CITATION: Härtel, C. E. J. (2008).

How to build a healthy emotional culture and avoid a

toxic culture. In C. L. Cooper & N. M. Ashkanasy (Eds.), Research Companion to Emotion in
Organization (pp.1260-1291). Cheltenham, UK: Edwin Elgar Publishing

How to Build a Healthy Emotional Culture and Avoid a

Toxic Culture

Charmine E. J. Härtel

Introduction
The recognition of organisational cultures as shadow systems that nurture and buttress
all other organisational systems has urged the need for a more humanistic approach to
management. As organisations ultimately consist of individuals, it is futile to
contemplate management of organisations without giving due consideration to their
human aspects such as emotions, moods, relationships and well-being. Nevertheless,
it remains the underlying purpose of managing the human side of organisations to
engender emotional commitment which eventuates in financial gain (Barley & Kunda,
1992). The increasing recognition of problems associated with negative work
environments and toxic emotions is leading organisations to rethink and refocus their
organisational culture in order to obtain the benefits associated with a highly engaged
workforce and a positive work environment.

The proliferation of literature on emotions and emotional processes at work attests to

the surge of interest on individuals’ experiences, moods, and expression of emotions
at work (Ashkanasy, Härtel & Zerbe, 2000; Fredrickson, 2001; Herkenhoff, 2004).
Similarly, within the area of social psychology, there is a growing body of literature
that discusses how culture influences the way in which individuals experience,
express and respond to emotions at work (Tiedens, 2000; Triandis, 1994). However,
such discussions are largely limited to analysing national cultures, and have thus
overlooked the impact that organisational culture has on emotions at work. To this
end, this chapter aims to evaluate organisational culture in relation to emotions
experienced at work, and further elaborates on how a healthy emotional culture can be
built in an organisation by ensuring the function of a positive emotional learning
cycle.
 The link between emotions and culture

Application of Affective Events Theory (AET)

Weiss and Cropanzano’s (1996) Affective Events Theory postulates that specific
work events produced by environmental features can provoke either positive or
negative affective experiences in a person. These experiences can subsequently
interrupt an individual’s current behaviour and lead to specific action tendencies and
attitudinal changes. The way in which organisational culture adds into this equation
can be explained by the intrinsic influence culture has on the work context through
shaping artefacts, espoused values and underlying assumptions (Schein, 1992). Thus,
organisational culture has a pivotal role in determining what affective events takes
place in an organisation, and how they will be interpreted and responded to by
organisational members.

In establishing a connection between affective events experienced by employees and

organisational culture, it is important to understand the concept of an affective
experience. Affective experiences, as described in AET, are complex phenomena that
encapsulate both moods and emotions of individuals. Therefore, when establishing the
link between affect and organisational culture, a distinction should be made between
moods as affective states, and emotions as affective states. Moods and emotions can
be conceptually differentiated. Moods are diffuse, low intensity, long lasting states
without any particular object or focus, even without a known antecedent. On the other
hand, emotions are episodic and event/object specific, usually with a definite cause
and a cognitive content that leads to specific behavioural and attitudinal implications
(Frijda, 1993; Scherer, 2000; Weiss, 2000). For this discussion, the study of emotions
is more relevant because: (1) the cognitive component of emotions enables the study
of the impact that different meaning structures have on people, (2) the action
tendencies attached to emotions allow the study of behavioural and attitudinal
changes, (3) the neuropsychological effects of emotions lead to the subsequent
analysis of employees’ physical and psychological well-being, and (4) the
communicative function of emotions permits the evaluation of how cultural norms
and display rules regulate emotional expression or suppression in organisations
(Stratton, 2005). In addition to the AET perspective, the relationship between emotion
and culture has been evaluated from divergent standpoints, some of which are
presented next.

