BEM 211 (Day 7): Workplace Emotions & EQ
Why Were Emotions Ignored in OB?
*1) The "Myth of Rationality"* - Emotions were seen as irrational - Managers worked to make emotion-free environments *2)Negative View of Emotionality* - Emotions were believed to be disruptive - Emotions interfered with productivity - Only negative emotions were observed *3) Now we know emotions can't be separated from the workplace or how we process information*
Emotional Labor @ Work
*Emotional labor:* occurs when employees express emotions desired by the organization (or boss) at work - Can lead to *emotional dissonance* - (i.e., differences between what employees feel and express at work) or *surface acting* (i.e., hiding felt emotions based on expectations at work) - Problem 1: Generally associated with negative effects (e.g., burnout, turnover, etc.) - Problem 2: pretending to feel particular emotions can be challenging (facial expressions give away/hard to fake) - Solution 1: reduce surface acting by viewing their act as a natural part of their role - Solution 2: *deep acting*: involves visualizing reality differently, then produces more emotions more consistent with required ones --> requires considerable EQ (emotional intelligence) Display rules: norms or explicit rules requiring us within our role to display specific emotions and hide others. --> higher in customer-facing service areas, if these need to be followed too much by company you might have higher emotional labor
HOW TO INCREASE EQ/EI (GOOD NEWS)
- EQ can be learned, unlike IQ which is fairly stable! Developed through 1) assessments 2) goal-setting 3) role-playing 4) behavioral interventions Imrpoving IQ (BOOK) 1)Training programs—learn about emotional intelligence, then receive ongoing feedback in realistic situations. 2) Self-reflection—after an event, employees write a journal report on their experience in which they reflect on what happened and how it could be improved in the future. 3) Coaching—a professional coach observes the individual in work situations and listens to his or her nonobserved experiences, then provides debriefing feedback about how to improve their emotions-based behavior in those situations. 4) Maturity—people tend to improve their emotional intelligence with age due to improved self-awareness, reinforcement of emotions management, and numerous opportunities to develop their emotional intelligence skills. Improving your EQ will help you... - Score well on job interviews - Improve your job performance (esp. those requiring emotional labor) - Strengthen the quality of your relationships - Enhance your leadership effectiveness - *Do better in school (predicts scholastic success above intelligence and personality)*
How Emotions and cognition (logical thinking) influences attitudes and behavior [in the work place]--> EMOTIONS
- Emotions influence almost everything we do in the workplace. - Most OB theories still assume that a person's thoughts and actions are governed primarily or exclusively by logical thinking (cognition) - New studies revealed that *our perceptions, attitudes, decisions, and behavior are influenced by emotions* as well as cognitions. -*Emotions may have a greater influence because they often occur before cognitive processes and, consequently, influence the latter.* *Emotions:* are physiological, behavioral, and psychological episodes experienced toward an object, person, or event that create a state of readiness. - FLEETING, LOW INTENSIITY, events that influence our behavior w/o conscious awareness - Put us in a state of readiness (fight or flight)--> strong emotions trigger conscious awareness of a threat or opportunity in the external environment - These "episodes" are very brief events that typically subside or occur in waves lasting from milliseconds to a few minutes. - directed toward someone or something (task, customer, etc.) - Emotions are experiences: They represent changes in our physiological state (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate), psychological state (e.g., thought process), and behavior (e.g., facial expression). - Most of these emotional reactions = subtle; occur without our awareness DIFFER FROM MOODS: which are not directed toward anything in particular and tend to be longer-term emotional states.
Emotions and Personality
- People with more positive emotions typically have higher emotional stability and are extroverted - Those who experience more negative emotions tend to have higher neuroticism (lower emotional stability) and are introverted. - Positive and negative emotional traits affect a person's attendance, turnover, and long-term work attitudes. - While positive and negative personality traits have some effect, other research concludes that the *actual situation in which people work has a noticeably stronger influence on their attitudes and behavior*.
