Work Emotions

Work Emotion Definition: A Comprehensive Understanding

These could be momentary feelings or emotional responses that arise due to changes in tasks or encounter with colleagues or superiors. These emotions can be both positive or negative and can significantly influence overall productivity and job satisfaction.

Origin and Significance of Work Emotions

Workplace emotions originate from an employee's perception of their working environment and how they mentally process their job. This involves intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction, work-life balance, and interpersonal relationships at work.

Work emotions not only affect individual workers but also influence the overall culture and dynamic of the workplace. Here is why work emotions matter:

• They affect job satisfaction and productivity
• Impact teamwork and collaboration
• Influence decision-making and problem-solving abilities
• Affect the level of creativity and innovation

The Impact of Work Emotions on Job Performance

Work emotions bear crucial implications for job performance. Positive emotions, like enthusiasm, joy, and pride can enhance an employee's motivation and productivity. In contrast, negative emotions like frustration, anger, and disappointment can lead to lack of motivation, absenteeism, and high turnover rates.

Exploring Real Life Work Emotion Examples

Real-life examples serve as the perfect tool to understand the concept of work emotions better.

Examples of Positive Work Emotions

Examples of Negative Work Emotions

Work Emotions and Employees: A Crucial Connection

Work emotions and employees are inextricably linked in the organisational setting. An employee's emotions at work, both positive and negative, deeply influence their behaviour, attitudes, and productivity levels at the workplace.

How Work Emotions Influence Employee Behaviour

An employee's work emotions can significantly affect how they behave in the workplace. Positive emotions foster creativity, collaboration and productivity. On the other hand, negative emotions can lead to disengagement, conflict and reduced productivity. The connection between work emotions and employee behaviour is so profound that it shapes the overall organisational culture.

Positive work emotions at the workplace are triggered typically by successful achievements, recognition, or supportive and friendly interpersonal relationships. These emotions often drive employees to go above and beyond their basic job requirements. They're more likely to take initiatives, contribute ideas, and engage in problem-solving strategies. Satisfactory work emotions can also result in enhanced well-being of the employees, reducing the chances of burnout and stress-related health issues.

Negative work emotions, however, might stem from stressful work conditions, interpersonal conflicts, or a sense of under appreciation. Negative emotions not only hamper an employee's performance but can also take a toll on their physical and mental health. It might lead to detrimental behavior like isolation, withdrawal, conflict and sometimes even further escalated to workplace bullying and harassment.

Managing Work Emotions for Wellbeing of Employees

Managing work emotions effectively is a critical aspect of maintaining a healthy and productive workforce. A well-rounded emotion management strategy could include a combination of measures such as creating a positive work environment, providing constructive feedback, providing employee assistance programs, promoting work-life balance, and more.

HR and management should promote open and transparent communication at all levels in the organisation to make employees feel valued and understood. Recognising the efforts and achievements of employees also contributes to positive emotions and encourages higher job satisfaction.

Negative Work Emotion Examples and Their Effect on Employees

Negative emotions at work are a common occurrence, especially in high-pressure and demanding job roles. Negative work emotions can affect an employee's productivity and wellbeing on multiple levels.

Frustration can occur when employees feel that they are obstructed in achieving their goals. If a project or task fails despite hard work and effort, employees can experience frustration, which often results in decreased motivation.

Job-related anxiety is another frequently encountered negative work emotion. Deadlines, high workloads or tough performance targets can lead to feelings of anxiety. This state of constant worry can affect the overall productivity of employees and also their mental health.

Strategies to Overcome Negative Work Emotions in Employees

Negative work emotions can pose significant challenges to maintain employee's morale and productivity. It's crucial for organisations to have strategies in place to help employees overcome these negative work emotions.

Implementing stress management strategies, such as providing regular breaks, promoting a work-life balance, offering flexible working hours, and ensuring reasonable task expectations can significantly contribute to managing negative work emotions.

