Published on: July 8, 2025 at 3:51 pm
Firefighting is a profession with a reputation for toughness and roughness. But are some firemen and firewomen actually big softies?
Academy of Management Scholar Nancy Rothbard of the University of Pennsylvania said that caring and compassion are characteristics often associated with the emotional culture of healthcare organizations, and she and her co-author had wondered if that had anything to do with the fact that many healthcare employees are women. Hence, she and Olivia Amanda O’Neill of George Mason University conducted research on male-dominated organizations’ workplace culture, specifically researching firefighters. They coauthored “Is Love All You Need? The Effects of Emotional Culture, Suppression, and Work–Family Conflict on Firefighter Risk-Taking and Health.”
Indeed, their research findings ran contrary to stereotype: A male-dominant workplace can be just as caring and compassionate as a female-dominant workplace. Further, a combination of caring and playfulness in a mostly masculine organization can create interpersonal connections that help to reduce stressors and strengthen teams.
Rothbard and O’Neill found that the dynamics of emotional culture are central to effective individual wellbeing and teamwork and collaboration. While their research took place at fire stations, the findings about balancing caring and humor apply to any office setting where teamwork is important. They offered the following five tips for managers to foster a positive emotional culture and build stronger teams:
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1. Create ritualsthat allow people to get together and build and sustain connections
For example, the routine of group meals was fundamental to the emotional culture at the fire stations. Breaking bread together was a valued and consistent ritual that fostered connection and familiarity.
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2. Strive for a gender-balanced workforce
You can learn from male-dominated cultures at their best—the same goes for female-dominant cultures. Bring them together. You’ll get diverse perspectives and life experiences, which makes for a more convivial culture.
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3. Support anopen-door or no-door environment
In the firehouses, small spaces allowed teams to form strong relationships and grow together. Being so close together required people to interact and develop as a cohesive team. Private offices where people can shut their doors are not as conducive to growing a strong team.
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4. Encourage team members to share on-the-job experiences—yes, even the negative ones—with one another
In the 27 fire stations Rothbard and O’Neill analyzed, love, laughter, and family-like banter were common. The firefighters they interviewed—97 men and three women—even used the metaphor of family to describe their relationships with each other.Because they deal with really painful, difficult stuff, the researchers saw a strong culture of joviality and even love emerged. Love was particularly central to how the firefighters managed boundaries between work and family, according to a survey of 324 firefighters across the United States. Firefighters who relied on one another to process painful on-the-job experiences had fewer work–family conflicts, while firefighters who suppressed their emotions had the highest levels of work–family conflict and risk-taking behavior.
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