Culture as an Emotional Need

According to Trice and Beyer (1993), cultures are infused with emotion and meaning

for individuals as they provide them with psychological safety when coping with the

uncertainties and anxieties of life. These authors argue that culture is ‘emotionally

charged’ as people relish established cultural beliefs and practices, and often react

emotionally when certain cultural norms are infringed. In a similar vein, Halloran

(forthcoming) argues that culture fulfils a person’s emotional need for belonging and

defines one’s purpose for existing. Thus, the commitment that individuals show in

their allegiances to cultural ideologies is more a result of emotional needs than a result

of rational decision-making (Beyer & Niño, 2001).

Culture as a Regulatory Tool of Emotions

Anthropologists have long suggested that cultures have conventions and norms that
influence the management of emotions and create commonality and predictability
among individuals in their interpretation and response to emotional stimuli (Ekman,
1980; Lutz, 1988; Herkenhoff, 2004). For example, Triandis argued that culture has
important implications for the type of emotions most likely to be experienced and
expressed by individuals. To illustrate this, Triandis (1994) hypothesised that
collectivists who resist isolated attention will experience more positive emotions than
individualists when they express modesty in acknowledging personal achievement. In
contrast, individualists who like to be singled out from the crowd when
acknowledging their achievements will feel more positive emotions than collectivists.
Such a view is also postulated by Parkinson (1995) who argues that “an individual
emotion is not something basic and essential that could sensibly exist apart from its
interpersonal manifestations or the cultural categories that allow it to be interpreted”
(p.12). For this reason, emotions should be studied in relation to the culture and
context in which emotion eliciting events take place.

Adopting an anthropological perspective on emotions, Cherniss and Goleman (2001)

explained that culture influences the emotional process by first influencing how an
emotion eliciting event is interpreted and then by influencing the response. For
example, a simple prank played on a co-worker can be considered as highly offensive,
embarrassing and inappropriate in a stringent work culture; however, the same prank
played in a more collegial work culture may only result in light-hearted humour. For
instance, Middleton (1989) states that, “each culture produces a lexicon of emotions
words that orders the emotional experiences of individuals” (p.192). Therefore, an
individual’s interpretation of an affective event, and the subsequent strength of the
emotions experienced, are largely dependent on how that particular event was
assessed previously in the same cultural context.

In line with this argument, the first point at which culture influences an individual’s
emotional process is at the interpretation stage. The interpretation of an affective
event based on cultural norms leads to the fact that there is a degree of emotional
learning on the part of an individual in a given cultural context. To explain this
further, Ortony, Colre and Collins, (1988) state that emotions can be reactive, routine
or reflective. Reactive emotions are those that are hard-wired which require minimal
or no amount of cognitive interpretation. These are universally interpreted emotions
such as fear when a person is confronted with a tiger. Emotions that are routine and
reflexive on the other hand are those that individuals learn to interpret in a given
cultural context. Routine emotions have well institutionalised interpretations and
require little cognitive appraisal. Reflective emotions require self reflection, learning
and higher order cognitive appraisals.

As interpretations of routine and reflexive emotions are both influenced by culture, it

is evident that culture has an impact on whether such interpretations lead to functional
or dysfunctional emotional states. For example, in an unhealthy or toxic work culture,
a simple gesture of friendliness can be interpreted with scepticism and doubt due to a
lack of trust. Therefore, in a toxic culture where doubt and scepticism are the
prevalent cultural norms, the most obvious outcomes would be toxic emotions such as
fear and anxiety. Moreover, even the individuals who newly join such work cultures
will complete an emotional learning cycle which would acculturate them into
knowing how to interpret events that happen in the organisation according to
prevalent cultural norms. In such a scenario, the end state would be a self-reinforcing
negative emotional learning cycle that could lead individuals, groups and
organisations to dysfunctions.
A second important point at which organisational culture impacts the emotional
process of individuals is the response stage. Organisational cultures have implicit
emotional display rules that imply what are socially desirable emotions in a given
context (Hochschild, 1983; Morris & Feldman, 1996). This leads to the concept of
emotional labour, which refers to the way in which individuals change or manage
emotions to make them appropriate or consistent with a situation, a role, or an
expected organisational behaviour such as those dictated by organisational culture
(Mumby & Putnam, 1992). Emotional labour is intrinsically linked to the concept of
display. Display rules are the social norms that dictate which emotions can be
expressed when, by whom and to whom (Triandis, 1994). One of the main reasons
individuals engage in emotional labour is because people who deviate from culturally
accepted display rules may have to face negative social sanctions (Hutson-Comeaux
& Kelly, 2002). Also, according to Tiedens (2000), such display rules can become
embedded in cultures, so that the culture itself will reflect how an event is supposed to
be appraised over time. This is evident in Mumby and Putnam’s (1992) discussion on
emotional labour, where the authors state; “regarding the cultural management of
emotions, feelings are not only stripped away from the personal and private, they are
also ‘objectified’ as part of an organisational system that members treat as inevitable
and immutable” (p.473). The regulatory power organisational culture has on
emotional experiences and expressions effectively acts as an implicit control
mechanism over employees.

