Discretion, particularism, and exclusion: The influence and role of employees of housing associations in the Amsterdam region

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‘Discretion, particularism, and exclusion’

The influence and role of employees of housing associations in the

Am-sterdam region

MASTER THESIS APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY 2019/2020

DENISE CHARDET

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University of Amsterdam Student: Denise Chardet Supervisor: Laurens Bakker

Commissioning Organization: RIGO Wordcount: 23 319

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Abstract

The group of potential tenants of public housing is very diverse, and often has a low income, ma-king the goal of equality ever more important. Despite the fact that public housing in the Nether-lands is equipped to be inclusive to all people within the set income range, this thesis, based on three months of fieldwork in the Amsterdam Region, explores if and how differential treatment of potential tenants in the process of looking for public housing remains possible. It will be shown how the housing crisis shapes interactions between employees of housing associations and tenants, leading to emotions of anger and frustration, casting rental agents into the role of social workers. Drawing on theories surrounding emotional labor and street-level bureaucracies, supplemented by the concepts of the ‘fractal man’ and the ‘citizen-agent’ it is shown how people working for housing agencies can be seen as street-level bureaucrats carrying out and influencing the policy in a locali-zed and particularistic way. Looking at the use of discretion from the perspective of the employees I did my research with I will argue that the use of discretion should not just be understood in econo-mic terms, as a strategy used by employees to maximize their own profits but also as a way to help individual clients within the bounds of the policy. On one hand this could possibly cause compoun-ding exclusion and increasing inequalities, on the other the value of discretion is explored.

Keywords

public housing, emotional intelligence, emotional labor, empathy, street-level bureaucracy, discreti-on, particularism, the fractal man, state-agent/citizen-agent, in/exclusion 

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1. Introduction

1.1 Introduction to the research question

‘The housing shortage is the purposeful goal of policy’, states Massih Hutak in his column for Het Parool on may 7th 2020. In this column Hutak criticizes the response of the government following the ‘corona crisis’. Since the last economic crisis public housing has been the victim of budgetary 1

cuts. As of 2013, landlords and housing associations have to pay the so called ‘landlord tax’ (ver-huurdersheffing) over their public housing stock. In the ten year period following this introduction, 2

this tax will add up to an amount of more than 16,7 billion euros. Money which could have been spend well to build approximately 93.500 extra houses (Aedes, et al.). Hutak states that these num-bers prove how wrong people are who argue that the impossibility for people with lower income to live in the city, and the corresponding growing inequality, is a natural phenomenon of the free mar-ket. In contrast, he sees the housing crisis as a result of structural mismanagement, it is inequality created and regulated by law.

Because of the shortage of houses, rents and prices keep on rising. At the present moment, we are experiencing a shortage of 300 000 houses in the Netherlands. Despite this, the housing 3

shortage is often a relatively silent crisis. By this I mean that those who do not have an adequate place to live often kind of ‘accept’ this by living in a house that is either too expensive, too small, or temporary. At the end of September 2019, several housing associations started a new initiative call-ed #ikwileenhuis (I want a home) to underscore the extend of the problem. For this project they 4

asked people to share their personal stories in searching for an affordable and proper place to live, to share their experiences of the housing crisis. These stories exemplify the problem and the possi-ble individual and social consequences of experiencing the housing crisis.

In the context of the housing crisis, housing associations take on an important role helping people with a lower income to find living space appropriate for their income, family size, and needs. The group of people designated to public housing often have a lower income, and is very

https://www.parool.nl/columns-opinie/de-wooncrisis-is-het-doelbewuste-gevolg-van-1

beleid~bad493a8/

In Dutch we call this ‘sociale huur’, which is in fact semi-public housing. It can be seen as the

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Dutch variant of public housing. It is however privatized in the 1990s, a housing association in the Netherlands is an independent company.

https://www.wooncrisis.nl

3

ibid.

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verse. People from different ages, backgrounds, religions, sexualities and abilities are part of this group. The distribution of public housing in the Netherlands is automated and computerized for a large part. This automation of the system ensures distribution happens in a fair way, following many rules. Setting up the process this way is meant to make it impossible for individual and unconscious biases to play a role in the process. Enhancing the legality, legibility, transparency and fairness of the process, which is important due to the large and diverse group of people dependent on public housing. The public housing policy depends on frontline workers at housing associations for the implementation. These are the employees interacting with citizens looking for public housing on a daily basis. The personal stories shared in the #ikwileenhuis project are the ones they are confronted and working with every single day. Working on the street-level with a strict policy like the public housing policy and within a field where social interactions and emotions surrounding a scarce good play a large role requires a certain amount and type of skills. While carrying out the policy during their daily tasks and appointments, employees have to determine how to interact with the different type of tenants as well as make decisions within the policy using their professional discretion.

Having to make decisions about the services and goods provided to citizens brings a level of responsibility as well. Biases are present in every individual, these can influence how the process and policy work in practice. Given the fact that biases have such a big influence in other sectors in Dutch society, for instance the private housing sector or the job market, room for workers discretion in this sector could possibly lead to the expression of individual (unconscious) biases as well. These can influence the interactions between tenants and employees and thus the chances and process of finding affordable and appropriate housing, possibly increasing existing inequalities.

In relation to the persisting inequalities and discrimination in other sector of the Dutch soci-ety, especially the private rental market (Kromhout et al. 2020), the research and advice bureau RIGO in Amsterdam requested a research into the possibilities for differential treatment by employ-ees of housing associations in the Dutch public housing sector. RIGO typically does research for government agencies, social organizations, and other market parties. Their research is aimed to im-prove living environments and help different parties imim-prove the quality and effectivity of decision making and policy forming. Because of the kind of information and knowledge RIGO is looking for, an anthropologic approach is especially suited to researching the problem. I decided to work with RIGO because the subject is very relevant and current in our present society. The housing cri-sis causes lots of stress and competition on the housing market, which makes it an environment where particular groups of people can excluded on a regular basis. Especially in a group of people with already a relatively low income, exclusion can have devastating effects. I decided to focus on

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the Amsterdam region because the pressure on the housing market is largest in this region, with the longest waiting lists as a result. All of this led me to the following research question:

How do street-level employees of housing associations in the Amsterdam region interact with potential tenants and use their space for discretion in their work and in implementing the pu-blic housing policy?

