Chapter 4 Organizational Behavior

Affective Organization Commitment

Represents the other half (with job satisfaction) of what experts call "overall job attitude." It is an individual's emotional attachment to, involvement in, and identification with an organization. Is a form of organizational commitment It is a psychological bond whereby one chooses to be dedicated to and responsible for the organization. Furthermore, affective commitment is an autonomous form of commitment; that is, the employee is motivated by internal strivings of self-concept and values alignment rather than by external forces.

The Five Main Strategies For Regulating Emotions

1) Changing the situation 2) Modifying the situation 3) Suppressing or amplifying emotions 4) Shifting attention 5) Reframing the situation

General Adaptation Syndrome

A model of stress experience, consisting of three stages: alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion. The word stress was first used more than 500 years ago to describe the human response to harsh environmental conditions. It wasn't until the 1930s that researcher Hans Selye (often described as the "father" of stress research) first documented the stress experiences known as general adaptation syndrome. Selye determined (initially by studying rats) that people have a fairly consistent and automatic physiological response to stressful situations, which helps them cope with environmental demands.

Norm of Reciprocity

A natural human motivation to support contribute, and otherwise "pay back" the organization because it has invested in and supported the employee.

Job satisfaction

A person's evaluation of his or her job and work context. It is an appraisal of the perceived job characteristics, work environment, and emotional experiences at work. It is probably the most studied attitude in organizational behavior It is best viewed as a collection of attitudes about different aspects of the job and work context. You might like your coworkers but be less satisfied with your workload, for instance. Job satisfaction and dissatisfaction on individual behavior depends on the person and the situation.

Service Profit Chain Model

A theory explaining how employees' job satisfaction influences company profitability indirectly through service quality, customer loyalty, and related factors. The effect of job satisfaction on customer service and company profits is detailed in the SPCM (Service Profit Chain Model). This model shows that job satisfaction has a positive effect on customer service, which eventually benefits shareholder financial returns.

Exit-Voice-Loyalty-Neglect (EVLN) Model

A useful template for organizing and understanding the consequences of job dissatisfaction. The EVLN model identifies four ways that employees respond to dissatisfaction.

Building Organization Commitment (Justice and Support)

Affective commitment is higher in organizations that support organizational justice. Similarly, organizations that support employee well-being tend to cultivate higher levels of loyalty in return.

All five emotion regulation strategies generate deep acting, but reframing the situation and shifting attention are likely the most common.

Changing and modifying the situation can be applied when employees work alone, but seldom when attending a client meeting, interacting with an upset passenger, or in most other work-related social interactions. Suppressing or amplifying emotions produces deep acting, but these cognitive activities may actually involve reframing the situation and shifting attention.

By actively trying to experience desired emotions, employees are engaging in deep acting.

Deep acting involves actually producing the emotions that are expected in a particular situation, whereas surface does not attempt to experience the expected emotion.

Moods

Differ from emotions as they are not directed towards anything in particular and tend to be longer-term background emotional states.

The Five Main Strategies For Regulating Emotions (Modifying The Situation)

Even when remaining in the same physical location, people adapt the environment so it alters their emotional state. For instance, we might stop working on a task that is aggravating and move to more enjoyable task so that we don't experience (and display) a sour demeanor. Or if a discussion with coworkers becomes awkward or sensitive (such as discussing national politics), we might shift the conversation to a less emotionally laden topic.

Negative emotions tend to generate stronger levels of activation than do positive emotions.

Fear and anger, for instance, are more intense experiences than are joy and delight, so they have a stronger influence on our actions. This valence asymmetry likely occurs because negative emotions protect us from harm and are there fore more critical for our survival.

Circumplex of Model of Emotions

High-activation negative emotions -Distressed -Fearful -Jittery High-activation positive emotions -Enthusiastic -Elated -Excited Low-activation positive emotions -Relaxed -Content -Calm Low-activation negative emotions -Bored -Tired -Drowsy

Circumplex of Model of Emotions Mixed

High-activation negative emotions & High-activation positive emotions -Aroused -Astonished -Stimulated Low-activation negative emotions & Low-activation positive emotions -Quiet -Tranquil -Still High-activation negative emotions & Low-activation negative emotions -Unhappy -Sad -Gloomy High-activation positive emotions & Low-activation positive emotions -Happy -Cheerful -Delighted

Emotional Intelligence

Improves performance in many types of jobs. Emotional intelligence includes a set of abilities that enable us to recognize and regulate our own emotions as well as the emotions of other people.

