Chapter 10 Managing Negative Emotions in Emergency Call Taking: A Heat-Model of Emotional Management

This chapter focuses on management of emotions in an emergency setting. More specifically, how do emergency call takers manage double-faced emotional management – i.e., their own and the caller's emotions – simultaneously? By triangulating interviews, observations, and organizational documentation with theories on emotional management multiple strategies were identified. The range of strategies included hiving (selecting and modifying) calls, elaborating on (by deploying attention and reshaping/reappraising) content of calls, auralizing (by externalizing an emotional barrier) as well as taming emotional expression. The set of emotional management strategies are concluded in a Heat-model. The model is further discussed in terms of performance efficiency; in terms of how emotional aspects may interfere with decision-making capabilities as well as how wellbeing can be maintained for call takers.