OB: Emotions

The lecture explores the intricate relationships between emotions, attitudes, and stress, emphasizing how emotions significantly influence attitude formation and stress as a physiological response to stressors, particularly interpersonal ones in the workplace. The circumplex model of emotions is introduced, categorizing emotions by activation and evaluation levels. The discussion extends to emotional labor, emotional intelligence, and the impact of job satisfaction on performance and customer satisfaction. It also covers the EVLN model of responses to job dissatisfaction and organizational commitment dimensions. Stress management, burnout stages, and sexual harassment are discussed, highlighting individual differences in stress resilience and coping mechanisms.

• Emotions significantly contribute to the formation of attitudes.
• Attitudes always have a specific target.
• Stress is a physiological reaction to stressors, which are the sources of stress.
• In the workplace, people are often the most common stressors, rather than tasks or conditions.

"Emotions are a big part of the formation of an attitude... Stress is a physiological reaction to a stressor."

• Emotions influence attitudes, and stress is a physiological response that must be differentiated from stressors.

• The circumplex model organizes emotions on a circle divided by two axes: activation (vertical) and evaluation (horizontal).
• Activation ranges from low (tranquil) to high (astonishment).
• Evaluation ranges from negative to positive emotions.
• Emotions can be opposite each other on the circle, e.g., cheerful vs. sad.

"On the vertical axis, we have something called activation... On the horizontal axis is called evaluation."

• The circumplex model categorizes emotions by their activation level and pleasantness, illustrating relationships between different emotions.

• The circumplex model can be divided into four quadrants:
  • Top left: High activation, negative emotions (fearful, astonished, sad).
  • Top right: High activation, positive emotions (elation, astonishment, cheerfulness).
  • Bottom right: Low activation, positive emotions (contentedness).
  • Bottom left: Low activation, negative emotions (boredom, tranquil, sadness).

"We can carve this circumplex model into four quadrants... Top left we have fearful, astonished, and sad."

• Emotions are categorized into quadrants based on their activation and evaluation, helping to identify and understand emotional responses.

• Emotions are fleeting physiological reactions that do not last long and do not transfer well between situations.
• Moods last longer than emotions and can influence multiple situations.
• Affect is a trait-like disposition that affects emotional reactions across most situations and time periods.

"At the very bottom of the blue circle along the horizontal axis, we see that an emotion is a fleeting or transitory physiological reaction."

• Emotions are short-lived, moods last longer, and affect is a long-lasting trait influencing emotional responses.

• Attitudes consist of three components: beliefs (cognitions), feelings (affective component), and behavioral intentions.
• Attitudes are formed from perceptions of the environment and can change over time.
• Attitudes always have a target or object, such as chocolate ice cream or political candidates.

"Attitudes have three different components: beliefs, feelings, and behavioral intentions."

• Attitudes are complex constructs formed from beliefs, feelings, and intentions, and can change based on environmental perceptions.

• Emotional episodes can influence attitudes by affecting beliefs, feelings, and behavioral intentions.
• Negative experiences can alter previously positive attitudes, such as finding a cockroach in chocolate ice cream.

"Now you have a negative emotional affective reaction to chocolate ice cream."

• Emotional episodes can significantly impact attitudes, often changing them from positive to negative.

• Behavioral intentions often lead to specific behaviors, though the correlation is not perfect.
• Many people have intentions that do not result in action, such as New Year’s resolutions to exercise.

"There's a moderate to strong correlation between an intention and a behavior, but it's not a perfect relationship."

• Intentions can influence actions, but not all intentions result in behavior, highlighting a gap between desire and action.

• Emotional labor involves the effort and control needed to express desired emotions during interpersonal interactions.
• Jobs requiring emotional labor, like acting or customer service, can be demanding and draining.

"Emotional labor is an interesting thing... It's harder work when the job requires frequent and long duration display of emotions."

• Emotional labor is challenging and requires sustained emotional expression, often leading to exhaustion.

• Cultures differ significantly in their expectations for emotional expression.
• East Asian cultures often expect minimal emotional expression, maintaining a neutral demeanor.
• In contrast, cultures like Italy and Russia encourage expressive emotional displays.

