Why Positive Emotions Matter in Organizations: Lessons From the Broaden-and-Build Model

Abstract

Describes how experiences of positive emotions, like joy, interest, pride, contentment, and love, can transform individuals as well as organizations. B. Fredrickson's (1998) broaden-and-build model of positive emotions provides the foundation for this application. This model suggests that positive emotions broaden people's modes of thinking and, in turn, build their personal and social resources. Because an individual's experiences of positive emotions can reverberate in other members of an organization and across interpersonal transactions with customers, positive emotions fuel optimal organizational functioning, helping organizations to thrive and prosper. The article concludes by encouraging psychologist-managers to explore ways to cultivate positive- emotions within members of their organizations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

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Th e P sy cho log ist -M ana ger Jo urna l
200 0, Vol. 4, No . 2. 13 1-142
Co py righ t 200 0 by the So cie ty of
Ps ych olo gis ts in Ma nag em ent
ISS N 10X8 -7156
Why Positive Emotions Matter in Organizations:
Lessons From the Broaden-and-Build Model12
Barbara L. Fredrickson3
University of Michigan
This article describes how experiences of positive emotions— like
joy, interest, pride, contentment, and love—can transform individu
als as well as organizations. Fredrickson’s (1998) broaden-and-build
model of positive emotions provides the foundation for this appli
cation. This model suggests that positive emotions broaden peo
ple’s modes of thinking and, in turn, build their personal and social
resources. Because an individual’s experiences of positive emo
tions can reverberate in other members of an organization and
across interpersonal transactions with customers, positive emo
tions fuel optimal organizational functioning, helping organizations
to thrive and prosper. The article concludes by encouraging psy-
chologist-managers to explore ways to cultivate positive emotions
within members of their organizations.
What good are positive emotions in
organizations? At first blush, it
might seem that positive emotions simply
mark the well-being or satisfaction of
individual employees. Certainly employ
ees who are experiencing positive emo
tions— like joy, interest, pride, or content
ment— are not, at that moment, plagued
by negative emotions— like anxiety, sad
ness, anger, or shame.
Consistent with this intuition, the
overall balance o f people’s positive and
negative emotions has been shown to con
tribute to their subjective well-being
(Diener, Sandvik, & Pavot, 1991). In this
sense, positive emotions signal optimal
individual functioning. But this is far
from their whole story. I have argued
elsewhere (Fredrickson, 1998, 2000a, in
press) that positive emotions also produce
optimal individual functioning not just
within the present, pleasant moment, but
over the long-term as well. In this article
I will extend this argument to suggest that
positive emotions also produce optimal
organizational functioning. The bottom-
line message is that psychologist-man-
agers should work to cultivate positive
emotions in themselves and in their
employees not just as end-states in them
selves, but also as a means of achieving
individual and organizational growth and
optimal functioning over time.
Current Perspectives on Emotions
A brief review of current perspec
tives on emotions provides an important
backdrop. Working definitions of emo
tions vary somewhat across researchers.
Even so, consensus is emerging that emo
tions are best conceptualized as multi-
component response tendencies that
unfold over relatively short time spans.
Typically, an emotion process begins with
an individual’s assessment of the personal
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