Organizational Behavior: Emotions at Work

• Humans are emotional creatures
• Ignoring emotions at work is inappropriate for organizational behavior studies
• Examines the causes of and influences on emotion
• Emotional intelligence is explored
• Explores how emotions play out in the work environment

Introduction

• OB has not given much research attention to the effects of emotions on behavior
• Emotions of any kind were once believed to be disruptive within the work environment
• Certain emotions, especially if exhibited at the wrong time, can hinder employee performance
• Employees display emotions daily, so OB studies must consider emotions in workplace behavior

Emotional Terminology

• Affect is a generic term for a broad range of feelings that people experience
• The umbrella concept encompasses both emotions and moods
• Emotion refers to intense feelings directed at someone or something
• Emotions are more fleeting than moods
• Clearly revealed through facial expressions and are often action-oriented
• Reactions to a person/event
• Shown when "happy about something, angry at someone, afraid of something."
• Moods are feelings that tend to be less intense than emotions
• Moods often lack a contextual stimulus
• Moods last longer than emotions
• Not usually directed at a person or event
• More cognitive by causing one to think or brood about a subject
• Emotions can turn into moods when focus is lost on the event or object that started the feeling
• Good/bad moods can make you more emotional in response to an event
• Showing emotion (anger) towards a colleague after criticism
• Affect is a broad term that encompasses emotions and moods
• Emotions are caused by specific events
• Emotions are more fleeting than moods
• Emotions like anger and disgust are apparent through facial expressions
• Emotions may be more action-oriented, that lead to immediate action
• Moods may cause one to think or brood
• Emotions and moods are closely connected and can influence each other

Affect, Emotions, and Moods

• Affect, emotions, and moods are separable in theory, but not always crystal clear in practice
• One area studies moods, other area studies emotions

Basic Emotions

• Dozens of emotions
• Examples: anger, contempt, enthusiasm, envy, fear, frustration, disappointment, embarrassment, disgust, happiness, hate, hope, jealousy, joy, love, pride, surprise, sadness
• Psychologists/philosophers unlikely to agree on a set of basic emotions
• Researchers agreed on six essentially universal emotions include anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust, and surprise
• Emotions plotted along a continuum
• Closer emotions on the continuum are more likely to be confused with another
• Sometimes happiness is mistaken for surprise, but rarely confusion between happiness and disgust

Basic Moods: Positive and Negative Affect

• One classification of emotions is positivity or negativity
• Positive emotions express a favorable evaluation or feeling, like joy and gratitude
• Positive affect is the mood dimension including excitement, self-assurance, and cheerfulness at the high end
• Includes boredom, sluggishness, and tiredness at the low end
• Negative emotions express the opposite, such as anger or guilt
• Negative affect is the mood dimension consisting of nervousness, stress, and anxiety at the high end
• Negative dimension includes relaxation, tranquility, and poise at the low end
• Positivity offset is when most people experience a mildly positive mood
• Degree to which people experience positive/negative emotions can vary across cultures

Function of Emotions

• Emotions make us irrational
• Rationality and emotion are in conflict
• Expressing emotions like sadness to the point of crying is toxic to our careers
• Experiencing emotions can make us seem weak, brittle, or irrational
• Emotions are critical to rational thinking
• Must have the ability to experience emotions to be rational
• Emotions provide important information about how we understand the world
• Good decision-making employs both thinking and feeling
• People behaving ethically decisions are based on their emotions and feelings

Sources of Emotions and Moods

• Moods and emotions have a trait component
• Most people have tendencies to experience certain moods and emotions more frequently than others
• People also experience the same emotions with different intensities
• People differ in affect intensity, or how strongly they experience their emotions
• Affectively intense people experience both positive and negative emotions more deeply
• Mood/emotion affected by timing of the stimulus
• Majority starts out with slower moody in the morning, peaking, and declining in the evening
• Peak of a positive mood affect occurs midway between waking and sleeping times
• Negative affect shows little fluctuation throughout the day
• Negative affect is highest and positive impact is lowest early in the week, and the opposite later in the week
• People believe mood tied to the weather, but there is little evidence of this
• Illusory correlation explains why people think nice weather improves mood
• Occurs when people associate two events that in reality have no connection
• Stressful events negatively affect moods
• The potential to cause workers to experience gradually increasing levels of strain over time
• Mounting levels of stress can worsen moods
• Social activities dramatically affect mood and longevity
• In good moods, people tend to seek out social activities which makes others be in a good mood
• Physical, informal, and epicurean activities tend to increase mood more than formal or sedentary events
• Sleep affects mood
• Sleep-deprived people report greater feelings of fatigue, anger, and hostility
• Lack of sleep impairs decision making making it difficult to control emotions which can affect job satisfaction the next day
• Exercise enhances people's positive mood
• This effect is strongest in people distressed
• This exercise effect on mood is not very strong
• Negative emotions occur less with age
• Positive moods last longer and bad moods tend to fade more quickly
• This may be due to increased emotional experience given by age
• Women are more emotionally expressive than men
• Women experience emotions more intensely
• Women "hold onto" emotions longer than men
• Women display more frequent expressions of emotions, except anger
• Gender differences in emotion expression caused by socialization more than innate generic abilities

