Maintaining norms about expressed emotions: the case of bill collectors

Administrative Science Quarterly,  June, 1991  by Robert I. Sutton

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Sad debtors. Compared with expectations about friendly debtors, managers and veteran collectors were even more emphatic that strong irritation, even anger, should be conveyed to debtors who sounded depressed. They believed that a tired, lethargic-sounding debtor was likely to feel unwilling or unable to take the steps required to pay the bill, even if he or she had the money or could borrow it.

Collectors were encouraged to go beyond urgency and convey strong irritation, even anger, to such debtors. Managers and collectors believed that this demeanor would create motivation to pay the bill. Yet collectors often felt neutral or warm feelings toward such people, thus setting the stage for emotive dissonance. My field notes indicate that I was criticized for expressing my feelings to a sad debtor rather than following the organization's display rules: I talked to a woman who sounded very depressed and lethargic. I was nice to her. She promised to put the check in the mail tomorrow. My supervisor told me that I should have been much firmer. When I talked to another collector about the call, he told me, "You've got to lean on folks like that, be a little nasty to get their attention, to get them motivated." Even experienced collectors reported that they sometimes felt conflicting emotions that made it difficult to express irritation to depressed debtors, especially to debtors who suffered financial problems through no fault of their own. As a bucket-four collector put it: The sob stories make it hard sometimes, especially for new collectors, and especially when they seem to be telling the truth. But you've got to get tough with them when they sound down. If you don't get the money, another creditor will. Like the norm for dealing with friendly debtors, in addition to emphasizing this norm during training and using rewards and punishments to maintain it, managers and experienced collectors encouraged newcomers to use cognitive appraisals to reduce the gap between their inner feelings and the expected display. A supervisor reported that she constantly reminded collectors that no matter how sad the debtor sounded and no matter how heart-wrenching the reasons for financial problems, they had to focus on the task of collecting the money. Another supervisor said: Remember, even if they have to get tough to get the payment, the collector is helping the debtor. The collector has to tell himself: "I'm helping this person to save their credit rating. If they don't pay me, they may never be able to buy a car or a house." Cognitive appraisals of this kind apparently were intended to help collectors convey required emotions to depressed debtors by thinking of them impersonally and by thinking of displayed irritation as helpful to debtors in the long run.