Organisations could also provide counselling services and well-being programs to help distressed employees. If the negative emotions are left unchecked, it could lead to long-term consequences like high turnover rates, low productivity rates, poor team collaboration, and decreased employee satisfaction.

Work Emotion vs Emotional Labour: A Detailed Comparison

Emotions at the workplace are not just limited to the organic feelings that arise from interactions and experiences, they can also be a part of a worker’s role that they perform, this is known as Emotional Labour. Let's delve into the specifics of what forms emotional labour and how it differs from, yet connects with work emotions.

Defining Emotional Labour: Breaking Down the Concept

In your exploration of workplace dynamics in business studies, you must have come across the idea of work emotions, but another equally important concept is Emotional Labour. Emotional labour, a term coined by sociologist Arlie Hochschild, is the process of managing feelings and expressions as part of the job role to fulfil organisational objectives.

Emotional labour can be a part of numerous professions. For instance, airline attendants must maintain a friendly and hospitable demeanour even under distressing situations, therapists and counsellors must always appear empathetic and understanding, while salespeople need to convey energy and enthusiasm about their product or service to potential customers.

Emotional labour isn't necessarily negative, but it can potentially lead to emotional exhaustion or even burnout if not balanced properly. Hence, understanding emotional labour can help in evaluating job roles and managing job stress better.

Difference Between Work Emotion and Emotional Labour

While work emotions and emotional labour might sound alike, they represent distinct elements of emotional dynamics within the workplace.

Work emotion is about the feelings and emotions experienced and expressed by an employee in response to their work environment. These emotions are primarily spontaneous and reactive, based on the individual's perception of their work situations or interactions.

Emotional labour, on the other hand, involves the management and often suppression of personal feelings to display emotions that align with the professional role or organisational expectations. It's about the emotions employees are expected to portray as part of their job, and these emotions might not necessarily align with their true feelings.

The Interconnection of Work Emotion and Emotional Labour

Although work emotion and emotional labour are distinct concepts, they are interconnected in many ways. Emotional labour can influence the work emotions an individual experiences and vice versa.

For instance, if you're in a job role where you're expected to suppress your true feelings and constantly show positivity (emotional labour), it could lead to feelings of stress, dissatisfaction or frustration (work emotion). Conversely, strong negative work emotions could make emotional labour more stressful and challenging.

Therefore, an understanding of the interconnection between work emotion and emotional labour is crucial in managing work emotions effectively and ensuring the wellbeing of employees.

A Detailed Look at Different Work Emotion Types

The emotional landscape in an organisation is diverse, encompassing a wide spectrum of work emotions experienced by employees in a business environment. Let's explore these various types of work emotions in greater depth.

Categories of Work Emotions: An Overview

Emotions at work are an important facet of business studies because they can significantly impact not just individual productivity, but also team dynamics and overall business outcomes. Broadly, work emotions can be categorised as positive and negative, but for a deeper understanding, they can be further divided into two main types: cognitive and affective, and volitional and controlled.

These categorisations not only help in understanding the emotional dynamics in an organisation's environment but also aid supervisors and managers in identifying potential emotional pitfalls and ensuring a more balanced and healthy workplace atmosphere. Let's dive further into these categories.

Cognitive and Affective Work Emotions

Work emotions involve not just what a person feels, but also what they think about what they feel. Based on this, work emotions can be categorised into Cognitive Emotions and Affective Emotions.

For example, a sense of satisfaction from completing a challenging task or feeling proud upon receiving praise or recognition at work. These emotions are cognitive because they're tied to the individual's interpretation of an event or situation.

For instance, feeling instant joy upon seeing a positive email from a client or the immediate adrenaline rush from a heated argument with a colleague. The emotion felt in these situations is direct and primarily visceral, making them affective emotions.

Volitional and Controlled Work Emotions

Apart from the cognitive and affective division, there's another pair differentiating the emotional occurrences - Volitional Emotions and Controlled Emotions.

