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What do people feel and how should we measure it?
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Affect at work is of increasing interest to organisational researchers. Prior research on felt affect at work has focused almost exclusively mood rather than emotion. As yet we have little knowledge about which emotions are felt or how frequently they are felt in the workplace, or of what their causes or consequences might be. There has not even been an instrument available for measuring emotion at work. This paper reports on a preliminary study designed as a lead-in to further research on emotion at work. One hundred sixteen people reported on the frequency with which they had experienced 135 different emotions while at work. Differences in the emotional experiences of female and male employees, part time and full time workers, and employees in five different job categories are explored. The data on emotion frequency, together with literature on typologies of emotions, are then used to construct a short self report instrument for assessing real-time emotional experiences at work. This instrument is presently being used in experience sampling research on emotion by the author.
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... The research findings have well-documented the affiliation of emotions and work role (Rafaeli and Sutton, 1987;Gibson, 2006) influencing attitudes and behaviours of the employees (Ashforth and Humphrey, 1995;Fisher, 1998;Cote and Morgan, 2002;Baumiester, Vohs, and Dewall, 2007). Locke and Latham (1990, 230) state that "emotions pride the psychological fuel for action", making the emotions at work ubiquitous and important (Fisher, 1997). ...
... For example, Basch and Fisher (1998) attempted to develop an event-emotion matrix showing relationship between categories of job events and the corresponding emotions experienced by the people. In this study, hotel employees of ten international hotels from Australia and Asia/Pacific region were asked to describe the recent work event or situation which caused them to experience any of the given emotions of 'affection, pleasure, happiness, pride, optimism, enthusiasm, frustration, anger, disgust, unhappiness, disappointment, embarrassment, worry, relief, fear, hurt, bitterness, annoyance, sadness and power' (emotions scale comprised on 20 terms selected from the studies of Fisher (1997), Shaver et al. (1987) andHunt (1998) Also based on existing literature, Brief and Weiss (2002) attempted to classify the affect producing workplace events producing emotions into five broad categories, namely, stressful events, leaders, workgroup characteristics, physical settings and organizational rewards and punishments. ...
Research Purpose: The current study attempted to redress the ‘narrowness’ in the research on the causes of workforce emotional experiences by utilizing the cybernetic Viable System Model (VSM) framework, and developing a reference model to facilitate the integrated view of the related aspects of affective workplace environment.
Methods: Based on VSM distinctions, an analytical tool (named as Holistic Emotions Measurement Model – HEMM) was developed for gauging the broad range of the causes of emotional experiences prevailing in the work environment. It facilitated the joined-up functional and the relational view of the entire working environment adequate for holistic diagnosis of the antecedents of emotions within the work settings. HEMM was tested empirically by conducting survey in Pakistan corporate sector. The development and test of the reference model was guided by the constructivism-positivism philosophy respectively.
Results: The functional and relational view of the workplace environment captured by the reference model helped in comprehending the causes of emotional experiences holistically. The field testing results confirmed the potential utilization of the tool in diagnosing the antecedents of affective experiences of the employees while at work.
Conclusion: The current study provided an empirical account on the effective utilization of organizational cybernetics principles in the field of organizational behaviour which has remained largely unexplored till date. VSM framework has been proposed as a tool for understanding work environment and diagnosing the causes of the workforce emotions generation, which has enhanced the state-of-art theories on emotions management. The application of the reference model on field provided evidence about the convenient use of VSM in conjunction to Affective Events Theory (AET) as emotions measurement tool.
... Bu negatif ilişki, pozitif bir duygu esnasında negatif bir duygunun da aynı zamanda yaşanmasına engel değildir. Fisher'e (1997) göre bu duygular yoğunluklarına göre değerlendirilebilir (Fisher, 1997). Yüksek düzeyde olumlu duygular, yüksek yoğunluk ve olumlu değerlendirme yapmayı sağlar (Fisher,1997). ...
... Bu negatif ilişki, pozitif bir duygu esnasında negatif bir duygunun da aynı zamanda yaşanmasına engel değildir. Fisher'e (1997) göre bu duygular yoğunluklarına göre değerlendirilebilir (Fisher, 1997). ...