In this thesis, I will draw a comprehensive picture of what it is like to work at a housing association in the Amsterdam Region in the functions that have most interactions with potential tenants. The second chapter will be an introduction to the field I did my research in. I will briefly explain the main policies that employees of housing associations work with and introduce the different job functions within the association that focused on. The third chapter will focus on the way employees of housing associations interact with the potential tenants. I will argue that the the importance of housing causes emotions to play an important role for both tenants as well as employees. The em-ployees of housing associations have to deal with and work with these emotions on a daily basis. On one side, tenants share personal stories and emotions, casting the rental agent in the role of soci-al worker. At the same time, the rentsoci-al agent or back office employee has to perform a type of emo-tional labor. The personal interactions and emoemo-tional labor exemplify the idea of ‘customized labor’, central to the job of employees of housing associations according to many of my informants.

In the fourth chapter I will focus more on this idea of customized labor and the room for discretion that is used in the everyday professional practices. This chapter will focus on the space for discretion and the way this is used in interactions of the employees I have done my research with. I will use my empirical data to analyse how discretion plays a role in the daily work of these employees. Based on Lipsky’s theory of street-level bureaucracies (1980 [2010]), I will argue that there is a certain level of discretion which influences the public housing policy. Whereas the room for discretion is not explicit and obvious for the tenants, and often not even for the employees them-selves, I will argue that the individual ideas and attitudes of employees do influence the way they treat said tenants. Although not in the economic and self-serving way Lipsky sees discretion. I will approach Discretion and the employees using this discretion in terms of fractality, seeing social in-teractions as complex and based on professional as well as moral judgments, often within the poli-cy.

The fifth and last chapter develops the idea of discretion in terms of how employees of hou-sing associations see themselves and their room for discretion, and the influence this can have on

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the public housing policy. I will argue that the rental and back office employees I did my research with do not see themselves as powerful or influential, but see themselves as trying to help individu-al clients within the policy rules. This way they can see themselves as not having room for discreti-on or respdiscreti-onsibility over the outcomes and can present themselves as state-agents just carrying out the policy. Recognizing the room for discretion is important though, for us as well as the employ-ees. Discretion can have value in increasing equality but could at the same time endanger democra-cy. The balance that is stricken by employees in the practice and implementation of the policy is therefore of importance for the consequences. This can make a difference between inclusion and exclusion, between professionalism and particularism, and between equality and inequality. The main data source of the whole thesis is observational data from interactions with (potential) tenants and informal conversations with rental and back office employees.

1.2 Elaboration of relevant theoretical debates

1.2.1 Emotional intelligence and emotional labor

The first theoretical approach I will focus on is the idea of emotional intelligence and emotional la-bor in the public services. Lee argues that emotions of people working in public services can affect organizational outcomes. Not only can negative emotions lead to higher degrees of burnout and job dissatisfaction, but it can also affect the quality and consistency of client services. As such, public service workers ‘require a higher level of emotional management because they interact with citi-zens, and citizens often seek governmental help during the worst moment of the worst day of their lives’ (Guy and Lee 2015). The people looking for public housing are often not in the place they want to be physically, which influences their state of being mentally and in other aspects of life (Soyinka and Siu 2018).

Emotional intelligence in public service jobs is valuable in that emotional intelligent wor-kers are more aware of their own and clients’ emotions. Guy and Lee state that worwor-kers can manage these emotions to elicit desirable behavior and increase work performance. Mayer et al. (2004) ar-gue in line with this that ‘emotional intelligence involves an individual’s ability to perceive, apprai-se, understand, and utilize one’s own emotions and those of others’. Lee uses the idea of ability to determine three necessary variables: emotional self awareness, emotional other-awareness, and emotion regulation. Emotional self awareness refers to knowing how to respond emotionally. Emo-tional other-awareness refers to being able to perceive and understand other’s emotions. Emotion regulation ‘refers to regulating one’s own emotions by means of suppressing, expressing, or quie-ting strategies to achieve one’s goals.

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Research as showed that emotional intelligence is an important aspect of organizational be-havior and emotional labor. Hochschild (1983) states that service providers are expected to display certain emotions during their work related interactions. The act to feel and display appropriate emo-tions during service encounters is called emotional labor. Emotional labor is performed through surface or deep acting. Where surface acting is focused on the expression of emotion and deep ac-ting on the actual feeling of those emotions. The difference between the two types of acac-ting is thus in the presentation of certain emotions and the actual experience of this emotions. On the one side, emotional labor can provide employees with space for self-expression. On the other side, it can un-dermine personal well-being, causing emotive dissonance and self-alienation. Ashforth and

Humphrey build on this idea of emotional labor by adding the concept of identity in service work. They put forward the idea that ‘the negative effects of emotional labor on the well-being of the ser-vice provider are moderated by identification with the role […] in question (1993: 107). Deep ac-ting pressures the employee to align its experience of emotions with its expression, which can cause friction with identity when these emotions are contrary to how they truly feel. Some employees use defense mechanisms ‘to mitigate these pressures and thus forestall identity realignment’ (ibid.). The concepts of emotional intelligence, emotional labor and identity in service work are valuable in ana-lysing the interactions between the employees of housing associations and the (potential) tenants.

1.2.2 Discretion and street-level employees in relation to the fractal man

The last theory focuses specifically on the individual in the public services, and the way rental em-ployees and back office emem-ployees have room for discretion in the execution of their jobs. One take on the role of the individual in public services is put forward by Lipsky in his Street-level Bureau-cracy ([1980] 2010). Street-level bureaucracies according to Lipsky are different types of organiza-tions, offices, and agencies whose workers interact with and have wide discretion over the dispen-sation of benefits […].’ (ibid.: xi). These street-level bureaucracies come into the life of citizens through interactions with public workers that may have influence on the benefits citizens receive. An important claim Lipsky makes regarding street-level bureaucrats is that these jobs fall short of a certain high standard of decision making because of lack of resources, time, and information. He argues that ‘[…] the decisions of street-level bureaucrats […] effectively become the public policies they carry out. […]. To the mix of places where policies are made, one must add the crowded offi-ces and daily encounters of street-level workers’ (ibid.).

The unsanctioned actions of employees can take the form of workers discretion. Discretion according to Lipsky is used to make decisions, establish routines, and invent devices to cope with

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uncertainties. To understand how organizations work, sometimes contradictory to their own rules and regulations, Lipsky aims to describe ‘how the rules are experienced by workers in the organiza-tion, what latitude workers have in acting on their preferences, and what other pressures they expe-rience’ (xiii).

