Catherine Mundy Annotated Bibliography 1 April 2014 Ms.

Hinnant The Affects of Death on the Living Hyland, Liam and Morse, Janice. Orchestrating Comfort: The Role of Funeral Directors. Death Studies (Death Stud), 1995 Sep-Oct; 19 (5): 453-74. (12 ref). ebscohost. Web. 28 March 2014 In the article, Orchestrating Comfort: The Role of Funeral Directors, the authors Liam Hyland and Janice Morse focus on how the roles of funeral directors have changed over time. In order to conduct this study, the researchers were given permission by the families to attend public services and also attended day-to-day work of funeral directors. The authors also shine light on a refreshing new concept of how these employees help their grieving clients. Hyland and Morse conclude their study with the realization that funeral directors provide comfort that occurs without intimacy. In this article, I found many facts that supported my thesis. When the authors state that choosing a casket for the deceased is the most painful decision for the persons loved ones, I thought back to a incident that happened as I was being toured around the Bass-Smith funeral home. The funeral home director thought that we would not be interrupting anyone in the casket room because the family in the meeting room was choosing to cremate their relative. As the employee was giving his tour, the other funeral home director entered the room with his clients. The employee who was giving the tour quickly stepped to the side put his head down and then quietly walked out of the door he had entered through. This realization makes it clear that Bass-Smith employees know how delicate these situations are and they know how to show respect. This connection also leads to another point that these authors expressed in their article. They talk about how funeral directors must remain controlled and remote. I liked their take on how funeral home directors comfort their clients. They argue that consoling families has to do with making sure the day runs smoothly and that the setting and funeral service go well. This is a major aspect of the job; however, I would have to slightly disagree. At Bass-Smith, the employees would go above and beyond to make sure all parts of the service were perfect but they would also comfort the clients by listening to them and by giving off a calming and sympathetic atmosphere. Even though a major part of their job is dealing with the technical stuff, funeral directors also have to master emotional issues and people that go along with the occupation.

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Chan, Wallace. Beyond Knowledge and Skills: Self-Competence in Working With Death, Dying, and Bereavement. Death Studies, 36: 899-913, 2012. Web. 28 March 2014

This article focuses on a study conducted in Hong Kong that was carried out on death workers to find out what they considered the most important aspect while working with grief. This study consisted of open-ended questions that were responded to by people who work with bereavement on a daily bases. After the workers answered the anonymous questions, the experimenters divided the responses into certain categories. The researchers came to the conclusion that most of the responses fit into four classifications: self-competence, practice competence, knowledge competence, and workenvironment competence. Wallace Chans article on the study of death workers, which include social workers, doctors, psychologists, nurses, and counselors, was intriguing. These employees were asked what they thought was the most important factor in dealing with death. What the workers answered was surprising because it connected well with what was witnessed at Bass- Smith Funeral Home. I thought it was interesting that because death is a universal concept, it does not matter where you are in the worldpeople deal with death in similar ways. The fact that over half of the participants agreed that self-competence was the most important resource while dealing with death did not come as a shock to me. This category consisted of calmness sense of humor and willingness to collaborate with others. At Bass-Smith Funeral Home, it was evident that the workers valued these attributes. They knew how important it was to be self-aware of their environment and what was expected out of them. The employees at Bass-Smith played on the humor aspect many times throughout the day in the office. In order to lighten the mood, the workers would often have playful tones with each other. While I was observing in the office, I told the employees to go on about their daily ways and the funeral director jokingly said to me Well we would normally just talk about what we want for lunch. His light tones helped the atmosphere of the funeral home to stay positive and it also gave the building the calming air it had. Bailey, Tara. When Commerce Meets Care: Emotion Management in UK Funeral Directing. Mortality, 2010 Aug; 15 (3): 205-22. Web. 29 March 2014 In this article, Tara Bailey focuses on the link between funeral home arrangers in the UK and commerce. She hopes to find out thorough her research if funeral directors are more motivated by profit or by compassion. In order to clarify her point, Bailey uses Boltons four types of emotion management which all have different motives for employee behavior toward their clients. I found this article extremely interesting and eye opening. Tara Baileys main purpose of this article is to unearth the question that millions of people wonder about Do funeral directors really care for their clients? She first starts out her article by considering emotional labour. This concept argues that emotions are under the control of social feeling rules such as you must be sad at a funeral and are reached by acting. In relation to Bass-Smith Funeral Home, I find emotional labour to be completely off base. During the interview process with an employee, the funeral director talked about how much he liked the fact that this company actually cares for their clients. Even though