"Some cultures expect people to display a neutral emotional demeanor with minimal emotional expression... This is common in some of the East Asian cultures."

• East Asian cultures value restraint in emotional expression, often using a monotone voice.

"Other cultures allow or encourage emotional expression where emotions are revealed through voice and gestures... examples include countries like Italy and Russia."

• Italian and Russian cultures are characterized by expressive emotional displays, using voice and gestures prominently.

• Emotional contagion involves mirroring the emotions of others to show understanding.
• This concept is about recognizing and reflecting the emotions conveyed by a speaker.

"When someone is telling you a story and it's a sad story, you tend to have a sad face... you recognize that the Storyteller is having sad emotions about the story so you too experience sadness."

• Emotional contagion is demonstrated by adopting the emotional cues of the storyteller, indicating shared emotional experience.

"There's a great Saturday Night Live skit with Taylor Swift... where the interviewers are giving over-the-top facial expressions trying to indicate to her... that they understand the emotions that she was going through."

• The SNL skit humorously illustrates exaggerated emotional contagion through over-the-top facial expressions.

• Emotional intelligence involves perceiving, expressing, understanding, and regulating emotions.
• It is largely a learned skill, with estimates suggesting 75% nurture and 25% nature.

"Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive and express emotion, to assimilate emotion and thought, to understand and reason with emotion, and to regulate emotion in oneself and others."

• Emotional intelligence encompasses a broad range of emotional skills from perception to regulation.

"Much of one's emotional intelligence is innate and hereditary, but most of it is actually learned... maybe it's 25% nature and 75% nurture."

• The development of emotional intelligence is primarily influenced by learning and environment.

• Emotional intelligence is challenging to measure due to psychometric issues.
• Its relationship with other constructs and the concept of intelligence is debated.

"One of the problems here with emotional intelligence is that it's sort of a fuzzy construct... we're still not sure exactly how to measure it."

• The measurement of emotional intelligence is complex and not fully standardized.

"Emotional intelligence may be a bit of a misnomer if we think of intelligence as a largely innate ability to solve problems... but we recognize that emotional intelligence is a learned skill or ability."

• Emotional intelligence differs from traditional intelligence, being more about learned skills than innate abilities.

• Emotional intelligence develops in a hierarchy: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
• Mastery of each stage is essential for progressing to the next.

"Self-awareness is the first stage... unless you have mastered self-awareness, you cannot rise up to the other levels."

• Self-awareness is foundational, involving understanding one's own emotions and motives.

"After we become aware of these emotions, then we step up to the second level, self-management... involves controlling or redirecting our internal states."

• Self-management requires maturity to control and redirect emotions effectively.

"After you've been able to properly manage your own emotions, you then rise to the third level, which is called social awareness."

• Social awareness involves understanding the emotions and situations of others.

"At the very top of the hierarchy is relationship management... involves managing other people's emotions."

• Relationship management is the pinnacle, crucial for leaders to manage emotions in organizational settings.

• Job satisfaction is an affective evaluation of one's job and work context.
• It is a composite of various facets, including job content, supervisor, co-workers, working conditions, pay, and career progress.

"Job satisfaction is simply one's affective evaluation of their job and their work context... a collection of specific attitudes about specific facets of the job."

• Job satisfaction is multi-faceted, encompassing various aspects of the work environment.

"These facets include but are not limited to the job content... satisfaction with one's supervisor... satisfaction with co-workers... working conditions... satisfaction with pay and benefits."

• Each facet contributes to overall job satisfaction, influencing employee attitudes and behaviors.

• The relationship between job satisfaction and performance is reciprocal.
• General attitudes like job satisfaction are weak predictors of specific behaviors but strongly related to general behaviors.

"The relationship between job satisfaction and job performance is sort of reciprocal... one causes the other and then that one causes the first one."

• Job satisfaction and performance influence each other, creating a cyclical relationship.

"A general attitude like job satisfaction may be only very weakly related to those very specific behaviors but it is usually strongly related to general behaviors."

• Job satisfaction impacts general behaviors more than specific tasks.

• The EVLN model outlines four responses to job dissatisfaction: Exit, Voice, Loyalty, and Neglect.
• These responses can occur in any order and are not hierarchical.

