O trabalho de atendentes em atividades administrativas de um serviço ambulatorial: o serviço e as relações com pacientes e médicos Translated title: Administrative duties of ambulatory attendants: their job and relationships with patients and doctors

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Abstract

A abordagem organizacional fornece uma visão ampla das situações de trabalho, o que permite a melhoria dos processos e a construção de situações de bem-estar para os trabalhadores. Devido à natureza do serviço oferecido, que implica a presença de diferentes categorias de clientes, em algumas atividades podem ocorrer situações de conflito, como no caso de atendentes em atividades administrativas de um serviço ambulatorial. Eles exercem atividades nas quais são os conectores entre os pacientes e os médicos, dois tipos de clientes com diferentes e, às vezes, contrastantes necessidades. Análises sobre as características do serviço, como perecibilidade, intangibilidade e coprodução, permitiram encontrar elementos que provocam problemas e, como consequência, podem causar uma situação difícil para os atendentes. Esse fato poderia ser considerado normal para tal tipo de serviço, todavia, pode ser uma fonte de problemas de produção e de saúde para esses trabalhadores. Desse modo, consideramos ser importante propor mudanças organizacionais, visando melhorias neste tipo de situação de trabalho.

Translated abstract

An organizational approach can provide a wider range of work situations thus enabling improvements in the processes providing wellbeing of workers. In some activities, due to the nature of the service offered, which implies the presence of different types of customer, some conflict situations can occur. This is the case of attendants carrying out administrative duties of ambulatory services. They sometimes act as the link between the patients and the doctors, two different types of customers with different and sometimes contrasting needs. The analysis of service features such as intangibility, perishability, and co-production enabled to identify elements that cause problems and consequently difficult situations in the workplace. This could be considered normal considering this kind of service; however, it can affect production and lead to health problems for these workers. Therefore, it is important to propose organizational changes seeking improvements in this type of work situation.

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Most cited references 31

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The Managed Heart : Commercialization of Human Feeling

Arlie Russell Hochschild (1983)

In private life, we try to induce or suppress love, envy, and anger through deep acting or "emotion work," just as we manage our outer expressions of feeling through surface acting. In trying to bridge a gap between what we feel and what we "ought" to feel, we take guidance from "feeling rules" about what is owing to others in a given situation. Based on our private mutual understandings of feeling rules, we make a "gift exchange" of acts of emotion management. We bow to each other not simply from the waist, but from the heart. But what occurs when emotion work, feeling rules, and the gift of exchange are introduced into the public world of work? In search of the answer, Arlie Hochschild closely examines two groups of public-contact workers: flight attendants and bill collectors. The flight attendant’s job is to deliver a service and create further demand for it, to enhance the status of the customer and be "nicer than natural." The bill collector’s job is to collect on the service, and if necessary, to deflate the status of the customer by being "nastier than natural." Between these extremes, roughly one-third of American men and one-half of American women hold jobs that call for substantial emotional labor. In many of these jobs, they are trained to accept feeling rules and techniques of emotion management that serve the company’s commercial purpose. Just as we have seldom recognized or understood emotional labor, we have not appreciated it cost to those who do it for a living. Like a physical laborer who becomes estranged from what he or she makes, an emotional laborer, such as a flight attendant, can become estranged not only from her own expressions of feeling (her smile is not "her" smile), but also from what she actually feels (her managed friendliness). This estrangement, though a valuable defense against stress, is also an important occupational hazard, because it is through our feelings that we are connected with those around us. On the basis of this book, Hochschild was featured in Key Sociological Thinkers, edited by Rob Stones. This book was also the winner of the Charles Cooley Award in 1983, awarded by the American Sociological Association and received an honorable mention for the C. Wright Mills Award.