Since Lipsky wrote his book on street-level bureaucracies many social scientists and anthro-pologists specifically, have built on and critiqued some of Lipsky’s work. Whereas there is a certain consensus about the idea of the influence of street-level employees. Kjaerulff (2019) and Evans (2015), among many other scholars, have critiqued Lipsky’s economic approach extensively. Where Lipsky sees discretion as mainly present as a form of stress management and as a way employees maximize their own interests, these authors argue for a more complex view of the situation, like Evans suggests in one of his articles:

‘Stress management [… is] unlikely to be the only or even the most plausible explanation for the different ways in which discretion is used by different actors, in different settings, and for different purposes. […] Discretion may reflect commitments, interest and concerns, professional understanding and analysis, or professional ideas of appropriate responses and interventions.’ (Evans 2015: 285).

Kjaerulff argues in line with Evans, stating Lipsky’s approach is too one sided and fails to recognize the complexity of the situation. Kjaerulff proposes using the trope of the ‘fractal man’, seeing dis-cretion as motivated by a range of different factors and motivators, corporate as well as individual. Kjaerulff brings attention to the idea that a range of motivator factors can simultaneously inform the decisions made by street-level employees. Looking beyond professional codes and rules to moral practices within interactions in the field.

Lipsky’s theory points out how people working in service occupations embody a very speci-fic paradox: ‘On the one hand, the work is often highly scripted to achieve policy objectives that have their origins in the political process. On the other hand, the work requires improvisation and responsiveness to the individual case’ (ibid.) This approach to the workings of public policies un-derscores the fact that these policies are made up from the collection of actions of many individuals in the process. Looking at the way individuals work within the public housing sector, I think Lips-ky’s approach is valuable.

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Maynard-Moody and Musheno (2000) write about the role of street-level bureaucrats in relation to the state. They argue for a more complex approach recognizing the role of street-level bureaucrats in implementing policies. In contrast to Lipsky, who sees discretion mainly as resulting from pres-sure and oriented towards maximizing their own profits, Maynard-Moody and Musheno add a diffe-rent narrative to the dominant state-agent narrative. While discretion exist in employees in terms of maximizing personal profits or making their work easier, they recognize discretion is often also used to help clients, even if it makes the job of the employees themselves harder. According to Maynard-Moody and Musheno front-line workers often see themselves more as a citizen agent. They put the two different narratives together to make a more complete and complex picture of the daily reality in public service jobs. ‘Workers operate in a context established by law, or organizatio-nal rules, and so forth, but they interpret what these influences mean in specific cases’ (Ibid.: 338). Many theories on street-level bureaucracies and policy implementation have a hierarchical approach, separating politics and administration. In these theories the work of frontline workers is defined in terms of implementing policy preferences of others, like in the implementation theory. In the principle-agent theory, working is defined ‘as conforming to rules, procedures, and orders. Maynard-Moody and Musheno however show the inevitability of discretion. Despite the fact that a large part of street-level work is routinized, street-level discretion is a constant possibility, or even an inevitability. Employees themselves do not see themselves as powerful state-agents, but as trying to help individual clients when they can, as citizen-agents.

1.2.4 Compounding exclusion

In relation to viewing employees of housing associations as street-level bureaucrats with discretion in carrying out their job, individual attitudes of employees are relevant in that they can influence the policy that they are meant to carry out. Discretion in this case could lead to the employees acting on their personal attitudes and opinions, and in turn to differential treatment. Korver-Glenn researches the way how despite there being countless legal interventions that try to mitigate (racial) discrimi-nation in the United States, it remains present in several domains. By doing a case study of the hou-sing market she tries to understand how this is possible. Dynamics of discrimination caused by, among else, stereotypes ultimately lead to processes of in- and exclusion. Despite the fact that the current case of discrimination in the United States differs a lot from my case, Korver-Glenn puts forward an interesting theory in relation to this research. She argues that it is everyday processes that contribute to the durability of inequalities (2018: 627). The domain of the housing market is tied to ongoing inequalities in other domains like for instance those in employment, education and

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wealth accumulation. She argues that both housing market professionals and consumers apply hier-archical stereotypes in order to interpret individuals and neighborhoods (ibid.: 628). She shows that professionals have a certain level of discretion in their job in which the deployment of stereotypes that occurs is taken for granted. Furthermore, discrimination according to Korver-Glenn, does not just occur within decision stages, but across them. More stages simultaneously means more scenari-os in which relying on stereotypes can lead to the accumulation of exclusion. To understand how everyday processes in the housing market can contribute to durable inequality we have to recognize, in line with Korver-Glenn, that widely shared and institutionalized practices ‘can foster systemati-zed and ostensibly race-neutral routines in which individuals use taken-for-granted […] stereoty-pes, often unintentionally’ (Haney-López 2000).

In connection with my research I would add that whereas Korver-Glenn focuses her theory on racial discrimination, I aim to use it more broadly, acknowledging differential treatment and ex-clusion in the public housing sector can happen based on different characteristics or ideas. Analy-sing behavior of workers of houAnaly-sing agencies can show us how individual attitudes are present in the Dutch case of social housing too. Unnoticed, unconscious biases can be legal in this context, it can seem insignificant, but uncovering these types of interactions and behavior can demonstrate how it holds a system of inequality in place.

1.3 Relevance of topic for present-day academic/public debates

The housing crisis affects hundreds of thousands of people. There is a shortage of 300 000 houses at the present moment. In projects like #ikwileenhuis the vehemence of the problem becomes clear. 5

There are too few houses in general in the Netherlands, let alone affordable houses for people with a lower income. There is a large group of people for whom buying is not a realistic option. The prices of both rental and owner-occupied homes are skyrocketing. The waiting lists for public housing are getting longer and longer. To catch up to this backlog, up to 75 000 houses have to be built every year until 2025. At this moment they are ‘only’ at 54 000 a year. Because of the often silent accep6

-tance of this crisis, many people don’t seem to realize how weird it is to have such a gap in the hou-sing market in a country as prosperous as the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is the only country that taxes public housing, making owners renting out more than fifty homes under the border for housing allowance. For housing associations this tax is

https://www.wooncrisis.nl

5

ibid.

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an amount of more than 1.7 billion euros. Taxing houses in which the part of the population with 7

the lowest income lives seems questionable. According to several directors of housing associations this tax makes it hard to deal with the housing crisis in effective ways. Because of the focus on large amounts of money and the economizing of the sector, it seems like we have forgotten what this cri-sis it is really about: human beings and their right to a roof over their heads.