Positive and negative emotions that employees feel in the work environment can affect many forms of behavior in the organizational area positively or negatively. Effectively managing emotions during work-oriented activities seems to be related to absorb himself/herselfinto his/her work, to enjoy his/her job and to provide an intrinsic work motivation.The flow experience in work life is defined as a positive psychological situation that increases the employee performance significantly when the difficulties experienced by the employee increase along with the individual skill level.The
main purpose of this study is to determine the effects of positive and negative emotions experienced in organizational environment on flow experience.In this respect, Data were collected from 214 R&D employees working in IT companies within the Technoparks using convenience sampling method and survey technique.Statistical analysis was performed for the obtained data.Reliability analyzes were conducted for the scales used in the study, confirmatory factor analyzes were performed and correlation, regression and structural equation modeling method were used to analyze the relationships and effects between the variables.The findings showed that having positive emotion status of the employees actively working in R&D projects positively and significantly affect their tendency to flow experience in business life. However, it was observed that employees' negative emotions did not have a significant effect on flow experience
... Bununla birlikte bahsedilen negatif ilişki, pozitif bir duygu durumu yaşanırken, negatif bir duygunun da aynı zamanda yaşanmasına bir engel oluşturmamaktadır. Pozitif ve negatif duygu durumlarını, bu duyguların yoğunluğunu dikkate alarak değerlendirmek mümkündür (Fisher, 1997). Fisher'e (1997) göre yüksek pozitif duygusallık, yüksek yoğunluk ve pozitif değerlendirme yapmayı kapsar. ...
Örgütsel yaşamda, çalışanların pozitif ve negatif duygu durumlarını etkileyen birçok faktör bulunmaktadır. Örgütün sahip olduğu iklim, bireylerin duygu durumlarında değişikliklere neden olmakta ve bunun sonucunda da örgütsel performansta olumlu veya olumsuz değişimler meydana gelmektedir. Yaratıcı düşüncenin ve yenilikçi davranışların ön plana çıktığı Ar-Ge örgütlerinde çalışan bireylerin duygu durumları ise, içinde bulundukları
yenilik (inovasyon) iklimi ile yakından ilişkidir. Örgüt içinde algılanan yenilik iklimi, çalışanların pozitif ve negatif duygu durumları üzerinde farklı etkiler yaratabilmektedir.
Bu araştırma Teknokentler bünyesinde görev yapan Ar-Ge çalışanlarını temel alarak, örgütlerde yenilik iklimi algısının, bireylerin pozitif ve negatif duygu durumları ile nasıl bir ilişkisinin olduğunu ortaya koymayı amaçlamaktadır. Çalışmada; yenilik iklimi alt boyutların, bireylerin pozitif ve negatif duygu durumlarına etkileri araştırılmıştır. Araştırma kapsamında kolayda örnekleme yöntemiyle Ar-Ge alanında görev yapan 208 Ar-Ge çalışanı ile anket çalışması yapılmıştır. Araştırmanın bulguları çalışanların içinde bulundukları yenilik iklimi ile bireylerin pozitif ve negatif duygu durumları arasında orta düzeyde ve anlamlı korelasyon ilişkileri bulunduğunu göstermektedir. Bununla birlikte yenilik ikliminin çalışanların pozitif duygu durumlarını anlamlı ve pozitif yönde etkilediği görülürken negatif duygu durumlarını ise anlamlı ve negatif yönde etkilediği tespit edilmiştir.
... Vecchio, 2000) and found that they are some of the common emotions experienced at work. Other states found to were pleasant feelings like happiness, enjoyment, satisfaction, and enthusiasm and other more negative ones like frustration and aggravation (Fisher, 1997), pride (Grandey et al., 2002), while Lazarus and Cohen-Charash (2001) listed anger, anxiety, guilt, shame, envy and jealousy, hope, happiness/joy, pride, compassion, and love as the most frequent emotions in the workplace. The variety of emotions was also discussed by Ostell et al. (1999) who concluded that employees can be elated at gaining a promotion, show fear for a redundancy, be excited by a new project, be furious about their managers' behaviour and even become jealous of a colleague's success. ...
