‘And what did you do about my emotions during Covid‐19?’ Making sense of negative emotions at work through institutional logics and Critical Systems Heuristics

Abstract

The literature on Covid-19 has demonstrated that frontline workers use different coping strategies and engage in sense-making to address negative emotions. However, we know little about the underlying process of sense-making. Thus, this paper uses institutional logics to investigate how sense-making of negative emotions is enabled and constrained. This analysis draws on a diary written by a nurse at an Italian hospital, which represents an account of the emotions experienced by medical staff. The analysis identifies a set of enablers and disablers of sense-making, as well as, the patterns that alleviate and intensify frontline workers' emotions. Based on these findings and evidence of the Covid-task force at Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital in Bergamo, Italy, this paper illustrates Critical Systems Heuristics as a means to address the disablers of sense-making through participatory conversations that consider different institutional logics.