{"id":71,"date":"2014-08-16T20:23:51","date_gmt":"2014-08-16T20:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/orgbehavior1xmaster\/?post_type=chapter&p=71"},"modified":"2014-08-18T04:48:44","modified_gmt":"2014-08-18T04:48:44","slug":"7-5-emotions-at-work","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-orgbehavior\/chapter\/7-5-emotions-at-work\/","title":{"raw":"7.5 Emotions at Work","rendered":"7.5 Emotions at Work"},"content":{"raw":"Learning Objectives<\/strong>\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
    \r\n\t
  1. Understand Affective Events Theory.<\/li>\r\n\t
  2. Understand the influence of emotions on attitudes and behaviors at work.<\/li>\r\n\t
  3. Learn what emotional labor is and how it affects individuals.<\/li>\r\n\t
  4. Learn what emotional intelligence is.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n

    Emotions Affect Attitudes and Behaviors at Work<\/h2>\r\nEmotions shape an individual\u2019s belief about the value of a job, a company, or a team. Emotions also affect behaviors at work. Research shows that individuals within your own inner circle are better able to recognize and understand your emotions.<\/span>\r\n\r\nSo, what is the connection between emotions, attitudes, and behaviors at work? This connection may be explained using a theory named Affective Events Theory (AET)<\/span><\/span>. Researchers Howard Weiss and Russell Cropanzano studied the effect of six major kinds of emotions in the workplace: anger, fear, joy, love, sadness, and surprise.<\/span> Their theory argues that specific events on the job cause different kinds of people to feel different emotions. These emotions, in turn, inspire actions that can benefit or impede others at work.<\/span>\r\n
    \r\n\r\nFigure 7.11<\/span>\r\n\r\n\"\"<\/a>\r\n\r\nAccording to Affective Events Theory, six emotions are affected by events at work.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nFor example, imagine that a coworker unexpectedly delivers your morning coffee to your desk. As a result of this pleasant, if unexpected experience, you may feel happy and surprised. If that coworker is your boss, you might feel proud as well. Studies have found that the positive feelings resulting from work experience may inspire you to do something you hadn\u2019t planned to do before. For instance, you might volunteer to help a colleague on a project you weren\u2019t planning to work on before. Your action would be an affect-driven behavior<\/span><\/span>. Alternatively, if you were unfairly reprimanded by your manager, the negative emotions you experience may cause you to withdraw from work or to act mean toward a coworker. Over time, these tiny moments of emotion on the job can influence a person\u2019s job satisfaction. Although company perks and promotions can contribute to a person\u2019s happiness at work, satisfaction is not simply a result of this kind of \u201coutside-in\u201d reward system. Job satisfaction in the AET model comes from the inside-in\u2014from the combination of an individual\u2019s personality, small emotional experiences at work over time, beliefs, and affect-driven behaviors.\r\n\r\nJobs that are high in negative emotion can lead to frustration and burnout<\/span><\/span>\u2014an ongoing negative emotional state resulting from dissatisfaction.Depression, anxiety, anger, physical illness, increased drug and alcohol use, and insomnia can result from frustration and burnout, with frustration being somewhat more active and burnout more passive. The effects of both conditions can impact coworkers, customers, and clients as anger boils over and is expressed in one\u2019s interactions with others.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
    \r\n

