Chapter 4 Emotions & Moods

Affect
Defined as a broad range of feelings that people experience. Affect can be
experienced in the form of emotions or moods.

Emotions
o Caused by specific event
o Very brief in duration (seconds or minutes)
o Specific and numerous in nature
o Usually accompanied by distinct facial expressions
o Action oriented
Moods
o Caused is general and unclear
o Last longer than emotions (hours or days)
o More general (positive and negative)
o Not indicated by distinctive expressions
o Cognitive by nature
Basic Emotions: Anger, Fear, Sadness, Happiness, Disgust, Surprise
Emotions cannot be neutral
Emotions are grouped into general mood states
Mood affects perception and perceived reality
Functions of Emotions
o Darwin argued they help in survival problem-solving
o Evolutionary psychology: people must experience emotions as
there is a purpose behind them
Do emotions make us Irrational?
o Expressing emotions publicly may be damaging to social status
o Emotions are critical to rational decision-making
o Emotions help us understand the world around us

Sources of Emotion and Mood

Personality - There is a trait component affect intensity
Day and Time of the Week - Happier in the midpoint of the daily awake
period and toward the end of the week
Weather - Illusory correlation no effect
Stress - Even low levels of constant stress can worsen moods

Social Activities - Physical, informal, and dining activities increase

positive moods
Sleep - Poor sleep quality increases negative affect
Exercise - Does somewhat improve mood, especially for depressed
people
Age - Older folks experience fewer negative emotions
Gender - Women tend to be more emotionally expressive, feel emotions
more intensely, have longer-lasting moods, and express emotions more
frequently than do men; Due more to socialization than to biology
Emotional Labor
Definition: An employees expression of organizationally desired emotions
during interpersonal transactions at work

Emotional Dissonance
o Employees have to project one emotion while simultaneously
o
o

feeling another
Can be very damaging and lead to burnout
Misalignment of behavior and emotions (feels unhappy but have

to put on a smile)
Types of Emotions
o Felt: the individuals actual emotions
o Displayed: required or appropriate emotions
o Surface Acting: displaying appropriately but not feeling those
emotions internally (employees show the organizational desired
emotions on the surface level)
o Deep Acting: changing internal feelings to match display rules
- very stressful

Affective Events Theory

An event in the work environment triggers positive or negative

emotional reactions
o Personality and mood determine response intensity
o Emotions can influence a broad range of work variables
Implications of AET

o An emotional episode is actually the result of a series of

emotional experiences triggered by a single event
o Current and past emotions affect job satisfaction
o Emotional fluctuations over time create variations in job
performance
o Emotion-driven behaviors are typically brief and variable
o Both negative and positive emotions can distract workers and
reduce job performance
Emotions provide valuable insights about behavior
Emotions, and the minor events that cause them, should
not be ignored at work: they accumulate
Emotional Intelligence (EI)

A persons ability to:

o Be self-aware
o Recognizing own emotions when experienced
o Detect emotions in others
o Manage emotional cues and information
EI plays an important role in job performance
EI is controversial and not wholly accepted
o For: Intuitive appeal; predicts criteria that matter; is
biologically-based.
o Against: Too vague a concept; cant be measured; its validity

is suspect.
Cascading Model of EI
o Conscientiousness (efficient/careless) Perceive emotions in
self and others
o Cognitive understand the meaning of emotions
o Emotional stability regulate emotions

OB Applications of Emotions and Moods

Selection - EI should be a hiring factor, especially for social jobs.

Decision Making - Positive emotions can lead to better decisions.
Creativity - Positive mood increases flexibility, openness, and

creativity.
Motivation - Positive mood affects expectations of success;
feedback amplifies this effect.

Leadership - Emotions are important to acceptance of messages

from organizational leaders.

Negotiation - Emotions, skillfully displayed, can affect negotiations
Customer Services - Emotions affect service quality delivered to

customers which, in turn, affects customer relationships

Emotional Contagion: catching emotions from others
Job Attitudes - Can carry over to home, but dissipate overnight
o Men carry emotions/moods from work to home, women: vice
versa
Deviant Workplace Behaviors - Negative emotions lead to
employee deviance (actions that violate norms and threaten the

organization)
Managers Influence - Leaders who are in a good mood, use
humor, and praise employees increase positive moods in the
workplace.