Playing My Own Role: The Emotional Labor of Recruitment Consultants
(2025) BUSN49 20251Department of Business Administration
- Abstract
- In a profession that requires both human connection and sales performance, recruitment consultants must navigate a daily paradox: how to appear authentic while playing a role. This thesis explores how consultants in recruitment experience and manage emotional labour while attempting to remain genuine. Drawing insights from dramaturgical theory and emotional labour literature, we investigate how these professionals negotiate their identity and emotions in a hybrid role that blends sales targets with relational trust-building.
Using a qualitative, abductive approach, we conducted eleven semi-structured interviews and two field observations across multiple recruitment firms. Our interpretive analysis, inspired by Goffman’s dramaturgical... (More) - In a profession that requires both human connection and sales performance, recruitment consultants must navigate a daily paradox: how to appear authentic while playing a role. This thesis explores how consultants in recruitment experience and manage emotional labour while attempting to remain genuine. Drawing insights from dramaturgical theory and emotional labour literature, we investigate how these professionals negotiate their identity and emotions in a hybrid role that blends sales targets with relational trust-building.
Using a qualitative, abductive approach, we conducted eleven semi-structured interviews and two field observations across multiple recruitment firms. Our interpretive analysis, inspired by Goffman’s dramaturgical tradition, reveals three key themes: the conscious performance of professionalism, the strategic construction of authenticity, and the use of backstage techniques to cope with emotional strain. While consultants openly acknowledge the need to perform, many also describe a desire to “stay themselves” within the constraints of impression management. This tension gives rise to both role conflict and innovative coping strategies, including micro-moments of authenticity, informal peer support, and personal routines to regain emotional alignment.
Our study contributes to emotional labour research by illuminating the underexplored realities of recruitment consulting, which is a space where being human is often required, but rarely supported. We argue that authenticity in this context is not a fixed state, but a fluid and strategic process shaped by both personal values and organizational scripts. By revealing how consultants perform, protect, and sometimes negotiate their sense of self, this thesis offers both theoretical insight and practical implications for emotionally demanding professions. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9194675
- author
- Casagrande, Baptiste LU and Beuret, Lisa LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- BUSN49 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- language
- English
- id
- 9194675
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-23 09:43:56
- date last changed
- 2025-06-23 09:43:56
@misc{9194675,
abstract = {{In a profession that requires both human connection and sales performance, recruitment consultants must navigate a daily paradox: how to appear authentic while playing a role. This thesis explores how consultants in recruitment experience and manage emotional labour while attempting to remain genuine. Drawing insights from dramaturgical theory and emotional labour literature, we investigate how these professionals negotiate their identity and emotions in a hybrid role that blends sales targets with relational trust-building.
Using a qualitative, abductive approach, we conducted eleven semi-structured interviews and two field observations across multiple recruitment firms. Our interpretive analysis, inspired by Goffman’s dramaturgical tradition, reveals three key themes: the conscious performance of professionalism, the strategic construction of authenticity, and the use of backstage techniques to cope with emotional strain. While consultants openly acknowledge the need to perform, many also describe a desire to “stay themselves” within the constraints of impression management. This tension gives rise to both role conflict and innovative coping strategies, including micro-moments of authenticity, informal peer support, and personal routines to regain emotional alignment.
Our study contributes to emotional labour research by illuminating the underexplored realities of recruitment consulting, which is a space where being human is often required, but rarely supported. We argue that authenticity in this context is not a fixed state, but a fluid and strategic process shaped by both personal values and organizational scripts. By revealing how consultants perform, protect, and sometimes negotiate their sense of self, this thesis offers both theoretical insight and practical implications for emotionally demanding professions.}},
author = {{Casagrande, Baptiste and Beuret, Lisa}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Playing My Own Role: The Emotional Labor of Recruitment Consultants}},
year = {{2025}},
}