As seen in several news outlets, the immense pressure on the private rental housing market leads to in- and exclusion on several levels. Stories about overt and covert discrimination keep 8

popping up. Not only in the private housing sector, but also in the job market and in general

society. Biases are present in every human being, whether consciously or not. Because of the shor9

-tage and the pressure in the public housing sector, realistically there are chances of exclusion and discrimination happening here too. Different types of interactions can influence the public housing policy and the way it is experienced by both employees as well as tenants. With the shortage of housing and the long waiting lists, there are many people in dire need of public housing.

Public housing is designed for people with a relatively low income, this begs the question of what happens to eligible people who are still excluded from this system; what kind of options do they have left? Looking at interactions in the case of public housing is thus important due to the depen-dence of people searching for social housing.

But also for the rental and back office employees I have done my research with it is relevant to research the way policies are implemented in the field. The complexities of working with a strict policy but within a field with a large amount of social interaction and differing clients and cases every day can have individual consequences for the employees too. Researching the use of discreti-on and the possible cdiscreti-onsequences can help us understand the pressure of their work and find ways to improve their experiences.

1.4 Reflection upon research and discussion of methodology

ibid. 7 https://nos.nl/artikel/2331138-onderzoek-een-op-drie-amsterdamse-makelaars-bereid-om-te-8 discrimineren.html https://www.ad.nl/rotterdam/discriminatie-huurmarkt-moslims-wegfilteren-ja-dat-kan~a731e8c6/ https://www.ad.nl/ad-werkt/ruim-helft-nederlanders-gediscrimineerd-tijdens-9 sollicitatie~aa557c34/?referrer=https://www.google.com/ https://www.trouw.nl/binnenland/werkgevers-discrimineren-nog-altijd-zij-het-ietsje-minder~b9f1338f/?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

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After my fieldwork I went back to my research proposal. This proposal was based on various theo-ries, but the subject it was mainly focused on was discretion in the form of ‘discriminatory practi-ces’ of rental employees and other employees of housing associations. Reading about discrimination in various parts of society quite similar to this one I expected there to be individual attitudes present in employees, on which they would act. After really looking at my data for the first time, I felt that this was not what I encountered in the field. Thinking I did not have a research question anymore, I decided to read Bloemraad’s article ‘What the textbooks don’t tell you: moving from a research puzzle to publishing findings’ where she talks about the transition from being a consumer of aca-demic research to becoming a producer of research, and how having to write a dissertation felt like a ‘mountain of everest-like heights’, how recognizable. In this same article Bloemraad talks about her challenge to find ‘a puzzle’, a challenge we got during our courses all year long. Finding this puzzle is finding the research problem. As Bloemraad states ‘I viewed social science research as a quest for answers. I had not realized that an equally difficult task was finding and asking the right question.’ (2012: 504). I remember meeting with my supervisor before the fieldwork and voicing my concern to him about the fieldwork. What if the problem I am looking for does not exist? My supervisor was not concerned at all, and seemed equally excited by the idea of solving the puzzle, as by the idea of there not being the puzzle. He told me doing research was like going into a forest to find a monster, with only a sketch of how the monster probably looks. You might find the sketch is pretty accurate once you found the monster, but you might also find that this monster does not exist at all, or that is looks quite different from the sketch. After going through my data several ti-mes, and reading loads of other academic papers and theoretical discussions, I realized the monster actually did quite look like the drawing I went into the woods with. The individual attitudes of em-ployees do play a large part in the public housing process, just not always as big or negatively as I expected them to.

Looking back to the first couple of months of doing research, a lot can be said about my fieldwork. I did my research for RIGO, a research bureau located in Amsterdam. Due to complica-tions, another Applied Anthropology student ended up doing almost the same research, in the exact same field as me. Which led to us having to ‘share’ the opportunities for fieldwork, meetings, and informant entries. We tried to communicate as well as possible, but it was actually hard to explain to people we were doing the same research, but not doing it together. Scheduling appointments was already hard, since a lot of the appointments with tenants are made on a short notice, but doing it in the same field as another researcher made it harder. Informants often stated they ‘already worked on the research’ or ‘already gave an interview’.

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As a result, I spent days with a lot of different employees, but had a hard time getting follow up appointments with them. Which made it hard to build up a bond or connection and delve deeper into their personal way of working. Also, almost all of my interviews were planned for the end of march, at the end of the fieldwork. Sadly, because of the coronavirus, these interviews got canceled. As a result, I had done only two official interviews. Luckily I had a lot of observations of interacti-ons, and informal conversations with many employees.

All in all, looking back I think I did learn a lot, both about doing fieldwork as well as about the topic I was interested in, and I think these are all normal struggles and problems in doing field-work, although it did not feel like that at the time. Starting to write my thesis I noticed how much information there actually is in my limited amount of data. The main thing I wish I could change in my fieldwork is the depth of relationships developed with informants, but given the circumstances, complications, and the short amount of time available for the fieldwork, I am happy with the way it worked out.

1.5 Ethical reflection

Ethically I think there are a couple of things to point out. Firstly, during all the different appoint-ments I witnessed between (potential) tenants and employees, I have not always been introduced as a researcher or student. In some occasions I was, but in some I was just introduced as a colleague, somebody that just joined the rental agent for a day. Most of the time at individual appointments with tenants I was introduced in a proper way, as a student doing research with the association, which I am happy about because those were the interactions with more personal information. But during some viewings, my presence was just tacitly accepted. Especially because at a viewing peop-le often don’t arrive all at the same time, trickling in within the twenty minute time frame (often causing annoyance with the rental agent that stated to me that viewings are AT said time, not FROM said time), and it would be weird to go up to every single person coming in to tell them, this way also really influencing their behavior and possibly make them very self conscious.

Another point regarding ethics I think is the way I witnessed the document control at the different housing associations. All housing associations were very helpful and open. They let me witness the way documents of tenants were checked, seeing all sorts of personal documents. At one association I spent a day at the ‘customer contact’, where people call for all their problems and complaints. Here every caller’s telephone number is automatically linked to their address through a computer system. So every time somebody calls and the employee picks up, their address and all their personal information pops up on the screen. These people also had no idea I was listening in

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on the conversations. Even though the personal information was not what I was interested in, and I did not look or note any of the personal information of people, I think this was ethically maybe not the best decision.