Cultures that advocate emotional labour to the extent that it disengages a person from
his or her own self identity could be psychologically demeaning. Emotional
expression is also found to be an important aspect of an individual’s physical and
mental health (House, Landis, & Umberson, 1988; King & Emmons, 1990). For
instance, research indicates that dissonance between a person’s will to express
emotions and cultural norms against it could lead to possible physical symptoms and
even illnesses such as arthritis, asthma, breast cancer and coronary heart disease (King
& Emmons, 1991; Pennebaker, 1995). Despite this, it is essential that individuals
exert a reasonable degree of emotional regulation to effectively collaborate in groups
and work cohesively. Côtế, Miners and Moon (2006), termed this wise emotional
regulation. Wise emotional regulation is a process which has an emotional regulation
goal, a strategy, an implementation plan, and most importantly, it is adaptable to a
given cultural context. A healthy emotional culture has a degree of emotional
regulation that is similar to Côtế et al.’s notion of wise emotional regulation. It is
sufficient for individuals to function effectively in collaboration with others, yet does
not deprive the individual of his or her authentic self in the workplace. Most
importantly, it does not affect a person’s physical, psychological or emotional
wellbeing adversely.

Emotional Culture as a subset of Organisational Culture

Emotional culture represents the emotional ambience in an organisation and can be
viewed as a subset of the overarching organisational culture. Depending on the
affective events that take place in an organisation, and how those events are
interpreted and reacted to, the emotional culture of an organisation can transpire to be
healthy or toxic for its members.

In describing a healthy emotional culture, certain analogies can be made between

organisations and families as social institutions where people interact and form
relationships on a daily basis. To this end, the literature on family contributes to the
understanding of a ‘healthy emotional culture’ in organisations. For instance, Hill,
Fonagy, Safier, and Sargent’s (2003) description of a functional family that is
supportive of individual growth has direct relevance to the notion of a ‘healthy
emotional culture’. Hill et al. argue that, in a family, effective interpretation and
responses to emotions should be underpinned by a confidence that there is a shared
interpretative frame held in common by family members. That is to say, humour is
interpreted as humour not criticism, and sadness is interpreted as sadness and not
anger. When the members feel confident in relating to the shared interpretative frame,
they can also be confident that differences in the way they think and feel are real (Hill
et al., 2003).

“…individuality grows within an environment of family connections and is dependent

upon this experience of family membership. Family interactions that accurately
appreciate an individual’s developmental status and personal experiences provide the
foundation for a coherent sense of self and reinforce the individual’s personal
contribution to family life. When communication can be trusted, individuals will have
a confident sense of self within family.” (Hill et al, 2003, p.216).
In an organisation, the ‘shared interpretive framework’ is provided by the
organisational culture as was explained before. This becomes the basis for
interpretation of affective events in an organisation and subsequent emotional
responses. As in the context of a family, it is necessary that individuals are willing to
place their confidence and trust in the shared interpretive framework of an
organisation. This provides individuals with psychological safety enabling them to
express their emotions without the fear of being vulnerable to others, misinterpreted
or misrepresented to their own disadvantage.

