The Role Of Emotions In 1. Think about your time at work over the - - PDF document

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The Role Of Emotions In The Workplace

• LDC presentation

Wellington October 2013

Individual Exercise

1. Think about your time at work over the last week. 2. What emotions have you experienced or witnessed in others? 3. Write down each of these emotions – one emotion per post it note.

Positive & Negative Emotions

(Murray & Jordan, 2006)

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 Negative Positive Comparative Scores

Positive Emotions

(Murray & Jordan, 2006)

2 4 6 8 Capability and Delivery Count Excited Hopeful Pride Satisfaction Pleased Joy Happiness Enjoyment Amusement Supportive Energetic Relief Love Expecting Productive Thoughtful Fulfilled

Negative Emotions

(Murray & Jordan, 2006)

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 Capability and Delivery Count Fear Annoyed Concern Confusion Stress Anxiety Tired Embarrassment Guilt Sadness Helpessness Anger Worry Frustration Pressure Shock

Level 1 Within- Person Level 2 Between- Person Level 3 Inter- personal Level 4 Groups & Teams Level 5 Organization- wide

Affective events Emotional reactions Mood Emotion states (or State affectivity) Impulsive behaviors Considered Behaviors Decision making Attitudes Perception of emotion Felt vs. displayed emotion Emotional labor Interpersonal relationships Trust Organizational leadership Emotional climate Bounded emotionality Organizational performance Group behavior and performance Group affect Affective tone Team Member Exchange Group emotional intelligence Leadership Direct influence Emotional contagion LMX Individual differences: Trait affect Emotional intelligence Leadership style

Emotions in Organizations (Ashkanasy & Jordan, 2004)

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What emotions are generated during change?

Anger Fear Sadness Anxiety These are natural reactions – the issue is how we deal with them Excitement Anticipation Enthusiasm Joy

Fear

The perception (real or imagined)

• f a threat

(triggering a flight / fight response).

Negatives Can result in a lack

• f inertia

(no movement) Can result in increased resistance Positives Generates energy to deal with a threat Seeing new

• pportunities

in the familiar

Sadness

The perception (real or imagined)

• f a loss

(triggering a grief cycle).

Positives Reflection on issues that may have been ignored previously Realisation of where things went wrong / things went right Negatives Needs to be managed and progressed Can trap people in the past

Anger

The perception (real or imagined)

• f a grievance (justice).

Negatives Can disrupt working relationships Can distract workers from tasks Positives A focus of energy on a justified grievance Gives us the energy to right a legitimate wrong

Anger is not simple – Attributions

Anger directed at you Anger directed at others Anger directed at self Anger directed at objects Internal anger vs external anger Differences in anger expression between men and women.

Happiness

The perception (real or imagined)

• f confidence or satisfaction.

Positives Leads to satisfaction / calm decision making Sense of Optimism Negatives Contentment (lack of motivation) Ignoring other emotions Inappropriately expressed can result in conflict (e.g.Shadenfreude)

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Happy Worker Productive Worker Happy workers are productive workers and therefore managers and organizations should work to ensure their workers are happy. Research evidence shows that happy workers are not productive workers, but that productive workers are happy workers (Fisher, 2003) Workers are most satisfied with their job when they are performing better than usual for them.

What about other emotions?

Pride Shame Guilt Love Envy Humour Frustration Surprise Shock

Emotional Progressions

Anger

Enraged Furious Angry Mad Upset Frustrated Annoyed Irritable

Happiness

Joyous Happy Pleased Amused Content Calm Positive

Fear

Panicked Fearful Worried Nervous Edgy Wary Attentive Intensity

• f

Emotion Intensity

• f

Emotion

Emotions are Contagious

A tendency to reflect / mirror another person’s experience/expression. Examples of emotional contagion include:

• 1. An enthusiastic person raising the mood
• 2. A fearful person spreading despair.
• 3. A sad person being draining of others.

What are the implications in terms of dealing with emotions in a team / workplace? The Ripple Effect

(Barsade, 2002) Cheerful Enthusiasm

• Acting pleasant, happy,

warm, and optimistic in an energetic active and alert way

• Cheerful and enthusiastic

Hostile Irritability

• Actively and energetically

unpleasant and pessimistic;

• Behaved with hostility,

frustration, impatience, anxiety and irritability

Depressed Sluggishness

• Unpleasant and unhappy in

a low energy way

• depressed sluggish, dull

and lethargic.

Serene Warmth

• Happy and optimistic in a

calm low energy way.

• Emitting warmth and

serenity and a pleasant calmness

High High Low Low PLEASANTNESS E N E R G Y

Results of Ripple Effect

Emotional valance (positive / negative) matters

» Positive emotions raised the group tone » Negative emotions lowered the group tone

Emotional energy (intensity) did not matter

» No effect for high energy or low energy

Difference between groups with one confederate expressing negativity (independently rated)

» Pleasant condition Mean = 4.83 » Unpleasant condition Mean = 2.81

Performance difference

» Positive emotion reduced conflict by 50% » Positive emotion increased performance by 37%

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So what can we do about emotions at work? For ourselves? For others?

Emotional regulation

(Lawrence, Troth, Jordan & Collins, 2011)

Regulation of experiencing emotion

» Situational Selection » Situation Modification » Attentional Deployment » Cognitive Change

Regulation of expressed emotion

» Amplify the emotion in the response, » Express their genuinely felt emotions, » Qualify the emotions expressed, » Deamplify their emotional response » Neutralize » Mask the emotions they feel.

Managing Others

Emotions matter – they provide information about how to address issues. Emotional variance is a normal part of life Unless you deal with emotion you cannot move on the deal with the issue The key to dealing with emotion is understanding the emotion

Questions?