All these things are things I did not really know how to deal with at the moment. I felt that if the managers that gave me permission to come to all these appointments, to view the document checks, and to witness the customer contact conversations, thought it was ethically ok, they must be right in allowing me to do so. In hindsight there are some things I would have done differently, and would do differently in the future. Lastly, in the coming text, all employees’ and housing associati-ons’ names have been changed, to protect the privacy of the people I have been working with the past months. 

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2. The field

This chapter is a short introduction to the field I did my research at. I will give an explanation on how the public housing policy works in theory and talk about the rules and regulations that housing associations and its employees have to adhere too. Following this I will look at the way housing as-sociations filled the role of implementing the public housing policy historically, and how they de-veloped to what they are now. In this piece I will also introduce the associations I did my research at, and introduce the different functions the employees I did my research with did in their daily work.

2.1 The public housing policy and the housing regulation

The public housing policy is communicated through a housing regulation

(huisvestingsverordening). This housing regulation describes the way housing associations should 10

work. The regulation is determined on a municipal level and describes the rules about the use of living space and about changes in the existing public housing stock. Every year, certain parts of the regulation are adjusted and the whole regulation is republished. This is necessary because of the quick social developments. Changes to the available stock can be made on the condition that the local council can demonstrate that there is a scarcity of houses on the particular market they want to adjust. This can be found in the rapport ‘Scarcity patterns on the Amsterdam housing market

2019’. In this rapport it is shown that there is a scarcity of all types and segments of housing in 11

Amsterdam. Based on that rapport, the housing regulation and its accessory policy framework aim to fight the unjust and unbalanced consequences of this scarcity.

Almost all public rental houses in the Netherlands are property of housing associations. The houses in this sector are all rented out with a maximum net rent lower than 720,42. To be eligible for these houses several conditions have to be met. Firstly, tenants can not earn more than €38.035 to be eligible for public housing, as a single person, or €44.360 as a couple. Between the 6.000 and 7.000 houses are distributed out as public housing by housing associations every year in Amster-dam. In total, approximately 59.000 registered people respond to these houses. Public housing of housing associations is distributed through a regional supply system, in the Amsterdam region this

https://www.amsterdam.nl/bestuur-organisatie/organisatie/ruimte-economie/wonen/regels-ver

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-ordeningen/ Ibid.

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system is WoningNet. You can register on WoningNet the moment you turn eighteen. The main cri-teria on which order is based in WoningNet is registration time. Of all the people interested in a cer-tain house, the first ten to twenty candidates get an invitation and in the same order the chance to accept the offer. Besides this, there a several so-called urgency criteria or priority regulations which can give you priority (Steven, et al 2016).

2.2 The three housing associations

I did my research at three different housing associations. These associations have been anonymized to: Association Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. All these housing associations are active in the Amster-dam region, consisting of fifteen municipalities. Some housing associations are active only in that region, some nationwide. My research focused on the region Amsterdam, which means I also did research in cities outside of Amsterdam. In this research I will not make distinctions between the cities I have done research. The same waiting list is used for the whole region, I have not found sig-nificant differences in interactions in the themes I was interested in for my research. This does not mean the employees work the same in all the cities, but I have found no significant deviation in my research and because of anonymity concerns I will not differentiate between cities and will not spe-cify further than ‘Amsterdam Region’.

At associations Gamma I was ultimately not allowed to continue my research after two days. The rental manager and other employees were open to let me work with them. They all proposed different departments and meetings I could join and made appointments with me regarding when and with who I could go. I spent a day with Tineke, with who I did five viewings and two contracts. I also spent a day a the client contact department with Joel. During this period of researching the compliance officer of the association voiced his objection to the research because of privacy con-cerns. Despite the interest of the manager of the rental department, I was not allowed to continue my research because he did not see the added value. The amount of data collected at this association is therefore limited, but will be used regardless, since the data gathered is about employees who agreed with my presence and research.

What I noticed at all three associations was the diversity of the group of people working at the associations. Overal there were a little more women than men, besides that there were people from different ages, and people from different ethnicities. It seems like the associations actively try to have a representative reflection of society. Some differences between the associations include the division of tasks between employees or contractors. I mostly did my research with rental employees and back office employees. At all three associations, rental employees handle the viewings and the

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contract signings. At Association Beta, rental employees also handle the pre-inspections when peop-le cancel their contract to determine how they should peop-leave the house. At association Alpha, rental employees handle the pre- as well as the post-inspections. The post-inspections are done at the very end to determine if the house was left sufficiently empty and clean. At the other associations these steps are done by contractors. At association Alpha and Gamma, the rental employees mostly have their own neighborhood in which they work, with occasionally an exception. At association Beta, the region is divided in district in which rental agents work, thus having a bigger part of the city to work in, where they work with several other rental employees. This influences the experience and expectations of tenants as well as employees. Tineke of association Gamma proudly stated she has a close connection with her neighborhood, knowing who lives there and maintaining a part of the so-cial role housing associations used to have.

The other employees I researched with are back office employees. These are the people that check the documents before housing is allocated. At association Alpha they also handle complaints and questions. I also spent a day at the call centre of association Gamma, where people call with all sorts of complaints and questions.

2.3 Goals of the association

Historically, housing associations have played a very social role in peoples lives. People would come in to pay their rent and stay for a coffee and a chat, functioning almost like a community cen-tre. Whereas housing associations do not fulfill that function anymore, due to the privatization of housing associations, managers of housing associations kept pointing out the social roles that they still try to fulfill within the association. During a conversation with Jacco from association Gamma he stated: ‘if we really wanted to make money we would sell more houses, and not rent them out to this group. So we are still a social association, but we have to survive too.’ This is also shown by Raat in her research into housing associations. The housing associations have to find a balance bet-ween the commercial and the social. The commercial is present according to several managers and policy specialists I spoke to be able to finance the social element.

Housing associations are established to provide just housing distribution, to distribute the scarce housing in a transparent and fair way. The goals of the association however, are not always the same as the individual goal of the client, who thinks he or she has a right to a house. Raat argues that this conflict between the goal of the association and the goal of individual clients is mostly felt by executive employees who have the mission to execute the formal goal of the association, but are constantly confronted with the individual client, who has a realistic problem (1999: 38). In an

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inter-view with policy specialist Annabel, she frames the goal of the association, within the policy, as fol-lows:

‘The goal of public housing is of course housing the group that needs it, the people with a tight budget that is. Up until now, that is still the largest group, the goal is to keep housing affordable. I also think the original goal still applies, safe and clean housing for people that don’t have much to spend.’

Christian, the manager that is also present in the interview added to this:

‘The special target groups, the vulnerable groups, that thirty percent, has also become a core task of the housing association. The allocation of thirty percent of the stock to special target groups is mandatory.’