    Emotional Labor<\/h2>\r\nNegative emotions are common among workers in service industries. Individuals who work in manufacturing rarely meet their customers face-to-face. If they\u2019re in a bad mood, the customer would not know. Service jobs are just the opposite. Part of a service employee\u2019s job is appearing a certain way in the eyes of the public. Individuals in service industries are professional helpers. As such, they are expected to be upbeat, friendly, and polite at all times, which can be exhausting to accomplish in the long run.\r\n\r\nHumans are emotional creatures by nature. In the course of a day, we experience many emotions. Think about your day thus far. Can you identify times when you were happy to deal with other people and times that you wanted to be left alone? Now imagine trying to hide all the emotions you\u2019ve felt today for 8 hours or more at work. That\u2019s what cashiers, school teachers, massage therapists, fire fighters, and librarians, among other professionals, are asked to do. As individuals, they may be feeling sad, angry, or fearful, but at work, their job title trumps their individual identity. The result is a persona<\/span><\/span>\u2014a professional role that involves acting out feelings that may not be real as part of their job.\r\n\r\nEmotional labor<\/span><\/span> refers to the regulation of feelings and expressions for organizational purposes.<\/span> Three major levels of emotional labor have been identified.Hochschild, A. (1983).\u00a0<\/span>\r\n
      \r\n\t
    1. Surface acting<\/span><\/span> requires an individual to exhibit physical signs, such as smiling, that reflect emotions customers want to experience. A children\u2019s hairdresser cutting the hair of a crying toddler may smile and act sympathetic without actually feeling so. In this case, the person is engaged in surface acting.<\/li>\r\n\t
    2. Deep acting<\/span><\/span> takes surface acting one step further. This time, instead of faking an emotion that a customer may want to see, an employee will actively try to experience the emotion they are displaying. This genuine attempt at empathy helps align the emotions one is experiencing with the emotions one is displaying. The children\u2019s hairdresser may empathize with the toddler by imagining how stressful it must be for one so little to be constrained in a chair and be in an unfamiliar environment, and the hairdresser may genuinely begin to feel sad for the child.<\/li>\r\n\t
    3. Genuine acting<\/span><\/span> occurs when individuals are asked to display emotions that are aligned with their own. If a job requires genuine acting, less emotional labor is required because the actions are consistent with true feelings.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n
      \r\n\r\nFigure 7.12<\/span>\r\n\r\n\"\"<\/a>\r\n\r\nWhen it comes to acting, the closer to the middle of the circle that your actions are, the less emotional labor your job demands. The further away, the more emotional labor the job demands.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nResearch shows that surface acting is related to higher levels of stress and fewer felt positive emotions, while deep acting may lead to less stress.<\/span> Emotional labor is particularly common in service industries that are also characterized by relatively low pay, which creates the added potentials for stress and feelings of being treated unfairly.<\/span> In a study of 285 hotel employees, researchers found that emotional labor was vital because so many employee-customer interactions involve individuals dealing with emotionally charged issues. Emotional laborers are required to display specific emotions as part of their jobs. Sometimes, these are emotions that the worker already feels. In that case, the strain of the emotional labor is minimal. For example, a funeral director is generally expected to display sympathy for a family\u2019s loss, and in the case of a family member suffering an untimely death, this emotion may be genuine. But for people whose jobs require them to be professionally polite and cheerful, such as flight attendants, or to be serious and authoritative, such as police officers, the work of wearing one\u2019s \u201cgame face\u201d can have effects that outlast the working day. To combat this, taking breaks can help surface actors to cope more effectively.<\/span> In addition, researchers have found that greater autonomy is related to less strain for service workers in the United States as well as France.<\/span>\r\n\r\nCognitive dissonance<\/span><\/span> is a term that refers to a mismatch among emotions, attitudes, beliefs, and behavior, for example, believing that you should always be polite to a customer regardless of personal feelings, yet having just been rude to one. You\u2019ll experience discomfort or stress unless you find a way to alleviate the dissonance. You can reduce the personal conflict by changing your behavior (trying harder to act polite), changing your belief (maybe it\u2019s OK to be a little less polite sometimes), or by adding a new fact that changes the importance of the previous facts (such as you will otherwise be laid off the next day). Although acting positive can make a person feel positive, emotional labor that involves a large degree of emotional or cognitive dissonance can be grueling, sometimes leading to negative health effects.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
      \r\n

