公共服務中的「本來面目」:情緒勞務觀點的探討

黃一峯

為人民服務是現代政府公務員的主要任務。根據情緒勞務的理論,公務員在提供服務時經常存在兩張面孔。其一是配合機關的工作要求,表現出特定情緒,例如,臨櫃服務人員必須親切有禮、警察則應該表現出威武、正義的特徵。另一方面,公務員仍存有自己內心的真實感受,可能會影響他們的日常生活和對工作的個人態度。研究文獻顯示,當這兩個面孔處於不平衡或不和諧狀態時,公務員將壓抑他們的真實情感。從長遠來看,政府服務品質將因此受到破壞。 本文嘗試借用「本來面目」的概念,探討公務員如何面對民眾日益增長的需求,為人民提供高品質的服務,同時能讓自己安心自在的工作途徑。

關鍵字:本來面目、公共服務、情緒勞務

Serving the Citizen with the ‘Original Face’: Some Implications for Civil Service from Buddha’s Wisdom

Irving Yi-Feng Huang

Serving the people is the main purpose of civil servants working in the modern government. According to the theory of Emotional Labor, there are two faces of civil servants when they provide their services. One is required by the work to show certain emotions. For example, the reception staff should be amiable and the police should show mighty characteristics. The other is the real feeling from inside of civil servants themselves which maybe affect by their daily life and personal attitude toward the work. The research literature indicates that civil servants will suppress their true emotion when these two faces are in an imbalance or disharmony status. In the long run, government service quality will be ruined. This paper aims to introduce some ideas from Diamond Sutra and Zen Koan to explore a better way for civil servants facing the increasing demands from the citizen to provide high quality of service for the people and happiness for themselves.

Key words: original face, public service, emotional labor