Emotions in the workplace - Wikipedia





	
	

	
	

	Emotions in the workplace

	
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Emotions in the workplace play a large role in how an entire organization communicates within itself and to the outside world. "Events at work have real emotional impact on participants. The consequences of emotional states in the workplace, both behaviors and attitudes, have substantial significance for individuals, groups, and society".[1] "Positive emotions in the workplace help employees obtain favorable outcomes including achievement, job enrichment and higher quality social context".[2] "Negative emotions, such as fear, anger, stress, hostility, sadness, and guilt, however increase the predictability of workplace deviance,",[3] and how the outside world views the organization.

"Emotions normally are associated with specific events or occurrences and are intense enough to disrupt thought processes.".[4] Moods on the other hand, are more "generalized feelings or states that are not typically identified with a particular stimulus and not sufficiently intense to interrupt ongoing thought processes".[4] There can be many consequences for allowing negative emotions to affect your general attitude or mood at work. "Emotions and emotion management are a prominent feature of organizational life. It is crucial "to create a publicly observable and desirable emotional display as a part of a job role." [5]

"The starting point for modern research on emotion in organizations seems to have been sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild's (1983) seminal book on emotional labor: The Managed Heart".  Ever since then the study of emotions in the workplace has been seen as a near science, with seminars being held on it and books being writing about it every year to help us understand the role it plays,[6] especially via the Emonet website and Listserv, founded by Neal M. Ashkanasy in 1997.


Contents


	1 Positive
	2 Emotional labor/ emotional work
	3 Negative
	3.1 Consequences



	4 Conclusion
	5 References
	6 Works cited





Positive[edit]

Positive emotions at work such as high achievement and excitement have "desirable effect independent of a person's relationships with others, including greater task activity, persistence, and enhanced cognitive function." [2] "Strong positive emotions of emotionally intelligent people [include] optimism, positive mood, self-efficacy, and emotional resilience to persevere under adverse circumstances. ".[7] "Optimism rests on the premise that failure is not inherent in the individual; it may be attributed to circumstances that may be changed with a refocusing of effort." [7] Those who express positive emotions in the workplace are better equipped to influence their coworkers favorably. "They are also more likable, and a halo effect may occur when warm or satisfied employees are rated favorably on other desirable attributes." [2] It is likely that these people will inspire cooperation in others to carry out a task. It is said that "employees experience fewer positive emotions when interacting with their supervisors as compared with interactions with coworkers and customers." [8] Specific workers such as "service providers are expected to react to aggressive behaviors directed toward them with non-aggressive and even courteous behavior…also to engage in what has been termed emotional labor by demonstrating polite and pleasant manners regardless of the customer's behavior." [9]
Being aware of whether or not you are showing positive emotions will cause ripple effects in the workplace. A manager or co-worker who displays positive emotions consistently is more likely to motivate those around him/her and have more opportunities within the company. Being able to bring out positive emotions and aware of how to do this can be an incredibly useful tool in the workplace. "Positive mood also elicits more exploration and enjoyment of new ideas and can enhance creativity" (Isen, 2000). A manager who is able to reward and speak to his employees in a way that brings out their positive emotions will be much more successful than one who lacks these skills.


Emotional labor/ emotional work[edit]

"As the nature of the U.S. and global economies is increasingly transforming from manufacturing to service, organizational participants are coping with new challenges, and those challenges often involve complex processes of emotion in the workplace. The initial shift in the economy involved a move to customer service (including industries such as retailing, restaurants and the travel industry), leading to scholarly consideration of the way emotional communication is used in the service of customers and in the advancement of organizational goals. This type of work has come to be labeled as emotional labor...the emotions and displays in emotional labor are largely inauthentic and are seen by management as a commodity that can be controlled, trained and set down in employee handbooks." [10] "This relates to the induction or suppression of feeling in order to sustain an outward appearance that produces a sense in others of being cared for in a convivial safe place.".[11] Emotional labor refers to effort to show emotions that may not be genuinely felt but must be displayed in order to "express organizationally desired emotion during inter-personal transaction."[5] "Commercialization of emotional labor and the trends towards the homogenization of industrial and service-sector labor processes have, in turn, been shaped by the adoption of new management practices designed to promote feeling rules and personal patterns of behavior that enhance the institutions or enterprises performance or competitive edge".[11] In order to define the image that they want their organizations to portray, leaders use a "core component of "emotional intelligence" to recognize emotions.".[12] that appear desirable. Organizations have begun using their employee's "emotion as a commodity used for the sake of profit".[10] 