EVLN (Loyalty)

In the original version of this model, loyalty was only briefly mentioned as an outcome of dissatisfaction, but even then the theory indicated that they took action to change company policies (i.e., high loyalty resulted in voice; low loyalty produced exit). More recent writers describe loyalty only as an outcome of dissatisfaction, but in various and somewhat unclear ways. Generally, they suggest that "loyalists" are employees who respond to dissatisfaction by patiently waiting some say they "suffer in silence" for the problem to work itself out or be resolved by others.

Stressors (the causes of stress)

Include any environmental conditions that place a physical or emotional demand on a person. Four of the most common are: Organizational constraints, interpersonal conflict, work overload, and low task control.

Continuance Commitment

It is a calculative attachment to the organization. The most widely accepted meaning of continuance commitment is that the employee would face significant social or economic sacrifice if he or she left the company (e.g., "I hate this place but can't afford to quit!") A second type of continuance commitment involves limited alternative employment opportunities (e.g., "I dislike working here but there are no other jobs available").

EVLN (Neglect)

Neglect includes reducing work effort, paying less attention to quality, and increasing absenteeism and lateness. It is a passive form of counterproductive work behavior because it has negative consequences for the organization.

The First Stage: Alarm Reaction

Occurs when a threat or challenge activates the physiological stress responses that were noted earlier. The individuals energy level and coping effectiveness decrease in response to the initial shock.

Job Burnout

Occurs when people experience emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced feelings of personal accomplishment. Is a consequence of stress.

People experience emotions and various combinations, but all of them have two common features.

One feature is that emotions vary in their level of activation. By definition, emotions put us in a state of readiness and, as we discuss in the next chapter, are the primary source of a person's motivation. The second feature is that all emotions have an associated valence (called core affect) signaling that the perceived object or even should be approached or avoided. In other words, all emotions evaluate the situation as good or bad, helpful or harmful, positive or negative, and so forth.

Building Organization Commitment

Organizational commitment and job satisfaction represent two of the most often studied discussed attitudes in the workplace. Each is linked to emotional episodes and cognitive judgments about the workplace and relationship with the company.

Stress (What happens to the body)

Our hear rate increases, muscles tighten, breathing speeds up, and perspiration increases. Our body also moves more blood to the brain, releases adrenaline and other hormones, fuels the system by releasing more glucose and fatty acids, activates systems that sharpen our senses, and conserves resources by shutting down our immune system.

The Third Stage: Exhaustion

People have a limited resistance capacity, and if the source of stress persists, the individuals will eventually move into exhaustion. Most of us are able to remove the source of stress or remove ourselves from that source before becoming too exhausted. However, people who frequently reach exhaustion have increased risk of long-term physiological and psychological damage.

Emotions

Physiological, behavioral, and psychological episodes experienced toward and object, person, or event that create a state of readiness. These "episodes" are very brief events, some lasting less than a second. Emotions are directed toward someone or something.

The Five Main Strategies For Regulating Emotions (Reframing The Situation)

Reframing is a cognitive re-evaluation of a particular event that generates more appropriate emotions. Rather than viewing a client presentation as a failure, you might reframe the event as a learning moment that had a low probability of success. Flight attendants apply reframing when they define an incident with an unruly passenger as a test of their customer service skill. These interactions are accomplishments rather than dreaded chores.

Managing Work-Related Stress (Withdraw From The Stressor)

Removing the stressor may be the ideal solution, but it is often not feasible. An alternative strategy is to permanently or temporarily remove employees from the stressor. Permanent withdrawal occurs when employees are transferred to jobs that are more compatible with their abilities and values. Temporarily withdrawing from stressors is the most frequent way that employees manage stress. Vacations and holidays are important opportunities for employees to recover from stress and re-energize for future challenges. A small number of companies offer paid or unpaid sabbaticals. Many firms also provide innovative ways for employees to withdraw from stressful work throughout the day such as game rooms, ice cream cart breaks, nap rooms, and cafeterias that include live piano recitals.