"When we're dissatisfied, we have four different reactions which are captured by the EVLN model... Exit, Voice, Loyalty, and Neglect."

• The EVLN model provides a framework for understanding employee responses to dissatisfaction.

"The first is called exit... we can leave the situation or we can quit or transfer."

• Exit involves leaving the job or transferring to a different role.

"With the voice option, we can seek to change the situation... engage in problem solving and use our actual voice and actually complain."

• Voice involves attempting to improve the situation through communication and problem-solving.

• The EVLN model outlines four responses to job dissatisfaction: Exit, Voice, Loyalty, and Neglect.
• Exit involves leaving the organization or actively seeking to leave.
• Voice entails expressing dissatisfaction and attempting to improve conditions.
• Loyalty involves passively waiting for conditions to improve while remaining committed to the organization.
• Neglect includes reduced performance and increased absenteeism as a response to dissatisfaction.

"Loyalty involves just patiently waiting for the situation to improve and some people will choose this as an option when they're dissatisfied with their job."

• Loyalty is a passive response where employees remain hopeful for future improvements without taking active steps.

"With neglect, you could begin to do a very poor job; this decrease in job performance may be conscious or unconscious."

• Neglect is characterized by a decline in job performance, which can be intentional or unintentional.

"An example of voice would be the character of Milton... he often expresses his concerns to anyone who will listen, but no one ever does."

• Voice is demonstrated by actively communicating dissatisfaction, even if it does not lead to change.

• Organizational commitment is divided into three dimensions: Affective, Continuance, and Normative.
• Affective commitment is an emotional attachment to the organization, reflected in statements like "I love my company."
• Continuance commitment is based on the perceived costs of leaving the organization.
• Normative commitment is driven by a sense of obligation or duty to remain with the organization.

"Affective commitment is the emotional attachment or identification with or involvement in an organization."

• Affective commitment involves a strong emotional connection and identification with the organization.

"Continuance commitment... is a calculated attachment based primarily upon self-interested motives."

• Continuance commitment is a rational decision to stay due to the high costs of leaving.

"Normative commitment... is when you think or feel that you have an obligation to remain with the organization largely because it's just the right thing to do."

• Normative commitment is driven by a moral obligation to stay, often instilled by personal or cultural values.

• Stress is an adaptive response to perceived threats, defined by Hans Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome.
• The syndrome includes three stages: Alarm Reaction, Resistance, and Exhaustion.
• Alarm Reaction is the body's immediate response to stress, marked by physiological changes.
• Resistance is the stage where the body adapts and copes with stress.
• Exhaustion occurs if stress persists, leading to burnout and potential health issues.

"Stress is an adaptive response to a situation that is perceived as challenging or threatening to a person's well-being."

• Stress is a natural reaction to perceived threats, triggering physiological and psychological responses.

"The first stage is an alarm reaction stage that involves basic physiological responses."

• The Alarm Reaction stage is the initial response to stress, characterized by immediate physiological changes.

"Eventually, after going through this stage of resistance for an exceedingly long time, we enter the exhaustion stage."

• Prolonged stress can lead to the Exhaustion stage, resulting in burnout and health problems.

• Stress can be positive (eustress) or negative (distress), affecting performance differently.
• Eustress enhances performance up to a point, after which distress leads to performance decline.
• The optimal level of stress varies for each individual, impacting their performance curve.

"Not all stress is bad... we have something called eustress and we have distress."

• Stress can be beneficial (eustress) or harmful (distress), influencing performance differently.

"There's a point where the stress level approaches diminishing returns."

• Beyond a certain point, increased stress leads to decreased performance, marking the transition from eustress to distress.

• Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, requiring severity or pervasiveness to be illegal.
• Two types of sexual harassment: Quid Pro Quo and Hostile Work Environment.
• Quid Pro Quo involves job-related consequences dependent on sexual favors.
• Hostile Work Environment includes pervasive, sexually offensive conditions affecting work performance.

"Sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature having a detrimental effect on the work environment or job performance."

• Sexual harassment negatively impacts the work environment and performance, requiring severity or pervasiveness to be illegal.

"Quid pro quo sexual harassment is when employment or job performance is conditional upon the performance of an unwanted sexual act."