A second implication that can be drawn from a healthy family climate is that it allows
for a person’s self-identity and growth. This means the collectiveness in a healthy
family does not suffocate its members with in-group conformity, nor does the
individualism create isolation and a lack of belongingness. Extreme collectivism and
extreme individualism in a family culture are equally bad for a person’s growth and
well-being. Thus, the crux of a healthy family lies in the fact that it is in a balanced
state of individualism and collectivism. To that end, individual members of a family
are accepted as unique individuals who have their own identities and growth
potentials that belong to one unified social entity. Similarly, it is argued that both
cultural suffocation and isolation engender toxic emotions in very different ways, and
thereby represent unhealthy states of an organisation’s culture. A healthy emotional
culture on the other hand occurs in between these two states where the intensity of the
organisation’s culture is felt by the individual at moderate levels (See Figure 1).

In further explaining this concept, the two extreme stages where toxic emotions are
experienced by individuals will be looked at first.

Extremely Collectivist Cultures

Cultures that advocate extreme collectivism can create a work climate that produces
toxic emotions for a number of reasons. In highly collective cultures, individuality
gets suppressed by the need to fit into a single template of a ‘typical’ employee from a
certain company, such that employees repress their own personality styles at work.
Repression of true personality traits could lead to cognitive and emotional dissonance
and even the loss of self identity at work (Simpson & Stroh, 2004). Highly collectivist
cultures are characterised by co-dependence which can limit a person’s individual
growth initiative and self-leadership. To this end, when culture super-imposes itself
 Extreme Individualism
Unhealthy Emotional Culture
(Toxic Emotions Present)
Emotion Evoking Cultural Attributes
High independence-
Low group identity
Neglect
Lack of/poor communication
Poor LMX and TMX
Isolation
Lack of belongingness
No support network
Lack of shared interpretive framework
Lack of psychological safety
Competitive
Uncooperative
Destructive conflict
Self-interest driven action
Low subjective well-being
Low morale
Low OCB
Dysfunctional coping strategies
Energy draining
Emotional Experience Over Time
Infrequent experience of
positive emotions and frequent
experience and/or unresolved
negative emotions (such as lonely,
angry, afraid, dejected, distrustful,
depressed, hopeless, discontented,
envious, frustrated, irritated,
miserable, nervous, jealousy,
bitterness, contempt)
Healthy for individual
Figure 1: Conceptualisation of a Healthy Emotional Culture
Extreme Collectivism
Healthy Emotional Culture Unhealthy Emotional Culture
(Toxic Emotions Absent) (Toxic Emotions Present)
Emotion Evoking Cultural Attributes Emotion Evoking Cultural Attributes
High trust Co-dependence
Inter-dependence High group identity, low personal
Justice identity
Good quality LMX and TMX Suffocation
Psychological safety Coerced self-regulation
Wise emotional regulation Group think
EMOTIONS
Emotional expression without fear Lack of whistle-blowers
Self-identity and growth allowed In-group conformity pressure
Balanced state of individualism and Repression of true self
collectivism Cognitive Dissonance
Confidence in shared interpretive Emotional dissonance
framework Lack of personal growth
No out-groups Low self-efficacy
High subjective well-being Low subjective well-being
Personal resilience Lack of self-leadership
High self-efficacy Low morale
Low destructive conflict Suppression of dissent
High cooperation Diversity closed
High socio-emotional support Energy draining
High compassion Dysfunctional coping strategies
Positive appraisal
Problem-focussed coping
OCB
Diversity open
Participative safety
High engagement
Energy giving
High learning
Functional coping strategies
Emotional Experience Over Time Emotional Experience Over Time
Frequent experience of positive Infrequent experience of
emotions (such as optimistic, trust, positive emotions and
hopeful, enthusiastic, caring, content, frequent experience and/or
happy, proud, self-fulfilled, satisfaction) unresolved negative emotions
and constructive management of (such as anxious, frustrated,
negative emotions resentful, depressed, humiliated,
bitterness, remorse, afraid, hurt,
unfulfilled, discontent)
Healthy for groups Healthy for
Organisation
on people to become one collective entity, it can retard the potential of the individual
and undermine individual achievement. In such a context, individuals are bound to
experience toxic emotions. Firstly, individuals feel anxious due to not being able to
reveal their authentic self at work. Secondly, they feel frustrated due to the limited
growth potential. And thirdly, they feel worthless due to a lack of personal
recognition.