Emotional labor inhibits workers from being able to participate in authentic emotional work. Emotional work is described as "emotion that is authentic, not emotion that is manufactured through surface acting…rarely seen as a profit center for management".[10] "The person whose feelings are easily aroused (but not necessarily easily controlled) is going to have far more difficulty in dealing with emotionally stressful situations. In contrast, empathetic concern is hypothesized to have positive effects on responsiveness in international and on outcomes for the worker. A worker with empathetic concern will have feelings for the client but will be able to deal more effectively with the client's problems because there is not a direct sharing of the client's emotions".[13] "Although emotional labor may be helpful to the organizational bottom line, there has been recent work suggesting that managing emotions for pay may be detrimental to the employee".[14] Emotional labor and emotional work both have negative aspects to them including the feelings of stress, frustration or exhaustion that all lead to burnout. "Burnout is related to serious negative consequences such as deterioration in the quality of service, job turnover, absenteeism and low morale…[It] seems to be correlated with various self report indices of personal distress, including physical exhaustion, insomnia, increased use of alcohol and drugs and marital and family problems".[15]  Ironically, innovations that increase employee empowerment — such as conversion into worker cooperatives, co-managing schemes, or flattened workplace structures — have been found to increase workers’ levels of emotional labor as they take on more workplace responsibilities.[16]


Negative[edit]

Negative emotions at work can be formed by "work overload, lack of rewards, and social relations which appear to be the most stressful work-related factors".[17] "Cynicism is a negative effective reaction to the organization. Cynics feel contempt, distress, shame, and even disgust when they reflect upon their organizations" (Abraham, 1999). Negative emotions are caused by "a range of workplace issues, including aggression, verbal abuse, sexual harassment, computer flaming, blogging, assertiveness training, grapevines, and non verbal behavior".[18] "Stress is the problem of each person feeling it. [Negative emotions] can be caused by "poor leadership, lack of guidance, lack of support and backup. Employees' lack of confidence in their abilities to deal with work demands… and their lack of confidence in coworkers… can also create prolonged negative stress".[19] Showing stress reveals weakness, therefore, employees suppress their negative emotions at work and home. "People who continually inhibit their emotions have been found to be more prone to disease than those who are emotionally expressive".[5] Negative emotions can be seen as a disease in the workplace. Those who exhibit it negatively affect those around them and can change the entire environment. A co-working might de-motivate those around them, a manager might cause his employees to feel contempt. Recognizing the negative emotions and learning how to handle them can be a tool for personal success as well as the success of your team. Managing your emotions in a way that does not show negativity will cause you to be seen more favorably in the workplace and can help with your personal productivity and development.


Consequences[edit]

Psychological and Emotional- "Individuals experiencing job insecurity have an increased risk for anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and somatic complaints".[20]
Marital and Family- Spouses and children can feel the crossover effects of burnout brought home from the workplace. Depleted levels of energy which effect home management is another consequence.
Organizational- Negative feelings at work effect "employee moral, turnover rate, commitment to the organization".[20]
Not being able to control personal emotions and recognize emotional cues in others can be disastrous in the workplace. It can cause conflict between you and others, or simply cause you to be seen in a negative light and result in missed opportunities.

Not having a strong base to things like drama and gossip can also disrupt a functioning business. Lisa McQuerrey gives a definition for drama: "Drama is usually defined as spreading unverified information, discussing personal matters at work, antagonizing colleagues or blowing minor issues out of proportion to get attention." McQuerry wrote an article giving solutions to stop drama and conflict between coworkers. There are eight important solutions to ending conflict in a workplace according to McQuerrey, first being to set a policy in an employee handbook making drama unacceptable. With this, there needs to be a list of consequences. Second being that the roles of employees need to be clarified. Other examples in her article include: Stopping gossip before it makes its rounds, confronting employees about changes at work yourself instead of having a rumor mill, report drama if there is a regular instigator. McQuerrey goes on with saying that if situations go on, there should be a meeting held where management mediates the people who gossip. It is also important to follow up with your policy and give warnings about the consequences. Employees may be unaware of how their actions impact their coworkers, bringing in a behavioral expert into your business is usually a positive reinforcement when there's nothing else you can do.[21]