Emotional Labor

• Jobs require emotional labor, which is an employee's expression of organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions at work
• Emotional labor came from studies of service jobs, but it is relevant to almost every job
• Arises when employees express one emotion while feeling another
• Disparity is emotional dissonance, taking a heavy toll
• Bottled-up feelings of frustration, anger, and resentment lead to emotional exhaustion and burnout
• Increase in the importance of emotional labor as a key component of effective job performance
• Helps to separate emotions into felt or displayed emotions
• Felt emotions are the individual's actual emotions
• Displayed emotions are those that the organization requires workers to show/considers appropriate
• Not innate, but rather learned
• Effective managers learn to express seriousness for bad performance and hide anger when skipped for promotion
• Salespeople smile and are more friendly
• Displaying fake emotions requires us to suppress real ones
• Surface acting is hiding inner feelings and forgoing emotional expressions in response to display rules
• Worker smiling at a customer when they don't feel like it
• Surface acting deals with displayed emotions and deep acting deals with felt emotions
• Surface acting is more stressful by feigning true emotions
• Deep acting is trying to modify inner feelings based on display rules
• Health care provider trying to genuinely feel more empathy for her patients
• Displaying emotions one does not actually feel is so exhausting
• Employees need a chance to relax to recharge

Affective Events Theory

• Emotions and moods are important parts of our personal/work lives
• Affective events theory (AET) demonstrates that emotions influence job performance and satisfaction
• The theory recognizes that emotions are a response to an event in the work environment
• Work events trigger positive/negative emotional reactions, to which employees' personalities/moods predispose them to respond with greater/lesser intensity
• AET provides insight into emotions on job satisfaction and job performance
• Need to address employee emotions

Emotional Intelligence

• Knowing own emotions and being able to read others emotions may be more effective in their jobs
• Emotional intelligence (EI) is ability to perceive one's emotions and others
• Emotional intelligence (EI) is to understand the meaning of these emotions
• Emotional intelligence (EI) is to regulate emotions in a cascading model
• Self-aware people are good at reading emotion cues
• High EI is associated with higher job performance
• The case for high EI is intuitive, helps to have street smarts and social intelligence
• The ability to detect emotions in others, controlling own emotions, and handling social interactions well business success.
• High EI is positively correlated to job performance
• People who are physically unable to process emotions score significantly lower on El tests
• This suggests that El is neurologically based and is unrelated to standard measures of intelligence
• Detractors of EI say there are no shared definitions
• The research definition of El is too broad and varied to be helpful
• As a form of intelligence, El tests should be reliable
• El testing instruments are self-reporting surveys that lack verifiable answers
• EI appears to be highly correlated with measures of personality, especially emotional stability
• Emotion regulation includes identifying and modifying the emotions you feel
• Emotions can be changed using strategies like suppressing negative thoughts, distraction, or engaging in relation techniques
• The effort to change emotions can be exhausting, and could actually result in a stronger emotion

OB Applications of Emotions and Moods

• Important for managers to understand emotions and moods to improve ability to explain/predict OB
• Employers should consider EI as a factor in the hiring process, especially in jobs with a high degree of social interaction
• OB researchers find that moods and emotions have important effects on decision making
• People in good moods/experiencing positive emotions likely to use heuristics to good decisions quickly
• People experiencing bad moods/negative emotions are more likely to take a significant amount of time to decide
• People in good moods are more creative
• They produce more ideas/options and others think their ideas are original
• People experiencing positive moods in flexible/open thinking, which explains creativity
• Supervisors should try to keep employees happy because it creates more good moods that lead to creativity
• Positive moods may make people too relaxed
• The answer may lie in mood conceptualization
• Rather than looking at positive/negative affect consider moods
• Active feelings like anger, fear, or elation activates creativity
• Whether positive or negative activating creativity more whereas deactivating moods lead to less
• Studies have highlighted the importance of moods and emotions on motivation
• A positive-mood group reported higher expectations of their skill, worked harder, and solved more puzzles
• Performance feedback influenced mood, which then influenced motivation
• A positive mood can cause better performance
• This positive feedback reinforces better performance
• Good mood creates helpful coworkers and superiors sales

Leadership

• Effective leaders rely on emotional appeals to help convey their messages
• In expressing emotion, politicians show great enthusiasm
• Corporate executives know emotional engagement is critical for organizational change
• Inspiring leaders generate greater optimism/enthusiasm in employees, leading to more positive social interactions

Negotiation

• Skilled negotiator has a "poker face”
• Negotiator who feigns anger advantage
• Demonstrating anger leads opponents to conclude that one has conceded
• Powerful, well-informed feelers will have an advantage
• Being bad about performance impairs future negotiations
• Experiencing negative emotions impacts future relationships, making people more cooperative

Customer service

• Worker’s emotional state influences customer service, influencing levels of repeat business
• Providing quality customer service makes high emotional demands and dissonance
• Over time, this can lead to burnout, declines in the ability to create relationships
• Employees’ emotions can transfer to the customer—emotional contagion—the catching of moods from others
• Customers who catch the positive moods of employees shop longer
• When employees feels unfairly treated, more difficult to keep up standards

Job Attitudes

• "Never take your work home"—Several studies have shown links between daytime workdays and evenings
• Happy days at work makes happy evenings at home
• People with stressful workdays also have trouble relaxing
• Bad spouse moods spread
• By the next day the effect is usually gone

Deviant Workplace Behaviors

• Can be traced to negative emotions, envy is an emotion that occurs when resent someone for something you don't have
• Such as work that leads to backstabbing, distorting accomplishments, and distorting outlooks
• Evidence suggests that angered, hostile feelers will engage
• Aggression likely escalates if people anger other behaviours

Safety and Injury at Work

• Anxious peoples inability to act with hazards
• Pessimistic persons feeling of hopelessness for safety
• Anxiousness, pessimism, and distractibility each interfere with behaviour