      Emotional Intelligence<\/h2>\r\nOne way to manage the effects of emotional labor is by increasing your awareness of the gaps between real emotions and emotions that are required by your professional persona. \u201cWhat am I feeling? And what do others feel?\u201d These questions form the heart of emotional intelligence<\/span><\/span>. The term was coined by psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer and was popularized by psychologist Daniel Goleman in a book of the same name. Emotional intelligence looks at how people can understand each other more completely by developing an increased awareness of their own and others\u2019 emotions.<\/span>\r\n\r\nThere are four building blocks involved in developing a high level of emotional intelligence. Self-awareness<\/span><\/span> exists when you are able to accurately perceive, evaluate, and display appropriate emotions. Self-management<\/span><\/span> exists when you are able to direct your emotions in a positive way when needed. Social awareness<\/span><\/span> exists when you are able to understand how others feel. Relationship management<\/span><\/span> exists when you are able to help others manage their own emotions and truly establish supportive relationships with others.<\/span>\r\n
      \r\n\r\nFigure 7.13<\/span>\r\n\r\n\"\"<\/a>\r\n\r\nThe four steps of emotional intelligence build upon one another.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nIn the workplace, emotional intelligence can be used to form harmonious teams by taking advantage of the talents of every member. To accomplish this, colleagues well versed in emotional intelligence can look for opportunities to motivate themselves and inspire others to work together. Chief among the emotions that helped create a successful team, Goleman learned, was empathy\u2014the ability to put oneself in another\u2019s shoes, whether that individual has achieved a major triumph or fallen short of personal goals.<\/span> Those high in emotional intelligence have been found to have higher self-efficacy in coping with adversity, perceive situations as challenges rather than threats, and have higher life satisfaction, which can all help lower stress levels.<\/span>\r\n
      \r\n

      Key Takeaway<\/h3>\r\nEmotions affect attitudes and behaviors at work. Affective Events Theory can help explain these relationships. Emotional labor is higher when one is asked to act in a way that is inconsistent with personal feelings. Surface acting requires a high level of emotional labor. Emotional intelligence refers to understanding how others are reacting to our emotions.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
      \r\n

      Exercises<\/h3>\r\n
        \r\n\t
      1. What is the worst job you have ever had (or class project if you haven\u2019t worked)? Did the job require emotional labor? If so, how did you deal with it?<\/li>\r\n\t
      2. Research shows that acting \u201chappy\u201d when you are not can be exhausting. Why do you think that is? Have you ever felt that way? What can you do to lessen these feelings?<\/li>\r\n\t
      3. How important do you think emotional intelligence is at work? Why?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n ","rendered":"

        Learning Objectives<\/strong><\/p>\n

        \n
        \n
          \n
        1. Understand Affective Events Theory.<\/li>\n
        2. Understand the influence of emotions on attitudes and behaviors at work.<\/li>\n
        3. Learn what emotional labor is and how it affects individuals.<\/li>\n
        4. Learn what emotional intelligence is.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n
          \n

          Emotions Affect Attitudes and Behaviors at Work<\/h2>\n

          Emotions shape an individual\u2019s belief about the value of a job, a company, or a team. Emotions also affect behaviors at work. Research shows that individuals within your own inner circle are better able to recognize and understand your emotions.<\/span><\/p>\n

          So, what is the connection between emotions, attitudes, and behaviors at work? This connection may be explained using a theory named Affective Events Theory (AET)<\/span><\/span>. Researchers Howard Weiss and Russell Cropanzano studied the effect of six major kinds of emotions in the workplace: anger, fear, joy, love, sadness, and surprise.<\/span> Their theory argues that specific events on the job cause different kinds of people to feel different emotions. These emotions, in turn, inspire actions that can benefit or impede others at work.<\/span><\/p>\n

          \n

          Figure 7.11<\/span><\/p>\n

          \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          According to Affective Events Theory, six emotions are affected by events at work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

