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Overview 1: Workplace Emotions
Workplace Emotions
1. Types of Emotions 3. Cognitive Dissonance
Three strategies to reduce cognitive
dissonance:
1. Amplify or discover additional
positive features of selected
alternative
2. Amplify or discover additional
problems or weaknesses of the
alternatives that were not chosen
3. Reframe the situation
2. Emotions, Attitudes, &
Behaviour 4. Emotions & Personality
Higher emotional stability &
extraverted personalities 
more positive emotions
Higher neuroticism &
introverted personalities 
more negative emotions
Managing Emotions at Work
1. Emotional Display 2. Strategies for Displaying
Norms across Cultures Expected Emotions
(a) Surface acting
(a) Cultures that discourage
(b) Regulating Emotions: Deep
emotional expression
acting
(b) Cultures that encourage
 Change the situation
vivid display of emotions  Modify the situation
 Suppress or amplify emotions
 Change the focus of attention
 Reframe the situation
Emotional Intelligence
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Overview 2: Job Satisfaction & Org. Commitment

Job satisfaction Organizational Commitment

1. JS & Work Behaviour 2. JS & Performance Affective Continuance commitment:

Job dissatisfaction – The commitment: • A calculative attachment to
EVLN model (a) The “Happy Worker” • An emotional the organization
hypothesis attachment to, • Two forms:
(b) JS affects performance involvement in, and
 A lack of alternative
• Exit • Loyalty employment opportunities
only to some extent identification with an
• Voice • Neglect  A significant financial
organization sacrifice

Building Organizational Commitment

3. JS & Customer Satisfaction

Justice & Employee

Trust
support involvement

Organizational
Shared values comprehension
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Overview 3: Work-Related Stress

General Adaptation Syndrome Stressors: The Causes of Stress

1. Stress – An adaptive response
to a perceived challenging
situation
2. Distress – Stress that results in
deviation from healthy
functioning
3. Eustress – Stress that motivates
one to act
Org. constraints Work overload
• Lack of resources • Technology
• Lack of support • Globalization
• Lack of information • “Ideal worker norm”
Interpersonal conflicts Low task control
• Structural sources • Work is paced by machine
• Psychological harassment • No control over work pace
• Sexual harassment • Burden of responsibility

Consequences of Distress Individual Managing Work-

Physiological
Differences related Stress
Psychological: Behavioral:
• tension • Dissatisfaction • Poor decision making
headaches • Moodiness • Workplace accidents • Physical health • Remove the stressor
• muscle pains • Depression • Aggressive behavior • Coping strategies • Withdrew from the stressor
• cardiovascular • Lower org. • Personality • Change stress perceptions
disease commitment • Workaholism • Control Stress Consequences
• Receive social support
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Overview 3: Work-Related Stress

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Workplace Emotions

Physiological, behavioral, and psychological episodes

Emotions toward an object, person, or event that create a state of
readiness

• “Episodes” are very brief events that typically subside or occur in waves
lasting from milliseconds to a few minutes
• Emotions are experiences:
 Physiological state (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate)
 Psychological state (e.g., thought process)
 Behavior (e.g., facial expression)
• Most emotional reactions are subtle, fleeting, low-intensity events that
influence our behavior without conscious awareness
• Emotions put us in a state of readiness

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Workplace Emotions

Aroused, Astonished, Stimulated

Circumplex Model of High Enthusiastic
Emotions Elated
Distressed Excited
Two common features: Fearful
Jittery
1. Different levels of activation
High- activation High-activation
2. Associated valence --core Negative Positive

Activation
affect -- signalling that the emotions emotions
Unhappy Cheerful
perceived object or event Happy
Sad
should be approached or Gloomy Delighted
Low-activation Low-activation
avoided
Negative Positive
 Evaluate conditions as
emotions emotions
good or bad, helpful or
harmful, positive or Bored
negative Tired Relaxed
Drowsy Content
 Negative emotions tend to Calm
generate stronger levels
of activation than do Tranquil, Quiet, Still
positive emotions – Low
valence asymmetry Negative Evaluation Positive
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Workplace Emotions

The clusters of beliefs, assessed feelings, and

Attitudes behavioral intentions toward a person, object, or
event (called an attitude object).