Cultures that exert extreme collectivism also encourage individuals to exercise

emotional labour. Deci and Ryan (1985) differentiate between two types of self-
regulation: (1) autonomous and (2) controlled. Autonomous self-regulation is where
behaviour is regulated by a person’s own choice and has an internal locus of causality.
Controlled self-regulation on the other hand is pressured or coerced by external forces
(such as organisational culture) and has an external locus of causality. Although
autonomous self-regulation has been associated with well-being and other positive
outcomes such as education (Grolnick, Ryan, & Deci, 1991) and relationships (Blais,
Sabourin, Boucher, & Vallerand, 1990), coerced self-regulation has been linked to a
number of negative repercussions. For example, in a study conducted by Simpson and
Stroh (2004), it was found that women who were compelled to adapt feminine display
rules that required them to suppress negative emotions and stimulate positive emotion
at work, suffered from emotional dissonance and personal inauthenticity at work.

In an extremely collectivist work setting, emotional-regulation is most often coerced

by the culture. Hence, individuals tend to be reluctant to express emotions, especially
negative emotions that could damage the team spirit, or attract too much attention to
oneself as being ‘difficult’ to work with. Although a degree of emotional regulation is
prerequisite to function effectively in groups, emotional labour at a higher level could
have significant adverse effects on the individual. For example, studies have related
repression of negative emotions to heart disease and suppressed immune functioning
(Goldstein, Edleberg, Meier & Davis, 1988; Schwartz, 1990). At a macro
organisational level, extreme levels of collectivism could discourage whistle-blowers
and individuals who stand up to organisational injustice and prejudice. Many studies
have demonstrated that the need to belong compels people to obey the group they
want to be part of and to hide their true feelings. The negative emotions people feel
when they are being excluded can be used to pull them back into the culturally
accepted framework (Härtel & Panipucci, 2007). In a sense, extremely collectivistic
organisational cultures replace an individual’s own voice and expression.

Extremely Individualistic Cultures

In contrast to extremely collectivist cultures, extremely individualistic cultures display
a very different set of cultural attributes that could provoke toxic emotions at work.
Overly individualistic cultures are characterised with excessive independence which
makes it hard for employees to identify themselves with their work group or
organisation. As such, it is hard to establish a collective identity or belongingness in
the work place. This in turn could lead to people feeling neglected and isolated at
work.

Overly individualistic work cultures do not provide ideal conditions for relationships
to form and flourish. This is especially due to the fact that there is no ‘shared
interpretive framework’ that people can cohesively place their confidence and trust in
when communicating with others. In highly individualistic cultures, employees may
not find the psychological safety and the support network needed to express their
emotions. Therefore, in contrast to extremely collectivistic cultures, the toxic
emotions that are felt in individualistic cultures are feelings of isolation, loneliness,
vulnerability, fear, dejection and distrust. For example, Wright (2005) hypothesised a
negative emotional climate as being competitive and uncooperative, where individuals
pursue their own interest. In subsequent analysis, Wright found that these attributes
have an adverse effect on the experience of loneliness in workers. The findings
support the present argument that highly individualistic cultures can engender toxic
emotions as well. It was also found in Wright’s study that highly individualistic work
cultures are characterised by a climate of fear, and a lack of social and work support.

Work cultures that display extreme individualism could also deprive employees of
both resources and opportunities to act (Barbalet, 1996). Relationships people form at
work can be career defining (Gersick, Bartunek & Dutton, 2000); even more, such
relationships provide individuals with a sense of collective coping when faced with
work place stress (Lansisalmi, Peiro, & Kivimaki, 2000). Highly individualistic work
places do not provide a good social basis for relationship development and hence
deprive workers from developing collegial relationships with their co-workers. Under
such conditions, the quality of team-member exchange (TMX) and leader member
exchange (LMX) can deteriorate due to a lack of communication and participation.
This can make work an unpleasant and impersonal task. In the long term,
consequences of a psychologically distressing workplace could extend to job burnout,
relationship distancing and even depression.