Controlled Emotions, on the contrary, are not freely expressed. They are often guarded or altered according to the norms or expectations of the workplace. Many customer-facing roles, like customer service or sales, practice controlled emotions, otherwise known as emotional labour, where the employee is expected to modulate their emotions as per the job's demand.

For example, a flight attendant greeting every passenger with a warm and welcoming smile, regardless of how tired or stressed they might be feeling, is an instance of controlled emotion at work.

Understanding the difference and interplay between volitional and controlled emotions helps in creating emotional intelligence strategies and promotes a more harmonious and understanding workplace environment that values the emotional wellbeing of its workers.

Work Emotion Feeling Rules: Exploring the Interaction of Emotions and Culture

The interface of cultural influences and the workplace stands as a crucial determinant of the emotional experiences that employees undergo. Known as Work Emotion Feeling Rules, these cultural norms and expectations significantly impact the emotions experienced and expressed at work. Hence, understanding this interaction is key to establishing a healthy employee emotional environment and efficient management practices.

Definition of Work Emotion Feeling Rules

Emotions in the workplace don't exist in a vacuum. They are often regulated by certain implicit or explicit societal norms and rules that dictate what emotions are deemed appropriate to be felt and expressed in any given situation. These norms, otherwise referred to as Work Emotion Feeling Rules, can play a significant role in dictating the emotional environment in an organisation.

They serve as guidelines on when, where, and how an individual should feel in a professional context. For example, a customer service representative might be expected to always sound cheerful and accommodating, irrespective of their personal feelings, which is a form of work emotion feeling rule. Or in a board meeting, it could be an unwritten rule to suppress sentiments of frustration or anger, projecting only calmness and professionalism.

The understanding of these feeling rules not only helps in maintaining a positive and professional work environment but also ensures that employees continue to function efficiently even under emotionally demanding situations.

Importance of Understanding Feeling Rules at Work

Understanding the concept of work emotion feeling rules is vital in an organisation for several reasons:

• They help maintain professional decorum and foster positive interactions among employees.
• They aid organisations in shaping their emotional culture, which could greatly influence organisational health and productivity.
• They play a crucial role in customer service-oriented sectors, contributing to customer satisfaction and engagement.

However, it's worth noting that while feeling rules can contribute to productivity and professionalism, they can also lead to emotional dissonance when employees are forced to suppress their true feelings. This dissonance, in turn, might lead to increased stress, lowered job satisfaction, and in severe cases, burnout. Therefore, organisations should work towards fostering an environment where employees can express their genuineness while not crossing the boundaries of professionalism.

Furthermore, feeling rules should be flexible and adaptable, taking into consideration not only the organisational requirements but also the individual's emotional wellbeing. It's also essential to ensure that feeling rules don't lead to emotional inauthenticity and instead promote a work environment that values and respects individual emotional experiences.

Influences of Culture on Work Emotion Feeling Rules

Culture shapes emotions and emotional expression in numerous ways. Cultural norms and values can significantly influence work emotion feeling rules.

An organisation's emotional culture can dictate the appropriateness of various emotions. For instance, in a high-performance and highly competitive culture, there might be an unspoken rule against showing vulnerability or stress. On the contrary, cultures that prioritise employee wellbeing and positive work-life balance may encourage openness about emotions and promote an atmosphere of emotional support.

Besides organisational culture, the larger societal and national culture within which the organisation operates can also influence work emotion feeling rules. For example, certain cultures might view open displays of emotions as unprofessional, while others might see it as a critical part of relationship-building and collaboration.

Understanding the influence of culture enables organisations to create a more emotionally inclusive and healthy work environment. However, it also requires ongoing efforts and involvement from the management, to ensure that the emotional culture being cultivated is supportive, respectful, and beneficial for all employees. In summary, work emotion feeling rules can be heavily influenced by culture, and acknowledging this influence is key to managing work emotions effectively.