Emotions

and
Moods

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Emotions—Why Emotions Were Ignored
in OB
 Emotions are critical factor in employee behavior.
 The “myth of rationality”
 Emotions of any kind are disruptive to
organizations.
– Original OB focus was solely on the effects of strong
negative emotions that interfered with individual and
organizational efficiency.

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 What Are Emotions?

Affect
A broad range of emotions that people experience

Emotions Moods
Intense feelings that are Feelings that tend to
directed at someone or be less intense than
something emotions and that lack
a contextual stimulus

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© 2007 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.
 Aspects of Emotions
 Biology of Emotions
– Originate in brain’s limbic system
 Intensity of Emotions
– Personality
– Job requirements
 Frequency and Duration of Emotions
– How often emotions are exhibited
– How long emotions are displayed
 Functions of Emotions
– Survival instincts
– Whistle blowing
– Critical for rational thinking
– Motivate people
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 Mood as Positive and Negative Affect

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 Basic and Self Conscious Emotions
 Six universal set of emotions-
– Happiness, Surprise, Fear, Sadness, Anger, Disgust
 Self- conscious emotions
– Shame, Guilt , Embarrassment, Pride, hostility,
contempt etc.
– Evoked by self reflection and self-evaluation
– Involve self relevant thoughts, directed towards self
and others
– Crucial for appropriate social behaviour
• e.g. Shame punishes immoral behaviour

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 Sources of Emotions and Moods
 Personality
 Day and Time of the Week
 NOT Weather
 Stress
 Social Activities
 Sleep
 Exercise
 Age
 Gender

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 Positive Moods are
Highest
• At the End of the
Week
• In the Middle
Part of the Day

Negative Moods are

Highest
• At the Beginning
of the Week
And show little
variation throughout
the day

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 Gender and Emotions
 Women
– Can show greater emotional expression
– Experience emotions more intensely
– Display emotions more frequently
– Are more comfortable in expressing emotions
– Are better at reading others’ emotions
 Men
– Believe that displaying emotions is inconsistent with
the male image
– Are innately less able to read and to identify with
others’ emotions
– Have less need to seek social approval by showing
positive emotions

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 External Constraints on Emotions

Organizational Cultural
Influences Influences

Individual
Emotions

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 Emotional Labor
A situation in which an employee expresses
organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal
transactions.

Emotional dissonance—Inconsistencies between the

emotions we feel and the emotions we project.
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 Note: Higher
emotional labor
equals more
highly paid jobs
(with high
cognitive
requirements)

•Internals (Internal locus of control)

Individuals who believe that they
control what happens to them.

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 Affective Events Theory (AET)
 Work events trigger positive and negative emotional
reactions
– Personality and mood determine the intensity of the
emotional response.
– Emotions can influence a broad range of work performance
and job satisfaction variables.
 Implications of the theory ACT
– Individual response reflects emotions and mood cycles.
– Current and past emotions affect job satisfaction.
– Emotional fluctuations create variations in job satisfaction
and performance.
– Both negative and positive emotions can distract workers
and reduce job performance.

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 Affective Events Theory (AET)

Source: Based on N.M. Ashkanasy and C.S. Daus, “Emotion in the Workplace: The New E X H I B I T 8–6
Challenge for Managers,” Academy of Management Executive, February 2002, p. 77.
© 2007 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.
 Emotional Intelligence

 Self-awareness = Know how you feel

 Self-management = Manage your emotions and
impulses
 Self-motivation = Can motivate yourself and persist
 Empathy = Sense and understand what others feel
 Social Skills = Can handle the emotions of others

Research Findings: Characterize high

performers, high EI scores, not high IQ
scores.
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OB Applications of Emotions and Moods
 Emotions and Selection
– Emotions affect employee effectiveness.
 Decision Making
– Emotions are an important part of the decision-making
process in organizations.
 Creativity
– Positive mood increases creativity.
 Motivation
– Emotional commitment to work and high motivation are
strongly linked.
 Leadership
– Emotions are important to acceptance of messages
from organizational leaders.

