Emotion work of International Business Scholars Managing emotions in relation to publishing setbacks

Abstract

This study investigated the emotion work of international business scholars. In order to gain knowledge about emotion work of international business scholars, the following research question is answered: How do International Business Scholars within Dutch universities work to manage their emotions in relation to publishing setbacks? To answer the research question, a qualitative content analysis of 14 semi-structured interviews with international business scholars within Dutch universities is conducted. Abductive reasoning is chosen. To analyse the data, transcripts are uploaded to Atlas.ti, a useful tool to code the interviews. The results show eight ways in which international business scholars manage their emotions after publishing setbacks. The strategies can be summarized as: anticipating, giving your emotions space, realizing that nobody is perfect, seeking peer support, using physical techniques, resilience, avoidance and problem-focused coping. The context-related issues open many avenues for further research, including researching the differences of emotion work between universities, differences between junior scholars and more experienced scholars, cultural differences and the connection between high publishing pressures and the number of publishing setbacks.