Conclusion[edit]

Being able to not only control your emotions, but gauge the emotions of those around you and effectively influence them is imperative to success in the workplace. "Toxicity in the workplace is a regular occurrence and an occupational hazard. That is why the success of many projects, and the organization itself, depends on the success of "handlers," the people (usually managers) whose interventions either assuage individuals' pain from toxicity or eliminate it completely. "[22] "One can conclude that the ability to effectively deal with emotions and emotional information in the workplace assists employees in managing occupational stress and maintaining psychological well-being. This indicates that stress reduction and health protection could be achieved not only by decreasing work demands (stressors), but also by increasing the personal resources of employees, including emotional intelligence. The increasing of EI skills (empathy, impulse control) necessary for successful job performance can help workers to deal more effectively with their feelings, and thus directly decrease the level of job stress and indirectly protect their health".[17]



	Organized labour portal
	Psychology portal



References[edit]


	^ (Weiss, 2002)

	^ a b c (Staw, Sutton, Pelled, 1994)

	^ (Lee, Allen, 2002)

	^ a b (Brief, Weiss, 2002)

	^ a b c (Mann, 1999)

	^ Cynthia D. Fisher; Neal M. Ashkanasy. "The Emerging Role of Emotions in Work Life: An Introduction" (PDF).

	^ a b (Abraham, 1999)

	^ (Bono, Jackson, Foldes, Vinson, Muros, 2007)

	^ (Ben-Zur, Yagil, 2005)

	^ a b c (Miller, 2007)

	^ a b (Poynter, 2002)

	^ (Elfenbein, Ambady, 2002)

	^ (Miller, Koesten, 2008)

	^ (Grandey, 2000)

	^ (Olofsson, Bengtsson, Brink 2003)

	^ Hoffmann, Elizabeth A. (2016). "Emotions and Emotional Labor at Worker-Owned Businesses: Deep Acting, Surface Acting, and Genuine Emotions". The Sociological Quarterly. 57: 152–173.


	^ a b (Oginska-Bulik, 2005)

	^ (Muir, 2006)

	^ (Olofsson, Bengtsson, Brink, 2003)

	^ a b (Canaff, Wright, 2004)

	^ McQuerrey, Lisa. "Eight Steps to End Drama in The Workplace". Retrieved 20 April 2014.


	^ Peter J.Frost




Works cited[edit]