          For example, imagine that a coworker unexpectedly delivers your morning coffee to your desk. As a result of this pleasant, if unexpected experience, you may feel happy and surprised. If that coworker is your boss, you might feel proud as well. Studies have found that the positive feelings resulting from work experience may inspire you to do something you hadn\u2019t planned to do before. For instance, you might volunteer to help a colleague on a project you weren\u2019t planning to work on before. Your action would be an affect-driven behavior<\/span><\/span>. Alternatively, if you were unfairly reprimanded by your manager, the negative emotions you experience may cause you to withdraw from work or to act mean toward a coworker. Over time, these tiny moments of emotion on the job can influence a person\u2019s job satisfaction. Although company perks and promotions can contribute to a person\u2019s happiness at work, satisfaction is not simply a result of this kind of \u201coutside-in\u201d reward system. Job satisfaction in the AET model comes from the inside-in\u2014from the combination of an individual\u2019s personality, small emotional experiences at work over time, beliefs, and affect-driven behaviors.<\/p>\n

          Jobs that are high in negative emotion can lead to frustration and burnout<\/span><\/span>\u2014an ongoing negative emotional state resulting from dissatisfaction.Depression, anxiety, anger, physical illness, increased drug and alcohol use, and insomnia can result from frustration and burnout, with frustration being somewhat more active and burnout more passive. The effects of both conditions can impact coworkers, customers, and clients as anger boils over and is expressed in one\u2019s interactions with others.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

          \n

          Emotional Labor<\/h2>\n

          Negative emotions are common among workers in service industries. Individuals who work in manufacturing rarely meet their customers face-to-face. If they\u2019re in a bad mood, the customer would not know. Service jobs are just the opposite. Part of a service employee\u2019s job is appearing a certain way in the eyes of the public. Individuals in service industries are professional helpers. As such, they are expected to be upbeat, friendly, and polite at all times, which can be exhausting to accomplish in the long run.<\/p>\n

          Humans are emotional creatures by nature. In the course of a day, we experience many emotions. Think about your day thus far. Can you identify times when you were happy to deal with other people and times that you wanted to be left alone? Now imagine trying to hide all the emotions you\u2019ve felt today for 8 hours or more at work. That\u2019s what cashiers, school teachers, massage therapists, fire fighters, and librarians, among other professionals, are asked to do. As individuals, they may be feeling sad, angry, or fearful, but at work, their job title trumps their individual identity. The result is a persona<\/span><\/span>\u2014a professional role that involves acting out feelings that may not be real as part of their job.<\/p>\n

          Emotional labor<\/span><\/span> refers to the regulation of feelings and expressions for organizational purposes.<\/span> Three major levels of emotional labor have been identified.Hochschild, A. (1983).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

            \n
          1. Surface acting<\/span><\/span> requires an individual to exhibit physical signs, such as smiling, that reflect emotions customers want to experience. A children\u2019s hairdresser cutting the hair of a crying toddler may smile and act sympathetic without actually feeling so. In this case, the person is engaged in surface acting.<\/li>\n
          2. Deep acting<\/span><\/span> takes surface acting one step further. This time, instead of faking an emotion that a customer may want to see, an employee will actively try to experience the emotion they are displaying. This genuine attempt at empathy helps align the emotions one is experiencing with the emotions one is displaying. The children\u2019s hairdresser may empathize with the toddler by imagining how stressful it must be for one so little to be constrained in a chair and be in an unfamiliar environment, and the hairdresser may genuinely begin to feel sad for the child.<\/li>\n
          3. Genuine acting<\/span><\/span> occurs when individuals are asked to display emotions that are aligned with their own. If a job requires genuine acting, less emotional labor is required because the actions are consistent with true feelings.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
            \n

            Figure 7.12<\/span><\/p>\n

            \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

            When it comes to acting, the closer to the middle of the circle that your actions are, the less emotional labor your job demands. The further away, the more emotional labor the job demands.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