According to Annabel this is important, but no solution to the problem: the long waiting lists. It is just filling the one hole with the other, you can redistribute but it doesn’t get you more housing. The waiting lists for some groups become shorter, but for others longer. The goal of the policy is thus to distribute housing in a fair and transparant way. Housing associations work within the policy guide-lines, but have additional social ideas about how the association is supposed to do their work. All these ideas about distributing public housing come together in the daily tasks and interactions of the executive employees of housing associations, in this research the rental and back office employees.

Conclusion

The public housing field is a complex field with many different actors and institutions that I have just touched the surface on. In this chapter I have tried to create a general overview of the field I did my research in. Public housing associations are working within a tight policy with a lot of rules. The housing law and the corresponding housing regulation determine the way public housing in possession of housing associations is distributed. Public housing associations experience high pres-sure from society because they are the main providers of public housing. At the same time, housing in general, but public housing in particular is a scarce good. Every year, more than 59.000 people respond to less than 7.000 available houses in the Amsterdam region.

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These rules or ideas are not necessarily in conflict, but rather have a little friction. Within the policy rules and laws, guidelines are created inside the housing association as to the more in-formal and social goals of the association. Rental and back office employees work with these laws and rules, while at the same time interacting with citizens who have their own ideas as to how the association and the employees should work. This friction sets the stage for the rental and back offi-ce employees of housing associations that I have followed and did my research with during a period of three months. In the next chapters, I will focus on the way the different actors move within this field. Whereas it is shown there are many rules that employees have to adhere too, the pressure and social character of the work have a large influence on the daily practices of employees of housing associations, and possibly on the outcomes too.

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3. The rental agent as social worker, performing emotional labor, and the

friction with identity.

In the introduction and the second chapter, it is shown that there is a desperate need for adequate housing in general, and for public housing in the specific case of my research. This need and pres-sure is felt by both (potential) tenants as well as by employees of housing associations. Long wai-ting times and competitive and tense situations are common. According to many of the employees I have interacted with this pressure and need is thought to result in the expression of many emotions by tenants. The presence of emotions like anger and frustration in tenants during interactions with employees of housing associations was strong. Interactions like these are not necessarily the norm, but they are a daily occurrence.

Employees of housing associations thus have to work in an environment where emotions play a large role. Due to the social character of the work of rental and back office employees, where there are frequent interactions between the different actors, emotional intelligence is a valuable at-tribute to have. Emotional intelligence determines the actors’ ability to perceive and act in response to one’s own emotions and those of others involved (Lee 2017: 731). Numerous studies have shown how emotional intelligence can influence the level of success in areas like human performance and organizational behavior, but also, and maybe especially, on emotional labor in service jobs (see Deepika 2016, Guy and Lee 2015, Vandewaa et al. 2016). Emotional labor is related to emotional intelligence in that it refers to the actual act of expressing socially desired emotions, in this case du-ring the social interactions between employees and (potential) tenants.

In this chapter I will explore how emotional intelligence and emotional labor play a role du-ring the different encounters between rental or back office employees and tenants of housing asso-ciations. I will use my empirical data from observations as well as interviews to show how the hou-sing crisis and the emotions of tenants sometimes place the employees into a social worker type of role. I will argue that the sense of need felt by potential tenants does not only bring up emotions of anger and frustration, but also leads people to share personal stories and specific experiences with rental agents and other employees. These interactions ask for the performance of emotional labor. Focusing on how employees handle interactions with tenants I will show how they try to find a ba-lance between care and professionalism in interactions that are not built in protocols (Raat 2007: 80).

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Following this line of thought, I will use the concept of emotional labor in combination with identity to question how employees of housing associations try to strike a balance between surface acting, deep acting and staying true to their own identity. I will argue that the different types of ac-ting can lead to emotional discrepancies when expressive behavior does not conform to expressive emotions. These discrepancies can lead to emotive dissonance, self-alienation and emotional ex-haustion (Ashforth and Humphrey 1993, Lee 2017). On the other hand, emotional labor and emoti-onal intelligence can improve organizatiemoti-onal performance in that it can improve the clients’ service experience as well as job satisfaction. Emotional labor can thus have positive as well as negative effects on employees or on the outcomes of interactions for tenants of housing associations.

3.1 Emotional intelligence

In practice, working as a rental employee for a housing associations consists for a large part of in-teractions with different tenants or potential tenants. These inin-teractions range from viewings, to pre or post inspections, to contract signings, to staying in contact in case of questions. Looking at the high level of social and interpersonal contact in this line of work and the fact that public housing is a good distributed through municipal and governmental laws and rules, we can recognize that in contrast with other lines of work ‘public service workers require higher levels of emotional intelli-gence because most public service jobs involve emotionally intense work focused on service to the public’ (Lee 2017: 729). Working in public service is thus emotionally challenging because of the interactions with citizens in need of governmental help during a hard time in their lives (Guy and Lee 2015). Lee states this emotional intelligence is an important aspect to research because emotio-nal work is proven to have a connection to job dissatisfaction and higher degrees of burnouts, which may in turn have consequences for organizational outcomes (2018). Negative consequences for the organizational outcomes in turn can affect the quality and consistency in client services (Kim and Stoner 2008). On the other side of the coin, positive emotions of employees can create good im-pressions for citizens (Ashkanasy et al. 2002).

Emotional intelligence can be understood in terms of three different abilities. Emotional self-awareness, emotional other-awareness, and emotion regulation. In the case of my research, es-pecially emotional other-awareness plays a big role in the interactions I have witnessed. Emotional other-awareness refers to the ability to perceive and understand the emotions of those around you (Guy and Lee: 2015). During my fieldwork, this was often evident in situations where tenants be-come frustrated or even angry. The employees stayed extra calm in situations where they were the target of the anger, when they were getting yelled at because of housing associations rules or policy

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rules, or when tenants did not agree with how they should leave the house. But also in cases of sad-ness or personal issues employees often recognized what the tenant needed in that specific instan-ce, listening, comforting, or just being there. This will be shown in the following paragraphs about the housing association employee as a social worker and emotional labor.

