reflects the unique culture of South Korea. At the same time, these systems were foundational to building sustainability as they bolstered communication networks based on selective ties specific to school.

Keywords: emotional work; sustainability; selective networks; culture; human services sector (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/15470/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/15470/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:22:p:15470-:d:979604

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().