Dr. Casey Fleming’s current research project investigates the emotional labor and coping mechanisms of public servants working in the helping or caring professions. Specifically, Dr. Fleming, with MPA student and graduate assistant Jahzmine Ranglin, are exploring the prevalence of burnout, dissent, and prosocial rule breaking (i.e. breaking rules to benefit the organization, client, or other stakeholder) potentially triggered or shaped by stringent, inflexible performance management systems and highly emotive work among public school teachers and welfare social workers.
This project draws from survey and interview data, and looks to provide practical takeaways for effectively and responsibly managing for performance and results in these difficult settings, and for understanding the potentially heavy costs of failing to provide appropriate workplace supports and acknowledgement of emotional labor. This project builds on Fleming’s previous work recently published in Public Management Review. Preliminary findings will be presented at the 2021 joint conference of the North Carolina Public Administration Alliance and North Carolina Political Science Association.
