by 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”. “Positive emotions in the workplace help employees obtain favorable outcomes including achievement, job enrichment and higher quality social context”. “Negative emotions, such as fear, anger, stress, hostility, sadness, and guilt, however increase the predictability of workplace deviance,”, 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.”. 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“. 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.”
“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, especially via the Emonet website and Listserv, founded by Neal M. Ashkanasy in 1997.
Three different types of feelings:
- Discrete, short-lived emotions, such as joy, anger, fear and disgust.
- Moods, which are longer-lasting feelings and not necessarily tied to a particular cause. A person is in a cheerful mood, for instance, or feeling down.
- Dispositional, or personality, traits, which define a person’s overall approach to life. “She’s always so cheerful,” or “He’s always looking at the negative.”
Positive
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.” “Strong positive emotions of emotionally intelligent people optimism, positive mood, self-efficacy, and emotional resilience to persevere under adverse circumstances. “. “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. “Those who express positive emotions in the workplace are better equipped to influence their co-workers favorably. “They are also more likable, and a halo effect may occur when warm or satisfied employees are rated favorably on other desirable attributes.” 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.” 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.” 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”. 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.
Negative
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”. “Cynicism is a negative effective reaction to the organization. Cynics feel contempt, distress, shame, and even disgust when they reflect upon their organizations”. Negative emotions are caused by “a range of workplace issues, including aggression, verbal abuse, sexual harassment, computer flaming, blogging, assertiveness training, grapevines, and nonverbal behavior”. “Stress is the problem of each person feeling it, can be caused by “poor leadership, lack of guidance, lack of support and backup. It can cause the performance of the employees to decrease causing the performance of the organization to decrease. 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”. 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”. 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
Psychological and Emotional: “Individuals experiencing job insecurity have an increased risk for anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and somatic complaints”. 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 morale, turnover rate, commitment to the organization”. 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.
