Our understanding of emotions at work has increased rapidly in the past decade. We are now at the point that we are capable (or close to it) of managing the emotions of employees. For instance, companies that want to create open and friendly workplaces are using the selection process to “select out” job applicants who are not outgoing and enthusiastic, and are providing training to teach employees how to smile and appear cheerful. Some organizations are going further in trying to create “emotionally humanistic” work environments not only by shaping the emotions that employees evoke in their daily contacts with customers but also by selecting employee applicants with high emotional intelligence; controlling the emotional atmosphere of teams and work groups; and using similar emotion-management practices. Groucho Marx once joked that “the secret of success in show business is honesty and sincerity. Once you learn how to fake that, you’ve got it made.” In many service organizations today, Groucho’s remark is being applied. For instance, telephone-sales staff in a number of insurance companies are trained to evoke positive feelings from customers—to make it easy for them to say “yes.” Employees are taught to avoid words with negative connotations and replace them with upbeat and confidence-building words such as “certainly,” “rest assured,” “immediate,” and “great.” Moreover, employees are taught to convey these “scripts” in a way that seems natural and spontaneous. To ensure that these “authentic” positive feelings are consistently evoked, the phone calls of these salespeople are often monitored. Organizations such as McDonald’s, Disney, and Starbucks select and program employees to be upbeat and friendly. They allow employees no choices. Moreover, these organizations export their emotional expectations to wherever they locate in the world. When the hamburgers or lattes come to town, the typical grimace of the Moscovite or shyness of the Finnish employee is subject to a similar genre of smile-training. 

Is asking people to feign specific job-related emotions unethical if it conflicts with their basic personalities? Is exporting standardized emotional “rule books” to other cultures unethical? What do you think?