Affect, Emotions & Moods
Affect is a generic term that covers a broad range of feelings people experience. This includes both emotions and moods. - Emotions are intense feelings (and fleeting) that are directed at someone or something. - Moods are the feelings that tend to be less intense than emotions and that lack a contextual stimulus. *Affect:* Defined as a broad range of feelings that people experience. Includes both emotions and moods. Can also be a trait (PA/NA) *Emotions* - Caused by specific events - Very brief in duration - Specific in nature - Usually accompanied by distinct facial expressions - Action-oriented in nature *Moods* - Cause is often general and/or unclear - Lasts for hours or days - More general in nature (positive or negative mood) - Not accompanied by distinct facial expressions - Cognitive in nature
Emotions, Attitudes, and Behavior
Attitudes: - represent the cluster of beliefs, assessed feelings, and behavioral intentions toward a person, object, or event (called an attitude object). - Attitudes are judgments (emotions are experiences) - involve evaluations of an attitude object (whereas emotions operate as events, usually without our awareness.) - Can operate nonconciously, but usually aware and actively thinking about it - attitude toward someone or something more stable over time (Similar to mood) COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE ON ATTITUDE (left side) *(both) begin with perceptions of the world around us - beliefs, feelings, behavioral intentions 1) Beliefs: established perceptions about the attitude object—what you believe to be true; perceived facts that you acquire from experience and other forms of learning. Each belief also has a valence i.e. positive or negative feeling about each belief (e.g., better job security is good). 2) Feelings. Feelings represent your conscious positive or negative evaluations of the attitude object. (e.g. Some people think mergers are good; others think they are bad. Your like or dislike of mergers represents your assessed feelings.) - Traditionally thought: feelings are calculated from your beliefs about attitude obj. and the associated feelings about those beliefs. - Recent evidence suggests opposite can also occur; your feelings about something can cause you to change your feelings about specific beliefs regarding that target (i.e. you usually like hard work but if you dislike new boss you might develop negative feelings about hard work) 3) Behavioral intentions. Intentions represent your motivation to engage in a particular behavior regarding the attitude object. Your feelings toward attitude obj. motivate your behavioral intentions, and which actions you choose depends on your past experience, personality, and social norms of appropriate behavior. Contingencies: 1) People with the SAME BELIEFS might form DIF FEELINGs toward the attitude object BECAUSE they have DIF VALENCE for those beliefs. (i.e. one agrees boss is hard, but likes that style and thus feels positive about working hard) 2) Second, people with the SAME FEELINGS toward the attitude object might develop DIFFERENT BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS. (i.e. both hate new boss, one complains to upper management, one leaves) *influence of BOTH cognitive reasoning and emotions on attitudes is most apparent when they disagree with each other.* EMOTION PERSPECTIVE ON ATTITUDE (right side) *begins with perception of world around us (environment) 1) [tag sensory info, emotional markers, emotional experience] Our brain tags incoming sensory information with *emotional markers based on a quick and imprecise evaluation of whether that information supports or threatens our innate drives.* --> markers are not calculated feelings; they are automatic and nonconscious emotional responses based on very thin slices of sensory information. 2) The experienced emotions then influence our *feelings about the attitude object.* - i.e. positive emotions about attitude object (like christmas event) lead to more positive attitude toward company 3) Notice the arrow from the emotional episodes to behavior. It indicates that emotions directly (without conscious thinking) influence a person's behavior.
Key take aways
Emotions drive thinking, motivation, and communication and when organizations neglect their importance, emotional labor can result, leading to poorer outcomes Three types of affect exist (moods, emotions, traits) Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to perceive and express emotions accurately, understand emotions and manage emotions (yours and others) effectively EQ can be learned, unlike IQ which is generally fixed
Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
FROM SLIDE: Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the 1) ability to perceive and express emotions accurately, 2) understand emotions and 3) manage emotions (yours and others) effectively *4 abilities of EQ (book):* ORDER (hierarchy) of abilities [LOW TO HIGH] 1) Awareness of our own emotions (LOWEST) - perceiving and understanding the meaning of our own emotions (self aware) 2) Management of our own emotions - includes generating or suppressing emotions (like deep acting) - reframe test anxiety example (i.e. people who had a lot of stress but didn't think of it as stress died less than people who thought stuff was stressful) 3) Awareness of others' emotions - e.g. perceive and understand others emotions (EMPATHY) 4) Management of others' emotions (HIGHEST) - e.g. consoling, inspiring others - EQ plays a role in job performance (but unsure about role in organizations.) - IQ and EQ are POSITIVELY correlated (high iq high eq) - EQ compensates for low IQ - EQ facilitates task performance for individuals with LOW IQ - Helps to explain why some seemingly "dull" people get promoted into leadership roles - EQ is controversial and not wholly accepted - EQ can be learned, unlike IQ which is generally fixed - there is a complicated relationship among emotions PRO: EQ has intuitive appeal, predicts criteria that matter; is biologically-based. CON: EQ is too vague a concept; can't be measured; its validity is suspect. EQ is NOT just trying to "be nice"
Emotions' Influence on Work Behavior and why they matter
INFLUENCE ON WORK BEHAVIOR: 1) Performance - Positive emotion and positive moods generally = *higher levels of individual performance* at work and *higher pay* - *Enhanced customer service, motivation, and decision-making* 2) Creativity - Positive mood increases flexibility, openness, and creativity - Negative emotions (frustration, anger) can aid innovation and proactivity WHY THEY MATTER: *1) Emotions drive thinking* - No emotions No preferences No decisions *2) Emotions are intertwined with cognition* - Two paths of information processing: Fast vs. Slow Thinking *3) "We must have the ability to experience emotions to be rational."* - The key to good decision-making is to employ both thinking and feeling in our decisions *4) Emotions Communicate* - Large amounts of information - Your own preferences - Others' reactions *Showing emotion is a powerful tool for building trust, killing shame and encouraging a team to trust that if they also experience failure and fear, their leader will understand and support them.*
Generating positive emotions @ work
Most people perform work that produces some negative emotions, and research has found that humor and fun at work—whether natural or contrived—can potentially offset some of the negative experiences. - Overall, corporate leaders need to keep in mind that emotions shape employee attitudes and, as we will discuss later, attitudes influence various forms of work-related behavior.