            Research shows that surface acting is related to higher levels of stress and fewer felt positive emotions, while deep acting may lead to less stress.<\/span> Emotional labor is particularly common in service industries that are also characterized by relatively low pay, which creates the added potentials for stress and feelings of being treated unfairly.<\/span> In a study of 285 hotel employees, researchers found that emotional labor was vital because so many employee-customer interactions involve individuals dealing with emotionally charged issues. Emotional laborers are required to display specific emotions as part of their jobs. Sometimes, these are emotions that the worker already feels. In that case, the strain of the emotional labor is minimal. For example, a funeral director is generally expected to display sympathy for a family\u2019s loss, and in the case of a family member suffering an untimely death, this emotion may be genuine. But for people whose jobs require them to be professionally polite and cheerful, such as flight attendants, or to be serious and authoritative, such as police officers, the work of wearing one\u2019s \u201cgame face\u201d can have effects that outlast the working day. To combat this, taking breaks can help surface actors to cope more effectively.<\/span> In addition, researchers have found that greater autonomy is related to less strain for service workers in the United States as well as France.<\/span><\/p>\n

            Cognitive dissonance<\/span><\/span> is a term that refers to a mismatch among emotions, attitudes, beliefs, and behavior, for example, believing that you should always be polite to a customer regardless of personal feelings, yet having just been rude to one. You\u2019ll experience discomfort or stress unless you find a way to alleviate the dissonance. You can reduce the personal conflict by changing your behavior (trying harder to act polite), changing your belief (maybe it\u2019s OK to be a little less polite sometimes), or by adding a new fact that changes the importance of the previous facts (such as you will otherwise be laid off the next day). Although acting positive can make a person feel positive, emotional labor that involves a large degree of emotional or cognitive dissonance can be grueling, sometimes leading to negative health effects.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

            \n

            Emotional Intelligence<\/h2>\n

            One way to manage the effects of emotional labor is by increasing your awareness of the gaps between real emotions and emotions that are required by your professional persona. \u201cWhat am I feeling? And what do others feel?\u201d These questions form the heart of emotional intelligence<\/span><\/span>. The term was coined by psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer and was popularized by psychologist Daniel Goleman in a book of the same name. Emotional intelligence looks at how people can understand each other more completely by developing an increased awareness of their own and others\u2019 emotions.<\/span><\/p>\n

            There are four building blocks involved in developing a high level of emotional intelligence. Self-awareness<\/span><\/span> exists when you are able to accurately perceive, evaluate, and display appropriate emotions. Self-management<\/span><\/span> exists when you are able to direct your emotions in a positive way when needed. Social awareness<\/span><\/span> exists when you are able to understand how others feel. Relationship management<\/span><\/span> exists when you are able to help others manage their own emotions and truly establish supportive relationships with others.<\/span><\/p>\n

            \n

            Figure 7.13<\/span><\/p>\n

            \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

            The four steps of emotional intelligence build upon one another.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

            In the workplace, emotional intelligence can be used to form harmonious teams by taking advantage of the talents of every member. To accomplish this, colleagues well versed in emotional intelligence can look for opportunities to motivate themselves and inspire others to work together. Chief among the emotions that helped create a successful team, Goleman learned, was empathy\u2014the ability to put oneself in another\u2019s shoes, whether that individual has achieved a major triumph or fallen short of personal goals.<\/span> Those high in emotional intelligence have been found to have higher self-efficacy in coping with adversity, perceive situations as challenges rather than threats, and have higher life satisfaction, which can all help lower stress levels.<\/span><\/p>\n

            \n

            Key Takeaway<\/h3>\n

            Emotions affect attitudes and behaviors at work. Affective Events Theory can help explain these relationships. Emotional labor is higher when one is asked to act in a way that is inconsistent with personal feelings. Surface acting requires a high level of emotional labor. Emotional intelligence refers to understanding how others are reacting to our emotions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

            \n

            Exercises<\/h3>\n
              \n
            1. What is the worst job you have ever had (or class project if you haven\u2019t worked)? Did the job require emotional labor? If so, how did you deal with it?<\/li>\n
            2. Research shows that acting \u201chappy\u201d when you are not can be exhausting. Why do you think that is? Have you ever felt that way? What can you do to lessen these feelings?<\/li>\n
            3. How important do you think emotional intelligence is at work? Why?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

               <\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

              \n\t\t\t

              Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
              \n\t\t\t\t\t\t
              \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
              CC licensed content, Original<\/div>