	Abraham, Rebecca. (1999). Emotional Intelligence in Organizations: A Conceptualization. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 125(2), 209–224. Retrieved from PsychINFO database.
	Anand, N., Ginka Toegel, and Martin Kilduff. (2007). Emotion Helpers: The Role of High Positive Affectivity and High Self-Monitoring Managers. Personnel Psychology, 60(2), 337–365. Retrieved from PsychINFO database.
	Ben-Zur, H. and Yagil, D. (2005). The relationship between empowerment, aggressive behaviours of customers, coping, and burnout. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 14(1) 81–99. Retrieved from PsychInfo database.
	Bono, Joyce E, Hannah Jackson Foldes, Gregory Vinson, and John P. Muros. (2007). Workplace Emotions: The Role of Supervision and Leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(5), 1357–1367. Retrieved from PsychINFO database.
	Brescoll, V.L. and Uhlmann, E.L. (2008). Can an angry woman get ahead? : Status conferral, gender, and expression of emotion in the workplace. Association for Psychological Science, 19(3) 268–275. Retrieved from PsychInfo database.
	Brief, Arthur P., and Howard M. Weiss. (2002). Organizational Behavior: Affect in the Workplace. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 53, 279–307. Retrieved from PsychINFO database.
	Canaff, Audrey L., and Wanda Wright. (2004). High Anxiety: Counseling the Job- Insecure Client. Journal of Employment Counseling, 41(1), 2-10. Retrieved from PsychINFO database.
	Elfenbein, H.A. and Ambady, N. (2002). Predicting workplace outcomes from the ability to eavesdrop on feelings. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87 (5) 963–971. Retrieved from PsychInfo database.
	Fong, Christina C., and Larissa Z. Tiedens. (2002). Dueling Experiences and Dual Ambivalences: Emotional and Motivational Ambivalence of Women in High Status Positions. Motivation and Emotion, 26(1), 105–121. Retrieved from PsychINFO database.
	Grandey, A. A. (2000). Emotion regulation in the workplace: A new way to conceptualize emotional labor. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5(1), 95-110. Retrieved from PsychInfo database.
	Lee, Kibeom, & Allen, Natalie J. (2002). Organizational Citizenship Behavior and Workplace Deviance: The Role of Affect and Cognitions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(1), 131–142. Retrieved from PsychoINFO database.
	Mann, S. (1999). Emotion at work: to what extent are we expressing, suppressing, or faking it? European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 8(3) 347–369. Retrieved from PsychInfo database.
	Martin, Dick. (2012). OtherWise: The Wisdom You Need to Succeed in a Diverse World Organization. Published by AMACOM Books, a division of American Management Association, 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.
	Miller, Katherine. (2007). Compassionate Communication in the Workplace: Exploring Processes of Noticing, Connecting, and Responding. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 35(3), 223–245. Retrieved from PsychoINFO database.
	Miller, Kathrine, & Koesten, Joy. (2008). Financial Feeling: An Investigation of Emotion and Communication in the Workplace. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 36(1), 8-32. Retrieved from PsychINFO database.
	Muir, Clive. (2006). Emotions At Work. Business Communication Quarterly, 69(4). Retrieved from PsychoINFO database.
	Oginska-Bulik, Nina. (2005). Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace: Exploring its Effects on Occupational Stress and Health Outcomes in Human Service Workers. International Journal of Occupational Medicine & Environmental Health, 28(2), 167–175. Retrieved from PsychoINFO database.
	Olofsson, B., Bengtsson, C., Brink, E. (2003). Absence of response: a study of nurses' experience of stress in the workplace. Journal of Nursing Management, 11, 351–358. Retrieved from PsychInfo database.
	Poynter, Gavin. (2002). Emotions in the Labour Process. European Journal of Psychotherapy, Counseling and Health, 5(3), 247–261. Retrieved from PsychINFO database.
	Staw, B.M., Sutton, R. S., Pelled, L.H. (1994). Employee positive emotion and favorable outcomes at the workplace. Organization Science, 5(1) 51–70. Retrieved from PsychInfo database.
	Weiss, Howard. (2002). Introductory comments: Antecedents of Emotional Experiences at Work. Motivation and Emotion, 26(1), 1–2. Retrieved from PsychoINFO database.
	Pearson, Christine M. "The Smart Way to Respond to Negative Emotions at Work". MIT Sloan Management Review. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
	Seaton, Cherisse L.; Bottorff, Joan L.; Jones-Bricker, Margaret; Lamont, Sonia (2018-10-18). "The Role of Positive Emotion and Ego-Resilience in Determining Men's Physical Activity Following a Workplace Health Intervention". American Journal of Men's Health. 12 (6): 1916–1928. doi:10.1177/1557988318803744. ISSN 1557-9883. PMC 6199438. PMID 30334492.
	Mérida-López, Sergio; Extremera, Natalio; Quintana-Orts, Cirenia; Rey, Lourdes (2018-09-21). "In pursuit of job satisfaction and happiness: Testing the interactive contribution of emotion-regulation ability and workplace social support". Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. doi:10.1111/sjop.12483. ISSN 0036-5564.
	Balducci, Cristian (2012)."Exploring the relationship between workaholism and workplace aggressive behaviour: The role of job-related emotion." Personality and individual differences. 53: 629–634.
	Hochschild, Arlie Russell (1983). The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. University of California Press. 
ISBN 0520054547.


		v
	t
	e


Emotions (list)

	Emotions	
	Acceptance
	Adoration
	Aesthetic emotions
	Affection
	Agitation
	Agony
	Amusement
	Anger
	Angst
	Anguish
	Annoyance
	Anticipation
	Anxiety
	Apathy
	Arousal
	Attraction
	Awe
	Boredom
	Calmness
	Compassion
	Confidence
	Contempt
	Contentment
	Courage
	Cruelty
	Curiosity
	Defeat
	Depression
	Desire
	Despair
	Disappointment
	Disgust
	Distrust
	Ecstasy
	Embarrassment
	Vicarious