• Quid Pro Quo harassment involves coercive demands for sexual acts in exchange for job benefits or avoidance of negative consequences.

"The hostile work environment is a sexually intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment."

• A Hostile Work Environment is characterized by pervasive, objectionable sexual conduct that disrupts work conditions.

• The Civil Rights Act of 1991 updated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, introducing trial by jury and compensatory and punitive damages.
• In cases of discrimination or sexual harassment, a jury trial allows peers to deliberate on the case.
• Companies can face significant financial penalties for failing to prevent or address sexual harassment.
• Strict company policies and procedures are essential for reporting and handling sexual harassment.

"The Civil Rights Act of 1991 allowed for compensatory and punitive damages... companies must pay both compensatory and punitive damages which can be extraordinarily expensive."

• The Act empowers victims to seek financial compensation, ensuring companies take sexual harassment seriously.

"A company must pay both compensatory and punitive damages... a strong message to the company and everyone else that we don't allow that sort of thing."

• Companies face severe consequences for negligence in addressing harassment, reinforcing zero tolerance.

• The case involved a consensual relationship between coworkers that ended, leading to alleged discrimination in promotion.
• The court held companies liable for employee relationships they were unaware of, mandating awareness of employee conduct.
• Resulted in policies requiring employees to report romantic relationships to HR.

"The court said aha you must be aware of what your employees are doing and you are liable for damages."

• Employers are responsible for monitoring and managing employee interactions to prevent discrimination claims.

"If you engage in a romantic relationship with a coworker you may be required to report that relationship to the human resources department."

• Reporting relationships to HR is now a standard policy to mitigate liability for discrimination.

• Individuals have varying thresholds for stress and different coping mechanisms.
• Effective coping strategies include support networks, while ineffective ones like alcohol lead to adverse outcomes.
• Personality traits, such as optimism and resiliency, influence stress management.

"Some coping strategies tend to make matters worse like relying upon alcohol to deal with stress which has never been a good strategy for anybody."

• Unhealthy coping strategies exacerbate stress and lead to long-term negative consequences.

"People who are naturally optimistic... tend to deal fairly well with stressful situations."

• Optimism is linked to better stress management and positive outlooks during challenging times.

• Personal resiliency includes traits like emotional stability, extroversion, and self-esteem, aiding stress recovery.
• Type A individuals are fast-paced and prone to stress-related health issues, while Type B individuals are more relaxed.
• Workaholism is prevalent among Type A individuals, exacerbating stress.

"Type A people tend to experience more cardiovascular health issues... they tend not to deal as well with stress."

• Fast-paced, high-stress lifestyles of Type A individuals increase health risks and stress levels.

"People who think highly of themselves look at stressful situations as just a short little downturn in the trajectory of their life."

• High self-esteem and emotional stability contribute to effective stress management and resilience.

• Burnout involves stages: emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced efficacy, leading to negative consequences.
• Emotional exhaustion is the initial stage, characterized by a lack of care for the job.
• Cynicism involves depersonalizing others, while reduced efficacy results in diminished confidence and performance.
• Professional counseling and time off are necessary for recovery from advanced burnout stages.

"Stage one we have emotional exhaustion... we've given the job all the way we can and things are not getting better."

• Emotional exhaustion marks the onset of burnout, leading to disengagement from work.

"If the burnout process proceeds all the way to stage three then the likelihood of having negative consequences is almost a certainty."

• Advanced burnout stages result in severe physical, psychological, and behavioral issues.

• Positive affectivity in employees enhances workplace morale and performance.
• High emotional labor roles should be assigned to resilient individuals with a strong interest in the job.
• Emotional intelligence is only one aspect of competency and should be used cautiously.
• Creating a positive workplace environment fosters strong organizational commitment.
• Managers should recognize individual differences in stress management and assign tasks accordingly.

"As employers we should seek out persons with high levels of positive affectivity... a Debbie Downer can really make things tough at work."

• Hiring individuals with positive dispositions improves workplace dynamics and reduces stress.

"Never give a job with high emotional labor to someone who does not have both the personal resiliency and an intense interest in the job."

• Matching job roles with employees' emotional capacities and interests prevents burnout and enhances job satisfaction.