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OB Applications . . . (cont’d)
 Interpersonal Conflict
– Conflict in the workplace and individual emotions are
strongly intertwined.
 Negotiation
– Emotions can impair negotiations.
 Customer Services
– Emotions affect service quality delivered to customers
which, in turn, affects customer relationships.
 Job Attitudes
– Can carry over to home
 Deviant Workplace Behaviors
– Negative emotions lead to employee deviance
(actions that violate norms and threaten the
organization).
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 Perception
and Individual
Decision Making
What Is Perception, and Why Is It
Important?
Perception
A process by which
• People’s behavior is
individuals organize and based on their
interpret their sensory perception of what
impressions in order to reality is, not on
give meaning to their reality itself.
environment.
• The world as it is
perceived is the world
that is behaviorally
important.
Factors That
Influence
Perception

E X H I B I T 5–1
Person Perception: Making Judgments
About Others
Attribution Theory
When individuals observe
behavior, they attempt to
determine whether it is
internally or externally
caused.

Distinctiveness: shows different behaviors in different situations.

Consensus: response is the same as others to same situation.
Consistency: responds in the same way over time.
Attribution Theory
E X H I B I T 5–2
Errors and Biases in Attributions
Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency to underestimate
the influence of external factors
and overestimate the influence
of internal factors when making
judgments about the behavior
of others.
In general, we
tend to blame the
person first, not
the situation.
Errors and Biases in Attributions (cont’d)
Self-Serving Bias
The tendency for individuals
to attribute their own
successes to internal factors
while putting the blame for
failures on external factors.
Thought: When student
gets an “A” on an exam,
they often say they
studied hard. But when
they don’t do well, how
does the self serving bias
come into play?
Hint: Whose fault is it
usually when an exam is
“tough”?
Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging
Others
Selective Perception
People selectively interpret what they see on the
basis of their interests, background, experience,
and attitudes.
Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging
Others
Halo Effect
Drawing a general impression
about an individual on the
basis of a single characteristic

Contrast Effects
Evaluation of a person’s characteristics that
are affected by comparisons with other
people recently encountered who rank higher
or lower on the same characteristics
Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging
Others

Projection
Attributing one’s own
characteristics to other
people.

Stereotyping
Judging someone on the
basis of one’s perception of
the group to which that
person belongs.
Specific Applications in Organizations
 Employment Interview
– Perceptual biases of raters affect the accuracy of
interviewers’ judgments of applicants.
 Performance Expectations
– Self-fulfilling prophecy (Pygmalion effect): The lower or
higher performance of employees reflects
preconceived leader expectations about employee
capabilities.
 Ethnic Profiling
– A form of stereotyping in which a group of individuals is
singled out—typically on the basis of race or ethnicity
—for intensive inquiry, scrutinizing, or investigation.
Specific Applications in Organizations
(cont’d)
 Performance Evaluations
– Appraisals are often the subjective (judgmental)
perceptions of appraisers of another employee’s job
performance.
The Link Between Perceptions and
Individual Decision Making

Problem
A perceived discrepancy
between the current state of
affairs and a desired state. Perception of
the decision
maker
Decisions
Choices made from among
alternatives developed from
data perceived as relevant.

Outcomes
Assumptions of the Rational Decision-
Making Model

Rational Decision-
Making Model Model Assumptions
• Problem clarity
Describes how
individuals should • Known options
behave in order to • Clear preferences
maximize some
outcome. • Constant preferences
• No time or cost
constraints
• Maximum payoff
Steps in the Rational Decision-Making
Model
1. Define the problem.
2. Identify the decision criteria.
3. Allocate weights to the criteria.
4. Develop the alternatives.
5. Evaluate the alternatives.
6. Select the best alternative.

E X H I B I T 5–3
 The Three Components of Creativity
Creativity
The ability to produce
novel and useful ideas.

Three-Component
Model of Creativity
Proposition that individual
creativity requires expertise,
creative-thinking skills, and
intrinsic task motivation.

