Emotions in The Workplace

Emotions in the workplace
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”.
[1]
“Positive emotions in the workplace help employees obtain favorable outcomes including achievement, job
enrichment and higher quality social context”.[2] “Negative emotions, such as fear, anger, stress, hostility, sadness,
and guilt, however increase the predictability of workplace deviance,”,[3] 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.”.[4] 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”.[4] 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.” [5]
“The state of the literature shows that affect matters because people are not isolated ’emotional
islands.’ Rather, they bring all of themselves to work, including their traits, moods and emotions, and
their affective experiences and expressions influence others,” according to the paper, co-authored by
Donald Gibson of Fairfield University’s Dolan School of Business.
An “affective revolution” has occurred over the last 30 years as academics and managers alike have
come to realize that employees’ emotions are integral to what happens in an organization, says
Barsade, who has been doing research in the area of emotions and work dynamics for 15 years.
“Everybody brings their emotions to work. You bring your brain to work. You bring your emotions to
work. Feelings drive performance. They drive behavior and other feelings. Think of people as
emotion conductors.”
Barsade and Gibson consider 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.
Barsade and Gibson consider three different types of feelings:
Choosing your attitude – positive or negative?
Your attitude is a form of expression of yourself. You can choose to be

happy, positive and optimistic, or you can choose to be pessimistic and
critical, with a negative outlook on your workday. A positive attitude
helps you cope better under stressful situations at work.
Workplace attitudes have an effect on every person in the organisation,

from the employees to the clients and even the company owner.
Attitudes help to develop the prevailing workplace environment that
determines employee morale, productivity and team building abilities.
A negative attitude in the workplace creates an atmosphere of distrust

among employees and causes employees to attempt to achieve success
at the expense of each other. On the other hand, in a workplace with a
positive attitude, competition is seen as a motivator that inspires
employees to perform at their best to improve productivity, and
encourages creativity so they feel that their ideas will contribute to the
success of the organisation.
There are many advantages of a positive attitude at work,
and some of the advantages and benefits are:
 Creates a positive environment

 Helps to Achieve Goals and Career success
 Stress reduction and management
 Better health
 Less sick days
 Increases productivity levels
 Produces more energy
 Improves customer relations
 Makes for better leadership skills
 Improves teamwork
 Improves decision-making
 Overcomes Challenges
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotions_in_the_workplace
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/managing-emotions-in-the-workplace-do-positive-and-
negative-attitudes-drive-performance/
https://www.quillgroup.com.au/blog/benefits-positive-attitude-workplace/
https://www.worldsupporter.org/en/chapter/66674-workplace-emotions-attitudes-and-stress-
summary-chapter-4-organizational-behavior

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Emotions in the workplace

Barsade and Gibson consider three different types of feelings:

 Discrete, short-lived emotions, such as joy, anger, fear and disgust.

Barsade and Gibson consider three different types of feelings:

Choosing your attitude – positive or negative?

Your attitude is a form of expression of yourself. You can choose to be

Workplace attitudes have an effect on every person in the organisation,

A negative attitude in the workplace creates an atmosphere of distrust

 Creates a positive environment

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