This paper reports some of the early findings of an ongoing research project that explores the emotional experiences of Higher Education academics in Cyprus. An interpretive phenomenological approach was adopted investigating the events that influence academics’ emotions together with their outcomes. Thirteen narrative interviews were conducted with male and female academics working in Cyprus. The study findings demonstrate how the workplace itself can give rise to a variety of emotions through emotion-causing events, which are mainly caused from interactions with students, colleagues, managers and the students’ relatives. The paper describes the short and long-term consequences that these interactions have on the academics well-being. It was concluded that the academics’ emotions are cultural products, which are largely dependent on the learned social and cultural rules and context within which they are experienced. The authors also discuss the emotion rules, which influence the academics emotions and expressions in order to display organizationally-desired emotions
... Even though emotions have huge effects throughout our lives especially in terms of our thoughts, motivations and behaviours; and have long been studied by researchers [Ashforth and Humphrey, 1993;Diefendorff et al., 2005; Thoits as cited in Morris and Feldman (1996)], this area of study has not been widely explored as one of the key contributions to the dynamics within organisations. Workplaces have been defined as professional environments that only require rationality, so emotions have, for the most part, been ignored (Fisher, 1997;Grandey, 2000). As the field has grown, work environments have begun to be seen as containing different emotions such as fear, hate, envy and compassion besides work-related tasks; however, there are, still misunderstandings in the role of emotions therein (Shuler and Sypher, 2000). ...
... Even though emotions have huge effects throughout our lives especially in terms of our thoughts, motivations and behaviours; and have long been studied by researchers [Ashforth and Humphrey, 1993;Diefendorff et al., 2005; Thoits as cited in Morris and Feldman (1996)], this area of study has not been widely explored as one of the key contributions to the dynamics within organisations. Workplaces have been defined as professional environments that only require rationality, so emotions have, for the most part, been ignored (Fisher, 1997;Grandey, 2000). As the field has grown, work environments have begun to be seen as containing different emotions such as fear, hate, envy and compassion besides work-related tasks; however, there are, still misunderstandings in the role of emotions therein (Shuler and Sypher, 2000). ...
The Japanese word “GINOU” has been translated in English as skill or technique. However, GINOU in Japanese culture includes a unique sense, which the word of skill or technique doesn’t. The unique sense of GINOU is related to “MICHI” which is also a traditional concept in Japan. In generally, we have to spent a lot of time to acquire a high-levels skill. The concept of GINOU includes the process for acquiring skills, that is, the concept of MICHI. In order to acquire GINOU, positive experience such as pleasure, engagement, or IKIGAI (meaning in life unique to Japan) is necessary. These are components of well-being which has been one of the main subjects in various scientific fields. Therefore, we can say that the concept of well-being is important in science of GINOU, polytechnic science. This paper outlines well-being research from the two major areas, economics of happiness and positive psychology. In addition, studies on well-being at work in organizational research, which is closely related to study of GINOU, is also introduced. Both of the concepts, well-being and polytechnic science, have some common features such as emphasis on empirical research or interest in positive aspects of its research objects. Theories accumulated in well-being research could give theoretical pillars to polytechnic science. The current study can be expected to be a beginning of well-being research in polytechnic science.
This study utilizes attribution theory to guide an exploration of how subordinate auditors understand, rationalize, and internalize recollections of their actual experiences (both worst and best) with audit review. Respondents externally rationalize worst review experiences as the fault of an inattentive or incompetent supervisor, a flawed engagement review process, or familiar stressors of the audit environment. Worst reviews evoke frustration, invisibility, and powerlessness that can demotivate subordinates. We also find that respondents relationally attribute their best review experiences to reciprocal relationships and effective communication with their supervisor. Best reviews produce feelings of appreciation and a sense of control for subordinates that inspires comradery and a desire to work hard. Respondents’ insights raise a number of concerns regarding the effectiveness of review as a quality control mechanism and for shaping auditors, but highlight that a positive role model and effective supervisorsubordinate interactions can help the subordinate grow as a reflexive professional.
Definitions and measures of wellbeing in general and at work are discussed. Comprehensive conceptualizations and measures of wellbeing at work should include three major components: subjective wellbeing (job satisfaction and similar positive attitudes, positive affect, and negative affect), eudaimonic wellbeing (e.g., engagement, meaning, growth, intrinsic motivation, calling), and social wellbeing (e.g., quality connections, satisfaction with coworkers, high-quality exchange relationships with leaders, social support, etc.).