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the corporation that was observed greatly cared for the families that went through their doors, that does not mean that all funeral homes are held up to this standard. The interviewee also talked about his previous job and how the clients were just numbers and because it was a big establishment, no one actually cared about the family. From comparing his last two jobs, the employee could tell how much Bass-Smith workers really cherished their clients. As Baileys research deepened; however, she soon realized that her initial opinion was not absolute. Within her interviews she finds that the participants are caring and have a desire for the clients to feel comfortable. Bailey found that the employees actually hated bringing up the discussion of money more than the families did. This realization was not surprising; the employees actions at Bass-Smith relayed the same message to their clients. Anyone who happened to walk into that certain funeral home would be able to tell that they treated their clients with respect. Bennett-Kimble, Laura. Working With Death Was No Way to Live. Newsweek, 00289604, 7/21/2003, Vol. 142 Issue 3. Web. 30 March 2014. This article by Laura Bennett-Kimble consists of her personal dealings with working in a small-town funeral home, much like Bass-Smith Funeral Home. The author talks about her feelings throughout the short time that she worked with death. The title of the article, Working With Death Was No Way to Live, is extremely straightforward and does not leave room for the reader to wonder where she stands on the issue on working in a funeral home. Throughout the time spent in the funeral home business, the author decisively comes to a conclusion that does not support my thesis; however, she does seem to make a couple valid points in her argument. The fact that she starts out with high aspirations thinking that she will be protected from feeling grief was her first mistake. While I was interviewing the employees at Bass-Smith, they stressed the importance of knowing that this job will not come easy and that one must train themselves to emotionally unattached to their clients while at the same time having empathy for the grieving friends and family. The workers at Bass-Smith knew how delicate death is; therefore, they prepared themselves what was to lie ahead in the profession they selected. The author continues her article by explaining her bosss actions, which could be seen as unprofessional. Laura recounts the time that the funeral home director admitted to crying with the family of a girl whod been killed when she swerved her car. At BassSmith funeral home in Hickory, the directors talked with grieving families; however, I never saw one time when an employee walked out of a meeting crying or unhinged. The people at the observed funeral home always walked out of meetings in the same state as they were in before going into the room. Again, I think back to what the employees emphasizing how important it is to keep a safe emotional distance from the families. Even though I disagreed with much of this article, there were still valid points that Laura made that I favored. For example, the author talks about the fact that she was well-equipped to work in a funeral home because she possessed honest sympathy and emotional distance which are two important characteristics to have in this industry. The employees at Bass-Smith would completely agree with this statement. They showed me

how important it was to listen and have real empathy for their clients while they would talk with them if they were having a problem or if something went wrong. On the other hand, the workers would do an excellent job of not getting emotionally attached to the families. At Bass-Smith I never saw anyone lose their calmness, the air of the place was peaceful and it never once gave off a sad atmosphere in the office. What Laura and the reader learned at the end of this article was that it takes a special person to work in this type of setting. Funeral home employees do not have it easy, you have to have certain characteristics in order to take on their responsibilities.

Elaine McFarland Working with Death: An Oral History of Funeral Directing in Late Twentieth-Century Scotland Oral History, Vol. 36, pp. 69-80 13. Web. 19 March 2014. In this article, Elaine McFarland interconnects both present and past views of death in Scotland and how it has affected the funeral home industry. She examines the role that the funeral directors play, the impact of social practices, and the outcome of their work. McFarland sheds light on how the changing environments give funeral directors a way to reconstruct a self-perceived notion that people have against their corporation. McFarlands article, along with it being extremely intriguing, also reinforced my main argument in my ethnographyworking with death has positive outcomes. Now that people are more accepting of death and saying good-bye to a loved one, they are also realizing that there is more to the people working behind the curtain. A quote from an interviewee that caught my eye stated: So it's nice the job, it's actually a very, very rewarding job because I always feel that you are helping people out at the most emotional, stressful time, when they have lost their mother or father, or even a child. After reading this statement, I realized how much it connects with the attitude of the people at Bass-Smith funeral home. It was not hard to tell that these employees love their job; they always came in with a smile and were ready to help at a moments notice. No one had to tell me how much they valued their job and the reward they felt, it was all shown through their actions. Even though this article talked mainly about the change in how people view funeral home employees, which was irrelevant, I was able to find quotes from the employees that majorly backed up my thesis. With that being said it was interesting to read that these workers have fought to get past the title 'custodian of the dead' to 'compassionate professional.

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