3.2 The housing association employee as a social worker?

‘The distribution of public housing is effectively the distribution of scarce goods by a monopolist. Because of this the work of those who are in charge of this is not comparable with the selling of a dvd-player or another luxury item. It is about the large interests of people and the associated emotions.’ (Raat 1999: 136)

The idea of the rental agent as a social worker occurred to me for the first time during a viewing with Erwin. We were early and the first person at the viewing was almost forty five minutes early too. Erwin let her and her friend in before the official start of the viewing, and after walking around the house for just a minute or two she came back to the living room and said ‘I will take it, I am number one’. Erwin responded that if she wants it she can accept it before the next afternoon and if all the documents check out she will get the first offer. After which the woman replied the follo-wing:

Woman: ’Now there are no other people yet so I can tell you, I am homeless. I slept under bridges

and under canvas. I am fifty years old, and was caregiver to my mom for four years, she got a new boyfriend who did not think it was necessary I lived there anymore. So I am homeless, and I am also a lung patient, but you do not get an urgency anymore, for nothing.’

Erwin responds by nodding and explains once more if the documents check out and she is first she will get the offer.

W: ’Yes I did start getting the paperwork, but my boyfriend does not have an ID, we will apply for a

new one on Wednesday. When you are homeless and you move around so much at a certain point you lose everything.’

The rest of the conversation Erwin explains which documents the woman needs and how she can get those, that the proof of application for a new ID is good enough for now. When the woman does not understand the order in which the process goes, he explains it again and again until she does get it.

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After witnessing this interaction I had to think of the very first appointment I went to during my fieldwork, a viewing with Jessica. This viewing was in inhabited state, the woman living here pas-sed away and the two daughters of around sixty years old wanted to leave some things to the next tenant. The house smells like smoke and thrift shop. One of the daughters is sitting on a chair next to the window, the other one on a small stool next to it, making her look even skinnier and smaller than she is. They both look tired and a bit unhealthy. After everybody left Jessica comes back to the living room and the following conversation ensues:

Jessica: so that’s that.

Daughter: yes we had to work hard, my husband emptied the whole apartment this weekend, down

the stairs with all furniture, so we have to know what else we have to take away so my husband can do that in the weekend when he is free.

M: I think you can leave the rest and then we (Ymere) will do that, and otherwise you will get more

time to do it, but for now it’s ok. The daughter starts to cry a bit

D: we were working so hard that we did not even get the chance to think about it yet or accept it. Other daughter: Yes, I live behind this house, in the morning when I look out the window it feels so

weird, normally I would look over and see my mom was already up.

Jessica listens patiently and comforts the two women by answering emphatically and showing she understands the loss and sadness they feel.

Both of these scenarios show the interaction between employee and tenant not as formal interacti-ons, but as a deeply personal interactions. Whereas Erwin keeps relative distance, Jessica empathi-zes more with the two daughters. After the interaction I witnessed between Erwin and the potential tenant, we talked about the event. When I voiced my surprise that people share such personal stories Erwin stated ‘yes, sometimes people treat us like we’re therapists’. This expression struck me. It was exactly what I thought at the very moment. Raat makes a similar point, in her research, howe-ver, it is the rental employee that expresses this feeling of being a social worker:

‘Employees see themselves as a type of social worker. According to Dorien this means listening to a lot of personal suffering of people, hoping she can do something about it. […] It is more a social organization to help people than a company that is busy renting out houses’ (2007: 103).

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During the time of Raat’s research, housing associations still had a little more of a social character than nowadays. However, the similarity is clear. Whereas the rental employees nowadays have less space for acting than before, the social work character of the work remains, especially in the view of tenants. People often come forward with personal and sad stories, seemingly in the hope someo-ne can do something about it or just find a sympathetic ear. Erwin expresses the feelings of being faced with these stories and situations daily when he states his work often demotivates him, making him feel despondent. Having to be confronted with people that can not make ends meet, that do not have a job, or miss out on basic needs and necessities gives him a feeling of hopelessness, especial-ly seeing how frequent this occurrence is.

3.3 Emotional labor and identity

Related to this feeling of despondence en demotivation is the concept of emotional labor. Emotional labor is ‘the act of expressing socially desired emotions during service transactions’ (Ashforth and Humphrey 1993: 89). The expression of socially desired emotions that are not truly felt is called surface acting. Ashforth and Humphrey connect this concept with social identity theory: ‘some ef-fects of emotional labor on the service agent are moderated by identification with the role in questi-on: the greater the identification, the weaker the negative effects on well-being and the stronger the positive effects’ (ibid.).

During the several days I spent with Jessica, she seemed to try to identify with the role strongly. In an informal conversation she stated to me that

‘When you are working as rental agent you are playing that role. And sometimes there are situations where you do not necessarily agree with what that role tells you to do. As a human being you wish you could help them (tenants). But you can not say you do not agree at all with what the policy dictates. So then I am Ymere, or I am seen as Ymere.’

Jessica makes a good connection with every tenant I witness her with. Comforting sad people, laughing with an older tenant, and being patient and clear with tenants that understand less well or less quickly. In contrast, Erwin stays a little more detached, listening and acknowledging but never much more. In the car rides however, he voices his feelings about a certain type of tenant often found in public housing. According to him these are sometimes people that are used to getting eve-rything ‘for free’, and thus hold up their hand and complain if they do not get the thing they want.

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‘Sometimes it gets a bit demotivating to be confronted with it every day, I mean everybody can work. If you have two hands you can work, I don’t care what you say, even in a factory if necessa-ry’.

The need for emotional labor ‘provides the opportunity to ‘act out’ one’s identification, that is, to express one’s fidelity to the valued identity. […] However, if one is indifferent to the identity implicated in the role, then emotional labor will have little impact on one’s well-being. […] Finally, if one has assumed an identity whose normative expectations are contrary to those in the customer-contact role, then emotional labor will have a negative impact on ones well-being’ (ibid.: 100). Er-win seems to be on the border between indifference and contrariness, having normative expectati-ons that are often contrary to what he is confronted with by the group of people in public housing. This could explain the negative feelings he has at work, feeling despondent and demotivated regu-larly.

Another informant whose role identity seemed to differ from her own values is Monique, a woman working on the document check of association Alpha. During my day with her she made an argument surrounding her right wing political views, stating ‘we, Dutch people’ should get the scar-ce housing, the borders should close for foreigners, we should think of ourselves now during this time, if we can not even provide basic housing and care for our own people, why should we be hel-ping others? People who are ungrateful even? Monique’s point of view seems far removed from the goals of the housing association, which allocates houses to people with lower income based on regi-stration time, urgency, or target groups of which a big part consists of legal refugees

(statushouders). Throughout the day Monique calls with (foreign) tenants and performs document checks. She stays open and friendly despite her personal objections to the goals of the association and her personal attitudes regarding foreigners. Several times during the day she states she will not stay working there much longer, that she is done with it. She confides in me that she has the docu-ments she is supposed to delete in a personal file, just to be able to check things if needed, but wit-hout permission, she does not care if people find out either, probably because she says she will not want to work here much longer anyway. About contrariness Ashforth states: ’individuals who define themselves in terms of other social groups or idiosyncratic characteristics whose display rules are discrepant with those of the organizational role are more apt to experience emotive dissonance and self alienation. It is the perception that one is behaving contrary to a central, valued, and salient identity that triggers these effects (ibid.: 99).