Although the experience of work is saturated with emotion, research has generally neglected the impact of everyday emotions on organizational life. Further, organizational scholars and practitioners frequently appear to assume that emotionality is the antithesis of rationality and, thus, frequently hold a pejorative view of emotion. This has led to four institutionalized mechanisms for regulating the experience and expression of emotion in the workplace: (1) neutralizing, (2) buffering, (3) prescribing, and (4) normalizing emotion. In contrast to this perspective, we argue that emotionality and rationality are interpenetrated, emotions are an integral and inseparable part of organizational life, and emotions are often functional for the organization. This argument is illustrated by applications to motivation, leadership, and group dynamics.
examine the current literature on the role of emotional labour in organizations / show how it is tied to the myth of rationality that pervades Western culture and underlies bureaucratic structures / employ feminist theory to critique the use of emotional labour in organizations and to show how it marginalizes the personal and relational nature of emotions / illustrate this critique through two case examples that demonstrate how simultaneously defining and negating emotions creates a contradiction that exposes the myth of rationality and makes emotional labour problematic / the first case highlights [the contradictions inherent in a boss–secretary] work relationship / [it shows] how secretaries can . . . challenge bureaucratic rationality through parody, the discourse of bitching, and acts of resistance / the second case example focuses on sources of [emotional] ambiguity in hospital social work
provide alternatives that treat emotion as central to organizational experiences / show how these alternatives might function . . . through a case study in which emotions are treated as central to the participatory process of [teacher–graduate student training team] members (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Subjects rated their confidence that each word from a set of 585 words referred to an emotion. As a strategy for discriminating words that refer to genuine emotions from words that refer to other kinds of conditions, ratings were collected in two different linguistic contexts: first, in the context of
feeling something and second, in the context of
being something. We hypothesized that words that referred to genuine emotions would be judged as such when presented in the context of feeling or being (e.g.,
feeling angry and
being angry should both be rated as emotions). Words not referring to genuine emotions, however, were expected to show one of several other patterns. For example, words such as
abandoned, which refer to objective states of the world, were expected to be rated as emotions in the feeling context but not in the being context. A discriminant analysis showed that such patterns could be used to distinguish the categories of a taxonomy of psychological conditions that Ortony, Clore, and Foss (1987) have proposed. The most discriminable categories were the four classes of affective, cognitive, external, and bodily conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
propose that feelings, an integral aspect of the human experience, are central to obtaining a richer understanding of work motivation / suggest that workers strive to become many things, with the self as an accomplished worker being just one of the many possible selves potentially in need of motivational attention
feelings, in the form of emotions, help to determine which possible self is focused on motivationally at any point in time and when shifts in this attention take place (e.g., from the self as accomplished worker to the self as caring parent) / because the self as an accomplished worker is of prime concern for understanding work motivation, we address how feelings, in the form of moods, impact motivation within this possible self / explore the potential effects of positive mood on some of the constructs and processes underlying distal and proximal work motivation in an exemplary fashion / [discuss] the types of questions a theory of work motivation with feelings should address and the tentative answers to those questions we have provided (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Whether you're a manager, company psychologist, quality control specialist, or involved with motivating people to work harder in any capacity—Locke and Latham's guide will hand you the keen insight and practical advice you need to reach even your toughest cases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In recent studies of the structure of affect, positive and negative affect have consistently emerged as two dominant and relatively independent dimensions. A number of mood scales have been created to measure these factors; however, many existing measures are inadequate, showing low reliability or poor convergent or discriminant validity. To fill the need for reliable and valid Positive Affect and Negative Affect scales that are also brief and easy to administer, we developed two 10-item mood scales that comprise the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). The scales are shown to be highly internally consistent, largely uncorrelated, and stable at appropriate levels over a 2-month time period. Normative data and factorial and external evidence of convergent and discriminant validity for the scales are also presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
give an overview of some of the major aspects of affective states, and their relations with other psychological processes / provide conceptual clarification of the distinctions between the various kinds of affective states [moods, emotion episodes, and emotions]
causes and functions of affective phenomena / the structure of affect space / consequents of affective states (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)