Chapter 8 - Emotions & moods

What are emotions and moods?

  • @@Affect@@: broad range of feelings that people experience.
  • @@Emotions@@: intense feelings that are directed at someone/something.
  • @@Moods@@: feelings that tend to be less intense than emotions and that lack a contextual stimulus.
  • @@Positive affect@@: mood dimension that consists of specific positive emotions such as excitement, self-assurance and cheerfulness at the high end and boredom, sluggishness and tiredness at the low end.
  • @@Negative affect@@: mood dimensions that consists of emotions such as nervousness, stress and anxiety at the high end and relaxation, tranquility and poise at the low end.
  • @@Positivity offset@@: tendency of most individuals to experience a mildly positive mood at zero input (when nothing in particular is going on).
  • @@Evolutionary psychology@@: area of inquiry which argues that we must experience the emotions we do because they serve a purpose.
  • Sources of emotions and moods   * @@Personality@@     * AffectintensityAffect intensity: individual differences in the strength with which individuals experience their emotions.
      * @@Time of the day@@   * @@Day of the week@@   * @@Weather@@     * IllusorycorrelationIllusory correlation: tendency of people to associate two events when in reality there is no connection.   * @@Stress@@   * @@Social activities@@   * @@Exercise@@   * @@Age@@   * @@Gender@@

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Emotional labour

  • @@Emotional labour@@: situation in which an employee expresses organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions at work.
  • @@Emotional dissonance@@: inconsistencies between the emotions people feel and the emotions they project.
  • @@Felt emotions@@: individual’s actual emotions.
  • @@Displayed emotions@@: emotions that are organizationally required and considered appropriate in a given job.
  • @@Surface acting@@: hiding one’s inner feeling and forgoing emotional expressions in response to display rules.
  • @@Deep acting@@: trying to modify one’s true inner feelings based on display rules.

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Affective events theory (AET)

  • @@Affective events theory (AET)@@: model which suggests that workplace events cause emotional reactions the part of employees, which then influence workplace attitudes and behaviors.

 Affective events theory

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Emotional intelligence (EI)

  • @@Emotional intelligence (EI)@@: ability to detect and to manage emotional cues and information.

 A cascading model of emotional intelligence

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Emotion regulation

  • Strategies for emotion regulation and their likely effects   * Being able to identify and modify the emotions you feel   * Strategies include acknowledgement rather than suppressing our emotional response   * Re-evaluating events as they occur   * Venting is another technique (expressing emotions outwardly).

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OB applications of emotions and moods

  • Selection → emotional intelligence (EI) is a factor that employers should consider when hiring especially when there is a high level of social interaction involved.
  • Decision-making → positive moods and emotions help when decision making, depends but a recent study says negative moods are worse when making decisions.
  • Creativity → people in good moods tend to be more creative than people in bad moods, they produce more original ideas, more flexible and open in thinking.
  • Motivation → organizations that promote positive moods are likely to have more motivated workers.
  • Leadership → effective leaders rely on emotional appeal to help convey their messages, expression of emotions in speeches is often the critical element that makes us accept or reject a leaders message.
  • Negotiation → negotiation is an emotional process, skilled negotiator has a “poker face”.
  • Customer service → workers emotional state influences customer service, influences level of repeat business and level of customer satisfaction.   * @@Emotional contagion@@: process by which people’s emotions are caused by the emotions of others.
  • Job attitudes → people who have a good day at work tend to be in a better mood that evening at work.
  • Deviant workplace behaviors → violating established norms provoke negative emotions, people who feel negative emotions are more likely to participate in short-term deviant workplace behaviors.
  • Safety and injury at work → employers might improve health and safety by ensuring that workers are engaged in potentially dangerous activities when they are in a bad mood.
  • How managers can influence moods → managers can use humor and give their employees small tokens of appreciation for work well done.

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