How to Build a Healthy Emotional Culture

A healthy emotional culture is characterised by inter-dependence as opposed to co-
dependence or independence. Underpinned by the ideology advocated by positive
organisational scholarship, a healthy emotional culture could well be conceptualised
as a positive emotional culture. However, this is not to say that in a healthy emotional
culture, individuals do not experience negative emotions. On the contrary, negative
emotions are as much valid as positive emotions. Especially as they have a stronger
and longer lasting effect than positive emotions (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Finkenauer,
& Vohs, 2001). For instance, the anger a coach expresses to a poorly performing
sports team can have drastically positive effects on the end result. As such, both
positive as well as negative emotions can be channelled in functional as well as
dysfunctional avenues in an organisation. The difference between a healthy emotional
culture and an unhealthy emotional culture therefore lies more in the functionality of
the emotional learning cycle in the two cultures than the types of emotions that are
experienced. This concept is developed next.

Emotional Learning Cycle

Individuals go through an emotional learning cycle from the first day they join a new
organisation. In most cases, the initial emotional features of a culture are set by the
founders who also establish the initial cultural norms, and the vision and mission of a
company (See Figure 2). When employees are confronted with affective events in the
process of everyday work, they refer to the established emotional features of a culture
for interpretation and guidance. The subsequent coping strategies that people employ
can be functional or dysfunctional, depending on the established cultural norms,
individual motivations and individual emotional intelligence (Paterson & Härtel,
2002). However, the end results of both functional and dysfunctional coping strategies
feeds into the overall organisational culture, reshaping its initial emotional features. A
healthy emotional learning cycle occurs when individuals utilise functional coping
strategies that feed into the overall emotional culture of an organisation. This positive
feedback loop means that the affective events that take place in an organisation will
tend to become more and more positive as the cycle progress. In a toxic emotional
culture, the emotional learning cycle operates in the opposite direction. This could
ultimately result in a downward spiral with more negative emotion eliciting events
taking place in an organisation. An excellent example of such a negative emotional
learning cycle can be seen in the following excerpt that describes workplace bullying
in the nursing profession.

“…traditional approaches to nurse education have helped entrench bullying

behaviours, so that each new generation of nurses becomes socialised to regard it is
as normal. Bullying and its effects on self-esteem are perpetuated by practices within
nursing…this situation will only be changed if nurses and educators transform their
practice and the context in which bullying occurs. Otherwise, each new generation of
nurses will continue to be socialised into negative practices which undermine both
their own feelings of self-worth and standards of nursing care” (Sweet, 2005).

In the case of workplace bullying, the coping strategies that the victim of the bully
adopts can be functional such that it discourages further bullying, or dysfunctional
such that it encourages further bullying. It is obvious that in the above example
workplace bullying was encouraged by the negative coping strategies adopted and
thus became a cultural norm due to the negative emotional learning that was
operating.

According to Paterson and Härtel’s (2002) cognitive model of employee responses to

downsizing, the choice between functional and dysfunctional coping strategies is
largely a function of a person’s emotional intelligence and available systematic
support. The model identifies establishing socio-emotional support, and the use of
employee counselling services as functional coping strategies, whilst withdrawal and
absenteeism are dysfunctional coping strategies. Moreover, Folkman and Moskowitz,
(2000) identified three kinds of coping strategies that can result in positive affect
during times of stress: positive appraisal, problem-focused coping, and the infusion of
ordinary events with positive meaning.
Founder
Gap

Emotional Actual
Vision/ Meaning Features of moment to
culture moment
emotional
experiences
Norm Setting

Positive Feedback loop

Figure 2: Emotional Learning Cycle

Fundamentals of a healthy emotional culture

As much as a healthy emotional culture is a product of functional coping strategies,
individuals’ adoption of functional coping strategies in turn is influenced by a healthy
emotional culture.

