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Towards a Facebookization of civil society? : Exploring the institutionalization of positive emotional vocabulary

Gustafsson, Nils LU orcid ; Weinryb, Noomi ; Gullberg, Cecilia and Holmberg, Nils LU orcid (2019) EGOS 2019
Abstract
Emotional vocabulary and symbols on social media abound, not only in private communication, but also in organizations and workplace organizing. In this paper, we argue that emotional labor driven by technical developments is an important but hitherto rather overlooked dark side of digitalization. We thereby take a critical perspective on the techno-utopian literature of social media organizing, by developing the concept of digital emotional labor. Focusing on civil society organizations, we approach the study of digital emotional labor on social media in two ways. Quantitatively, we explore the display of emotions on social media on an organizational level by the means of sentiment analysis. Qualitatively, we use focus group interviews to... (More)
Emotional vocabulary and symbols on social media abound, not only in private communication, but also in organizations and workplace organizing. In this paper, we argue that emotional labor driven by technical developments is an important but hitherto rather overlooked dark side of digitalization. We thereby take a critical perspective on the techno-utopian literature of social media organizing, by developing the concept of digital emotional labor. Focusing on civil society organizations, we approach the study of digital emotional labor on social media in two ways. Quantitatively, we explore the display of emotions on social media on an organizational level by the means of sentiment analysis. Qualitatively, we use focus group interviews to explore how individuals experience digital emotional labor. Based on this mixed-methods analysis, our find-ings point to an inflation in the usage of positive emotional vocabulary, creating an organizational emotional dissonance in contemporary civil society organizations. Stemming from the commer-cial impetus of social media platforms, it is proposed that digital emotional labor entail isomor-phic pressures on an organizational field level, rather than limiting emotional labor to specific service offerings. (Less)
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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to conference
publication status
unpublished
subject
keywords
social media, facebook, emotional labor, sentiment analysis
pages
31 pages
conference name
EGOS 2019
conference location
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
conference dates
2019-07-03 - 2019-07-06
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
3abf206b-d4aa-4220-9240-30f6857a2c94
date added to LUP
2019-06-26 14:17:13
date last changed
2023-03-21 15:33:01
@misc{3abf206b-d4aa-4220-9240-30f6857a2c94,
  abstract     = {{Emotional vocabulary and symbols on social media abound, not only in private communication, but also in organizations and workplace organizing. In this paper, we argue that emotional labor driven by technical developments is an important but hitherto rather overlooked dark side of digitalization. We thereby take a critical perspective on the techno-utopian literature of social media organizing, by developing the concept of digital emotional labor. Focusing on civil society organizations, we approach the study of digital emotional labor on social media in two ways. Quantitatively, we explore the display of emotions on social media on an organizational level by the means of sentiment analysis. Qualitatively, we use focus group interviews to explore how individuals experience digital emotional labor. Based on this mixed-methods analysis, our find-ings point to an inflation in the usage of positive emotional vocabulary, creating an organizational emotional dissonance in contemporary civil society organizations. Stemming from the commer-cial impetus of social media platforms, it is proposed that digital emotional labor entail isomor-phic pressures on an organizational field level, rather than limiting emotional labor to specific service offerings.}},
  author       = {{Gustafsson, Nils and Weinryb, Noomi and Gullberg, Cecilia and Holmberg, Nils}},
  keywords     = {{social media; facebook; emotional labor; sentiment analysis}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{07}},
  title        = {{Towards a Facebookization of civil society? : Exploring the institutionalization of positive emotional vocabulary}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/66639327/The_managed_smiley_FINAL_EGOS_June_14.pdf}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}