EQ outcomes and development
Research suggests that people with HIGH EI/EQ are 1) better at interpersonal relations 2) perform better in jobs requiring emotional labor, 3) are superior leaders 4) make better decisions involving social exchanges 5) are more successful in many aspects of job interviews 6) are better at knowledge sharing - For example, leaders need substantial emotional intelligence because their work involves regulating their own emotions as part of emotional labor (e.g., showing patience to employees even when they might feel frustrated) as well as regulating the emotions of others (motivating, inspiring) HOW TO INCREASE IT: - companies can also increase employees' emotional intelligence through training programs designed for that purpose - Generally, employees improve their emotional intelligence through 1) awareness of the concept 2) self-awareness of their EI scores 3) coaching and other forms of feedback. - Emotional intelligence also *increases with age*; it is part of the process called *maturity.*
Types of Emotions
Various emotions, all have 2 things in common: 1) all emotions have an associated valence (called core affect) signaling that the perceived object or event should be approached or avoided. - i.e. all emotions evaluate environmental conditions as good or bad, helpful or harmful, positive or negative, and so forth. -negative emotions tend to generate stronger levels of activation than do positive emotions--> valence asymmetry likely due to negative emotions more critical to survival 2) Emotions vary in their level of activation. - By definition, *emotions put us in a state of readiness and primary source of individual motivation.* - Some emotional experiences, such as when we are suddenly surprised, are--> strong enough to consciously motivate us to act without careful thought. - Most emotional experiences are more subtle, but even they activate enough to make us more aware of our environment. UNDERSTANDING EMOTIONS - Emotions are discrete, intense, fleeting feeling states that are elicited by a specific cause and are accompanied by physiological changes and action tendencies - Anger - Fear - Sadness - Happiness
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chap 4 (61-70) Learning Objectives: To understand why emotions are important, even in business, and the impact they have on organizations To understand the dimensions of emotional intelligence (EQ) and how EQ can be developed
Cognitive Dissonance
cognitive dissonance: emotional experience which occurs when people perceive that their beliefs, feelings, and behavior are incongruent with each other. - inconsistency generates emotions (such as feeling hypocritical) that motivate the person to create more consistency by changing one or more of these elements. - dissonance occurs because your attitude (it's good to be cost conscious) is inconsistent with your behavior (buying expensive whiteboards). How to reduce cognitive dissonance: 1) change behavior 2) When it is difficult to change behavior or reverse its consequences, people instead reduce cognitive dissonance by changing their beliefs and feelings. - develop more favorable attitudes toward specific features of the decision i.e. (motivated to discover positive features of the decision they didn't notice earlier, and to discover subsequent problems with the alternatives they didn't choose) 3) Rather than try to overlook the high price of the electronic whiteboards, you reduce dissonance by emphasizing how your other decisions have been frugal (indirect). This framing compensates and thereby maintains your self-concept as a thrifty decision maker. *Each of these mental acrobatics maintains some degree of consistency between the person's behavior and attitudes E.g. Imagine that you have just signed a contract for new electronic whiteboards to be installed throughout the company's meeting rooms. The deal was expensive but, after consulting several staff, you felt that the technology would be valuable in this electronic age. Yet, you felt a twinge of regret soon after signing the contract.