	Empathy
	Enthrallment
	Enthusiasm
	Envy
	Euphoria
	Excitement
	Fear
	Flow (psychology)
	Frustration
	Gratification
	Gratitude
	Greed
	Grief
	Guilt
	Happiness
	Hatred
	Hiraeth
	Homesickness
	Hope
	Horror
	Hostility
	Humiliation
	Hygge
	Hysteria
	Indulgence
	Infatuation
	Insecurity
	Inspiration
	Interest
	Irritation
	Isolation
	Jealousy
	Joy
	Kindness
	Loneliness
	Longing
	Love
	Limerence


	Lust
	Mono no aware
	Neglect
	Nostalgia
	Outrage
	Panic
	Passion
	Pity
	Self-pity


	Pleasure
	Pride
	Grandiosity
	Hubris
	Insult
	Vanity


	Rage
	Regret
	Social connection
	Rejection
	Remorse
	Resentment
	Sadness
	Melancholy


	Saudade
	Schadenfreude
	Sehnsucht
	Self-confidence
	Sentimentality
	Shame
	Shock
	Shyness
	Sorrow
	Spite
	Stress
	Suffering
	Surprise
	Sympathy
	Tenseness
	Trust
	Wonder
	Worry



	


	World views	
	Cynicism
	Defeatism
	Nihilism
	Optimism
	Pessimism
	Reclusion
	Weltschmerz




	Related	
	Affect
	consciousness
	in education
	measures
	in psychology


	Affective
	computing
	forecasting
	neuroscience
	science
	spectrum


	Affectivity
	positive
	negative


	Appeal to emotion
	Emotion
	and art
	and memory
	and music
	and sex
	classification
	evolution
	expressed
	functional accounts
	group
	homeostatic
	perception
	recognition
	in conversation


	in animals
	regulation
	interpersonal


	work


	Emotional
	aperture
	bias
	blackmail
	competence
	conflict
	contagion
	detachment
	dysregulation
	eating
	exhaustion
	expression
	intelligence
	and bullying


	intimacy
	isolation
	lability
	labor
	lateralization
	literacy
	prosody
	reasoning
	responsivity
	security
	selection
	symbiosis
	well-being


	Emotionality
	bounded


	Emotions
	and culture
	in decision-making
	in the workplace
	in virtual communication
	history
	moral
	self-conscious
	social
	social sharing
	sociology


	Feeling
	Gender and emotional expression
	Group affective tone
	Interactions between the emotional and executive brain systems
	Meta-emotion
	Pathognomy
	Pathos
	Social emotional development
	Stoic passions
	Theory
	affect
	appraisal
	discrete emotion
	somatic marker
	constructed emotion









	
	v
	t
	e


Aspects of workplaces

	Topics	
	Absenteeism
	Abusive supervision
	Aggression
	Bullying
	Conflict
	Control freak
	Counterproductive behaviour
	Coworker backstabbing
	Culture of fear
	Cyber-aggression
	Democracy
	Deviance
	Discrimination
	Diversity
	Divide and rule
	Emotions
	Employee engagement
	Employee monitoring
	Employee morale
	Employee silence
	Employee surveys
	Empowerment
	Evaluation
	Feminisation
	Fit in or fuck off
	Friendship
	Gender inequality
	Gossip
	Happiness
	Harassment
	Health surveillance
	Humor
	Incivility
	Intervention
	Jargon
	Kick the cat
	Kiss up kick down
	Listening
	Machiavellianism
	Micromanagement
	Mobbing
	Narcissism
	Office politics
	Performance appraisal
	Personality clash
	Phobia
	Positive psychology
	Privacy
	Probation
	Profanity
	Psychopathy
	Queen bee syndrome
	Rat race
	Relationships
	Revenge
	Role conflict
	Romance
	Sabotage
	Safety and health
	Spirituality
	Staff turnover
	Strategy
	Stress
	Toxic workplace
	Toxic leader
	Training
	Undermining
	Violence
	Wellness
	Work–family conflict
	Workload




	See also	
	Corporation
	Employment
	Factory
	Job
	Office
	Organization
	Whistleblower




	 Templates	
	Aspects of corporations
	Aspects of jobs
	Aspects of occupations
	Aspects of organizations
	Employment














Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emotions_in_the_workplace&oldid=992128033"


		Categories: 	Emotion
	Workplace


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