E X H I B I T 5–4
Source: T.M. Amabile, “Motivating Creativity in Organizations,” California Management Review, Fall 1997, p. 43.
How Are Decisions Actually Made in
Organizations?
Bounded Rationality
Individuals make decisions by constructing
simplified models that extract the essential
features from problems without capturing
all their complexity.
How Are Decisions Actually Made in
Organizations? (cont’d)
 How/Why problems are Identified
– Visibility over importance of problem
• Attention-catching, high profile problems
• Desire to “solve problems”
– Self-interest (if problem concerns decision maker)
 Alternative Development
– Satisficing: seeking the first alternative that solves
problem.
– Engaging in incremental rather than unique problem
solving through successive limited comparison of
alternatives to the current alternative in effect.
Intuition
 Intuitive Decision Making
– An unconscious process created out of distilled
experience.
 Conditions Favoring Intuitive Decision Making
– A high level of uncertainty exists
– There is little precedent to draw on
– Variables are less scientifically predictable
– “Facts” are limited
– Facts don’t clearly point the way
– Analytical data are of little use
– Several plausible alternative solutions exist
– Time is limited and pressing for the right decision
 Common Biases and Errors

 Overconfidence Bias
– Believing too much in our own ability to make good
decisions.

 Anchoring Bias
– Using early, first received information as the basis for
making subsequent judgments.

 Confirmation Bias
– Using only the facts that support our decision.
Common Biases and Errors
 Availability Bias
– Using information that is most readily at hand.
• Recent
• Vivid

 Representative Bias
– “Mixing apples with oranges”
– Assessing the likelihood of an occurrence by trying to match
it with a preexisting category using only the facts that
support our decision.

 Winner’s Curse
– Highest bidder pays too much
– Likelihood of “winner’s curse” increases with the number of
people in auction.
Common Biases and Errors
 Escalation of Commitment
– In spite of new negative information, commitment
actually increases!

 Randomness Error
– Creating meaning out of random events

 Hindsight Bias
– Looking back, once the outcome has occurred, and
believing that you accurately predicted the outcome of
an event
 Individual Differences in Decision Making
 Personality
 Aspects of conscientiousness and escalation of
commitment.
 Self Esteem High self serving bias
 Gender
 Women tend to analyze decisions more than men.

Source: A.J. Rowe and J.D. Boulgarides, Managerial Decision

Making, (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), p. 29.
Organizational Constraints on Decision
Makers
 Performance Evaluation
– Evaluation criteria influence the choice of actions.
 Reward Systems
– Decision makers make action choices that are favored
by the organization.
 Formal Regulations
– Organizational rules and policies limit the alternative
choices of decision makers.
 System-imposed Time Constraints
– Organizations require decisions by specific deadlines.
 Historical Precedents
– Past decisions influence current decisions.
Cultural Differences in Decision Making
 Problems selected
 Time orientation
 Importance of logic and rationality
 Belief in the ability of people to solve problems
 Preference for collective decision making
Ethics in Decision Making
 Ethical Decision Criteria
– Utilitarianism
• Seeking the greatest good for the greatest number.
– Rights
• Respecting and protecting basic rights of individuals
such as whistleblowers.
– Justice
• Imposing and enforcing rules fairly and impartially.
Ethics in Decision Making
 Ethics and National Culture
– There are no global ethical standards.
– The ethical principles of global organizations that
reflect and respect local cultural norms are necessary
for high standards and consistent practices.
Ways to Improve Decision Making
1. Analyze the situation and adjust your decision
making style to fit the situation.
2. Be aware of biases and try to limit their impact.
3. Combine rational analysis with intuition to increase
decision-making effectiveness.
4. Don’t assume that your specific decision style is
appropriate to every situation.
5. Enhance personal creativity by looking for novel
solutions or seeing problems in new ways, and using
analogies.
 Toward Reducing Bias and Errors
 Focus on goals.
– Clear goals make decision making easier and help to
eliminate options inconsistent with your interests.
 Look for information that disconfirms beliefs.
– Overtly considering ways we could be wrong
challenges our tendencies to think we’re smarter than
we actually are.
 Don’t try to create meaning out of random events.
– Don’t attempt to create meaning out of coincidence.
 Increase your options.
– The number and diversity of alternatives generated
increases the chance of finding an outstanding one.
Source: S.P. Robbins, Decide & Conquer: Making Winning Decisions and Taking Control E X H I B I T 5–5
of Your Life (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2004), pp. 164–68.