Attitudes Emotions
• Are judgments • Are experiences

• Involve evaluation of an attitude object • Operates as events, usually without our

• May operate non-consciously but we are awareness
usually aware of and consciously think
about those evaluations

• Are more stable over time • Mostly brief emotional experiences

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 Workplace Emotions
Model of Emotions, Attitudes and Behavior

Beliefs – Established Perceived Environment

perceptions about attitude
objects; what you believe to Cognitive process Emotional process
be true

Feelings – Conscious Beliefs

positive or negative
evaluations of attitude objects Emotional
Episodes
Attitude Feelings
Behavioral intentions –
motivation to engage in Behavioral
particular behaviours Intentions
regarding the attitude objects

Behavior
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Workplace Emotions
Attitude-Behaviour
Contingencies
1. Beliefs-feelings link
• People with the same beliefs toward
an attitude object may have
different feelings because of their
differences in valence.
2. Feelings-behavioral intention link
• People with the same feelings toward
an attitude object may develop
different behavioural intentions due to
their unique individual characteristics.
3. Behavioral intention – behavior
link
• People with the same
behavioural intentions may not
behave the same way due to
their personal characteristics or
situational factors.
Influence of Emotions on
Attitudes & Behaviour
Automatic and non-conscious
tagging of emotional markers
• Our brain tags incoming sensory
information with emotional
markers based on a quick and
imprecise evaluation of whether
that information supports or
threatens our innate drives.
• The experienced emotions then
influence our feelings about the
attitude object.
• The influence of both cognitive
reasoning and emotions on
attitudes may disagree with each
other.
Positive Emotions at
Work
Ways to generate
positive emotional
experiences
• Google – Offer superb
perks such as in-house
coffee bars, gourmet
cafeterias, conversation
areas, game rooms, free
haircuts, personal
development courses, etc.
• Zoom video
communications –
Happiness crew
• Humor and fun at work
can potentially counteract
negative experiences.
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Workplace Emotions

Cognitive A state of anxiety that occurs when an individual’s

Dissonance beliefs, feelings and behaviors are inconsistent
with one another.

Three methods to reduce cognitive dissonance:

1. Amplify or discover additional positive features of selected
alternative
2. Amplify or discover additional problems or weaknesses of the
alternatives that were not chosen
3. Reframe the situation

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Workplace Emotions

Emotions are partly determined by personality

People with higher emotional stability and People with higher neuroticism and introverted
extraverted personalities tend to experience personalities tend to experience more
more positive emotions negative emotions

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Managing Emotions at Work

Emotional Labor The effort, planning and control needed to express

organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal
transactions.

Display rules: Emotional labor is higher when a job requires:

Norms or explicit rules thar require us to  frequent and long duration display of emotions
display behaviors representing specific  displaying a variety of emotions
emotions and to hide observable evidence  displaying more intense emotions
of other emotions.

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Managing Emotions at Work
Emotional display norms across
cultures
• Cultures that discourage emotional
expression: Several countries in Asia
and Africa
• Cultures that encourage emotional
expression through voice and
gestures: Several Latin and Middle
Eastern cultures
Strategies for displaying expected emotions
• Surface acting: pretending to have the expected
emotions by consciously trying to display behaviors
depicting those emotions
• Deep acting: actively changing our perceptions and
situation so that they naturally produce the expected
emotions and associated behaviors
• Five strategies to regulate emotions:
 Change the situation to avoid specific emotions
 Modify the existing situation
 Consciously trying to suppress or amplify emotions
 Change the focus of attention
 Reframe the situation
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Emotional Intelligence

Emotional A set of abilities that enable us to recognize and regulate

Intelligence our own emotions as well as the emotions of other people

Self Others EI Outcomes & Development

(personal competence) (social competence)
High EI:
Recognition of Self-awareness Social awareness • More effective team members
emotions (Awareness of own (Awareness of others’ • Perform better in jobs requiring
emotions) emotions) emotional labor
Abilities • Make better decisions involving
other people
• Maintain a more positive
Regulation Self-management Relationship management mindset for creative work
of emotions (Management of own (Management of others’ • More effective leadership
emotions) emotions)

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Emotional Intelligence
Self Others
(personal competence) (social competence)

Recognition of emotions Self-awareness Social awareness

(Awareness of (Awareness of
own emotions) others’ emotions)

Abilities

Regulation Self-management Relationship

of emotions (Management of management
own emotions) (Management of
others’ emotions)

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Job Satisfaction

Job Satisfaction • A person’s evaluation of his or her job and work context
(JS) • An appraisal of the perceived job characteristics, work
environment, and emotional experiences at work
• Best viewed as a collection of attitudes about different
aspects of the job and work context