A healthy emotional culture is based on fundamentals such as confidence, trust,

justice, psychological safety, and good LMX and TMX - all of which that have been
linked to positive emotions at work. For example, Barbalet (1996) stated that,
“confidence is the emotional basis for action and agency, (and) trust is the emotional
basis of cooperation” (p.77). This view is similar to Hill et al.’s notion of a ‘shared
interpretive framework’ that people should be confident to rely upon when
interpreting and responding to affective events in families. Trust and confidence are
two intrinsically linked fundamentals that facilitate psychological safety. The features
of psychological safety that inter-personal trust can engender are well encapsulated in
Mayer, Davis and Schoorman’s (1995) definition of trust - it is the “willingness of a
party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that
the other will perform a particular action important to the truster, irrespective of the
ability to monitor or control that other party” (p.712). To this end, an obvious result
of trusting your co-worker to express your emotions authentically is the knowledge
that you will not be reprimanded in the workplace nor retaliated against by your co-
workers for being emotionally expressive. Supporting this contention, studies have
also found that trust can enable effective communication and encourage participation
in people (Antonioni, 1994; Carson & Griffeth, 1990).

Similar to trust and confidence, another important aspect that ensures a healthy
emotional culture is organisational justice. Organisational justice has been defined by
Folger and Cropanzano (1998) as “the conditions of employment that lead individuals
to believe that they are treated fairly or unfairly” (p.xii). Research has found
organisational justice to be related to positive emotions, quality TMX and LMX
(Pirola-Merlo, Härtel, Mann & Hirst, 2002; Tse, Dasborough & Ashkanasy, 2005;
Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). When individuals perceive that they are being treated
unfairly by the organisation or its members they are bound to feel toxic emotions such
as anger, outrage and resentment (Skarlicki, & Folger, 1997). Therefore,
organisational justice remains a fundamental characteristic underlying a healthy
emotional culture.

Organisations can take a number of actions to build a healthy emotional culture and
avoid a toxic emotional workplace (refer back to Figure 1). First, at the organisational
level, they can monitor and review those features of the work environment which are
related to healthy and toxic emotional cultures. This would include measuring the
relationship quality between leaders and followers and between co-workers, employee
well-being, organisational justice, diversity openness, and workgroup emotional
climates. HR policies should be a driving force in creating a positive work
environment in the organisation. For example, HR policies are founded on principles
of organisational justice and include strategies for ensuring positive workplace
relationships, constructive conflict management, and diversity openness. Second, at
the management level, the organisational strategies and policies relating to nurturing a
healthy emotional culture are implemented by managers fully trained and supported in
the underpinning skills and practices. In particular, managers undertake performance
management in ways that develop, evaluate, motivate and discipline staff to support
high quality workplace relationships and behaviours guided by diversity openness and
procedural, distributive and interactional justice. Moreover, managers place an
emphasis on training as a means to cultivate and promote skills and awareness in
diversity openness, high quality relationships, organisational justice and
organisational policies relating to ensuring a healthy emotional culture. Third,
organisations need to monitor employee experiences and attitudes to identify areas
requiring additional attention and support. In particular, ongoing assessment of
employees’ perceptions of the workplace environment as positive, respectful,
inclusive and psychologically safe; leaders and co-workers as trustworthy, fair and
diversity open; and policies and decision-making as interactionally, procedurally and
distributively just.