To counter this emotive dissonance, cognitive defense mechanisms may be utilized. These techniques are often used to create a boundary between one’s central identity and the one that is

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po-tentially implied by the role’s behavior. Monique’s behavior shows us how this works. She distan-ces herself from the decisions she does not want to make like allocating houses to people she feels are undeserving, or trying to speak to those tenants she does not completely understand. These cases she drops at her colleagues or manager. This way, she can voice her dismissal, knowing that she personally did not allocate.

Erwin seems to do the same, although in a more subtle manner. Instead of emotionally in-vesting in those cases with people he feels are a bit ‘hopeless’, he stays on the surface during those interactions, listening empathetically but not investing too much in his responses. Jessica on the other hand can express her fidelity to the work identity, investing in the different tenants and using her emotional intelligence to level with the different types of tenants. Jessica seems to get a lot of satisfaction from connecting and helping different tenants. Corroborating Lee’s theory that ‘when public service workers make a customer/citizen feel happy, they enhance their own self-esteem, which leads to higher job satisfaction (Lee 2017: 733).

3.4 If this was my exam, I would have failed

In the following scenario, the concepts of emotional intelligence, emotional other-awareness and emotional labor are all visible. Jennifer is a young Surinam woman that works as rental employee at the bureau of her association in Amsterdam. We arrived a bit late at the pre inspection in question because we had to search quite some time for a parking spot, being in the city centre. The house we had to go to is a 300 year old building where the tenant, a woman of around sixty years old, was moving out of the second floor after living there for just five years. After the door opens on the se-cond floor, the tenant asks us right away to take off our shoes. Jennifer looks at bit doubtful, after a few seconds she asks if the tenant has some kind of shoe covers instead. The woman answers a bit annoyed: ‘maybe you should have brought them yourself.’ Jennifer looks to the floor inside the house, decides it looks clean enough and takes off her shoes, after which I follow her example. We follow the woman inside the house, the hallway is very cold, she closes the door to the living room right after we enter. In the living room it is a bit warmer. The woman wears Japanese style robes, the house is filled with Oriental decorations, some pieces of furniture look Asian as well. There are pictures of Buddhist monks on the desk, a lot of religious books, book about yoga, and about Japa-nese fashion. The living room itself is very clean and light. The kitchen is small but clean, there is a tray that contains three apples, three pears, and three walnuts. The woman walks on to the kitchen, during which she says ‘I will just finish the dishes’. Jennifer rolls her eyes a bit to me and answers ‘ok, then I will wait until we can start, because we have to go through some things’, the woman

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comes back. She doesn’t seems to really notice anything Jennifer says, but is busy giving her own input in the inspection the whole time. She starts talking about the shoe covers again, this time in a nice way, asking Jennifer where she can buy those things, Jennifer answers and states that she has them at her house as well, because she wants people to take of their shoes too.

During the whole appointment Jennifer let’s the woman continue talking, she tells unimpor-tant things, like the fact that she has seven closets, that the house is pretty small but she was very smart with the space, that the house is crooked and when she looks out the window it feels like she will fall out, that there is one corner where she can sit on a chair in the sun. The woman further ex-plains she is leaving the house after having slept bad for five years, because of the dancing school and the night market across the street, and the barber on the ground floor. Jennifer listens but just answers shortly on all those things and tells the woman some appointment specific things about the state the house has to be in in between. When we are back on the stairs putting on our shoes, even when we are walking down the stairs, the woman keeps talking until we are out of sight. When we get outside, Jennifer takes out a package of cigarettes: ‘phew I really need a cigarette. If I would have gotten this woman in my exam I definitely would have failed.’ After I ask her why she tells me: ‘You always have to stay in control of your appointment, but with this woman after we came in I felt this was a better approach, so I thought I will just let her go for a while.’

Jennifer exemplifies the use of emotional intelligence in this scenario, deciding her course of action based on the tenant and scenario in question. Although Jennifer seems lightly irritated at the beginning of the inspection, she adjusts her way of working quickly, realizing the normal appro-ach, or the approach she learned during her training, would not result in the desirable outcome. In this case she shows signs of emotional intelligence in that she is aware of the needs of the woman leaving the house, giving her the time and space to take over the appointment.

Conclusion

In this chapter I have tried to argue that a certain level of emotional intelligence is needed in the performance of working as a rental or back office employee. This emotional intelligence often takes on the form of emotional other awareness, realizing and understanding the emotions of the tenants that employees have to work with every day. This emotional intelligence can be taught and seems to be present in almost all the employees I did my research with. They know how to respond when te-nants get angry, frustrated, or even aggressive, and often see it coming. But they also recognize when a specific tenant needs someone to talk to, someone to listen, or someone to comfort them.

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The next step after emotional other awareness seems to be emotional labor. In these cases the em-ployees seem to take on the role of social workers, listening to the personal stories and problems of (potential) tenants.

This performance of emotional labor seems to be easier or more natural for some employees than for others. This is often the case when the emotional labor helps employees act out fidelity to the valued identity. Emotional labor can be harder, and even damaging, in cases where employees are indifferent or even contrary to the normative expectations of the contact role. However, even in the cases where employees feel contrary to the organizational norms, employees make sure the case is handles correctly. Monique’s behavior shows us how this works. She distances herself from the decisions she does not want to make like allocating houses to people she feels are undeserving, or trying to speak to those tenants she does not completely understand. These cases she drops at her colleagues or manager. This way, she can voice her dismissal, knowing that she personally did not allocate. Emotional intelligence and emotional labor just provides employees the space to help po-tential tenants and to deliver better service in terms of organizational performance. Whereas there is a personal risk when the organizational values are contrary to those of the individual, namely alie-nation, the values of emotional labor are in the personal approach of individual scenario’s and cases. 

Discretion, particularism, and exclusion: The influence and role of employees of housing associations in the Amsterdam region