Job Dissatisfaction JS & Performance JS & Customer Satisfaction

“Happy worker” hypothesis – Service Profit Chain Model

Work Behavior:
moderately positive relationship Employee satisfaction & loyalty  customer
• Exit satisfaction  profitability
between JS and performance
• Voice
• General attitudes (JS) don’t predict • JS  more +ve mood  more naturally and
• Loyalty frequently display of friendliness and +ve
• Neglect specific behaviour well
• Lack of control over performance emotions  customers get better service
(EVLN) Model experience
• Job performance may influence JS
• Less likely to quit their jobs
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Job Satisfaction

A person's appraisal of his or her perceived job characteristics, work environment,

and emotional experiences at work.

Job
Content Supervisor

Career Progress
Job Co-workers
Satisfaction

Working
Pay and Benefits
Conditions
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Job Satisfaction

Responses to Dissatisfaction

• Leaving the situation

Exit • Quitting, transferring

• Changing the situation

Voice • Solving problem, complaining

• Patiently waiting for the situation

Loyalty to improve

• Reducing work effort or quality

Neglect • Increasing absenteeism

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Job Satisfaction

Service Profit Chain Model

1. Job satisfaction  good mood  display positive emotions  better
customer experience
2. Satisfied employees  lower turnover better service quality

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Organizational Commitment

Organizational An employee’s emotional attachment to, involvement in,

Commitment and identification with an organization.

Affective Commitment Continuance Commitment Normative Commitment

• An emotional attachment to,
involvement in, and
identification with an
organization.
• A psychological bond whereby
one chooses to be dedicated to
and responsible for the
organization.
• Intrinsically motivated --
originates from one’s self-
concept and values alignment
• Can be a significant competitive
advantage
• A calculative attachment to the
organization.
• Two forms of calculations:
 A lack of alternative
employment opportunities
 Leaving the company would
incur significant financial or
social costs.
• High continuance commitment:
 Tend to have lower
performance
 Less likely to engage in org.
citizenship behaviors
• A felt obligation or moral duty to
the organization
• Norm of reciprocity – a natural
human motivation to support,
contribute, and otherwise “pay
back” the organization because it
has invested in and supported the
employee.

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Organizational Commitment

Strategies to build organizational commitment:

• Fairness, courtesy, forgiveness, moral integrity
Justice & support • Apply humanitarian values
• Support employee wellbeing

Shared values • Values congruence

Trust • Positive expectations one has toward another in risky situations

• Employees trust org leaders
• Job security supports trust

Organizational • How well employees understand the organization

• Know firm’s past/present/future
comprehension • Open and rapid communication
• Involvement in decision making
Employee involvement • Employees feel being part of company
• Involvement demonstrates trust 22
Work-Related Stress

Stress
General Adaptation Syndrome
Two perspectives:
1. Cognitive appraisal -- An Adaptive response to
a situation that is perceived as challenging or
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3
threatening to one’s well-being.
Alarm Resistance Exhaustion
2. An emotional experience, which occur before
reaction
or after a conscious evaluation of the situation
High
• Distress – negative experience – the degree of
physiological, psychological, and behavioral Ability to cope
deviation from healthy functioning
• Eustress – it activates and motivates people
to achieve goals, change their environments, Low
and succeed in life’s challenges

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Work-Related Stress

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Work-Related Stress

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Work-Related Stress

Individual Differences
Physical Health Coping Strategies Personality Workaholism

• Exercise A person who is highly involved in

• Healthy lifestyles work, feels compelled to work,
and has a low enjoyment of work
• Strategies to weaken
stressors
• Social support

The capability of individuals to cope

successfully in the face of significant
change, adversity, or risk

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Work-Related Stress

Control stress consequences

Remove the Stressors Stress
• Assign jobs to employees based on
their skills and preferences
Management • Physical exercise
• Reduce excessive workplace noise • Wellness program
• Take corrective actions against • Employee assistance program
harassment, give employees more
control over work processes
• Work-life integration – remote work Change stress
• Prohibit the communication of work- perception
related issues during nonwork hours
• Improve self-concept,
Receive social support
personal goal setting & self-
reinforcement
Withdraw from the Stressors • Some forms of humor can • Emotional support
• Job Transfer improve optimism and create • Informational support
• Vacations and holidays positive emotions
• Innovative ways: game rooms, ice-
cream cart break, etc.

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