A Multi–Level Analysis of the Benefits of a Healthy Emotional Culture

As a healthy emotional culture helps foster positive emotions at work, it offers a range
of benefits to all levels of the organisation. At the intra-individual level, research has
associated positive emotional experiences with task performance (Isen, 2004),
subjective well-being (Diener, Oishi, & Lucas, 2003), motivation (Ilies & Judge,
2005), voluntary behaviour (Spector & Fox, 2002) and job satisfaction (Thoresen,
Kaplan, Barsky, Warren & de Charmont, 2003). According to Fredrickson’s (2001)
broaden and build theory; “experiences of positive emotions broaden people’s
momentary thought-action repertoires, which in turn serves to build their enduring
personal resources, ranging from physical and intellectual resources to psychological
resources” (p.218). Fredrickson bases her theory on findings that have associated
positive emotions such as contentment, love, interest and pride with thought-action
tendencies to explore, savour, integrate, and achieve (e.g. Izard, 1977; Lewis, 1993).
Fredrickson argues that negative states of emotions such as anger, fear and anxiety
can significantly narrow a person’s scope of attention whilst positive emotions such as
optimism and subjective well-being can broaden one’s scope of attention. Not only
that, positive emotions have the capacity to loosen the hold that negative emotions
have on people and build psychological resiliency toward negative events (Tugade &
Fredrickson, 2004). As such, positive emotions may fuel psychological resiliency in
people, which in turn, can lead to individuals adopting functional coping strategies
when dealing with affective events, especially when they are negative.

Between individuals and between groups, positive emotions are associated with
improved cooperation, perceived task performance and decreased conflict (Barsade,
2002). For example, a study conducted by Sy, Côtế and Saavedra, (2005) linked
positive affective group tone (i.e. shared affect in a group) to increased group effort
and coordination. Such findings are also reported in a study conducted on 1st year
college students by Waugh and Fredrickson (2006), which found that positive
emotions predicted a more complex understanding of roommates due to increased
self-other overlap. In an organisational context, this could mean greater diversity
acceptance and better quality TMX and LMX. Other studies have also indicated that
positive emotions can cause people to be more sociable and have better social
interactions (Isen, 1970; Cunningham, 1988), greater involvement in social activities
(Burger & Caldwell, 2000) and closer friendships (Berry, Willingham, & Thayer,
2000). Another beneficial outcome of a healthy emotional culture in a group context
is that it allows for collective coping of stress. For example, Länsisalmi, Peiró, and
Kivimäki, (2000) argue that a good work culture in one’s own work group may
relieve all kinds of stress produced in everyday life. To that end, positive affect in
group environments provides the participative safety individuals need to function
effectively in collaboration with others.

In addition to the horizontal linkages between individuals and groups being affected,
there is evidence of vertical linkages too. For instance, Totterdell’s (2000) study on
two professional cricket teams showed significant associations between the average of
the team-mate’s happy moods, and the players’ individual moods and subjective
performance. The transfer mechanism of individual affect to the group level can be
attributed to the concept of mood contagion (Neuman & Strack, 2000). Totterdell’s
study also found that the relationship between individual and team moods were
stronger when players were happier; thereby suggesting that positive affect is more
contagious than negative affect (Totterdell, 2000).

The overall organisational benefits of having a healthy emotional culture encapsulate

individual and group level benefits. However, at a macro organisational level, positive
emotions create a good learning environment for employees. According to
Domagalski (1999), emotion is a construct of social cognition, and therefore a crucial
element in organisational learning. It is also widely known that people learn best in
positive physical, emotional and social environments that provide a sense of
wholeness, safety, interest and enjoyment to the individual. As individual and group
productivity ultimately result in better organisational performance, effects of a healthy
emotional climate could reflect in all levels of an organisation.

Conclusion
This chapter sought to address a gap in the literature by conceptualising the link
between organisational culture and emotions experienced at work. It was argued that
culture influences the emotional process of individuals at two stages: when
interpreting an affective event and when responding to an affective event. In reality,
culture fulfils both an emotional need for the individual, while simultaneously
functioning as a regulatory tool of emotions. For this reason, the emotional culture in
an organisation may have an intrinsic relationship with the type of affective events
that take place in an organisation, the way they are interpreted, and responded to.
Hence, the chapter emphasised the importance of avoiding development of a toxic
emotional culture and cultivating a healthy emotional culture underpinned by the
notion of a positive emotional learning cycle. The benefits of adapting such an
approach are expected to manifest at multiple levels within an organisation.
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