Attitudes

Represent the cluster of beliefs, assessed feelings, and behavioral intentions toward a person, object, or event (called an attitude object).

Job Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction

Research supports the philosophy followed by Hilton and Wegman's (well treated staff treat customers well). In fact, evidence suggests that job satisfaction has a stronger effect on customer service than on overall performance.

Workaholism

Stress is generally higher in individuals with workaholism. Workaholics have an uncomfortable work motivation, constantly think about work, and have low work enjoyment.

Distress

Stress is typically described as a negative experience (distress). This is the degree of physiological, psychological, and behavioral deviation from healthy functioning.

Surface acting-the first approach which is consciously behaving in ways that are consistent with the expected emotions. This occurs when we pretend to be experiencing the expected emotions even though we are actually experiencing different emotions.

Surface acting is usually (but not always) a poor strategy for emotional labor. It can be stressful because it requires considerable mental effort as well as psychological separation of self from the role. Pretending to feel particular emotions is also challenging. A genuine emotion automatically activates a complex set of facial muscles and body positions, all of which are difficult to replicate when pretending to have these emotions.

Work-Life Integration

The degree that people are effectively engaged in their various work and nonwork roles and have a low degree of role conflict across those life domains.

Reduced Personal Accomplishment

The final stage of job burnout. It entails feelings of diminished confidence in one's ability to perform the job well.

Regulation Emotions

The second approach to displaying the expected emotions is to actually experience those emotions (rather than faking them). In other words, we consciously change our emotions so they are aligned with the expected emotions performance.

Normative Commitment

The third sibling of affective and continuance commitment. Refers to a felt obligation or moral duty to the organization. Receives less attention because it overlaps somewhat with affective commitment and its meaning is somewhat ambiguous.

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 emotional experiences are subtle; they occur without our awareness. This is an important point because the topic of emotions often conjures up images of people "getting emotional." In reality, most emotions are fleeting, nonconscious events that influence our conscious thinking and behavior.

Building Organization Commitment (Trust)

Trust refers to positive expectations one person has toward another person in situations involving risk. Trust means putting faith in the other person or group. It is also a reciprocal activity: To receive trust, you must demonstrate trust. Employees identify with and feel obliged to work for an organization only when thy trust its leaders. This explains why layoffs are one of the greatest blows to affective commitment; by reducing job security, companies reduce the trust employees have in their employer and the employment relationship.

Trust

positive expectations one person has toward another person in situations involving risk.

The Second Stage: Resistance

Activates various biochemical, psychological, and behavioral mechanism that give the individual more energy and engage in coping mechanisms to overcome or remove the source of stress. To focus energy on the source of the stress, the body reduces resources to the immune system during this stage. This explains why people are more likely to catch a cold or other illness when they experience prolonged stress.

Maturity

Along with formal training programs, emotional intelligence increases with age; it is part of the process called maturity.

The four dimensions of emotional intelligence form a hierarchy.

Awareness of your own emotions is lowest in that hierarchy because it is a prerequisite for engaging in the higher levels of emotional intelligence. You can't manage your won emotions if you don't know what they are (i.e., low self-awareness). Managing other people's emotions is the highest level of EI because this ability requires awareness of your own and others' emotions.

Building Organization Commitment (Employee Involvement)

Employee involvement increases affective commitment by strengthening the employee's psychological ownership and social identity with the organization. Employees feel part of the organization's future. Employee involvement also builds loyalty because it demonstrates the company's trust in its employees.

Emotional Exhaustion

The first stage in job burnout, it is characterized by a lack of energy, tiredness, and a feeling that one's emotional resources are depleted.

EVLN (Voice)

Voice is any attempt to change, rather than escape from, the dissatisfying situation. Voice can be a constructive response, such as recommending ways for management to improve the situation, or it can be more confrontational, such as filing formal grievances or forming a coalition to oppose a decision. In the extreme, some employees might engage in counterproductive behaviors to get attention and force changes in the organization.

Eustress

A necessary form of stress in life because it activates and motivates people to achieve goals, change their environments, and succeed in life's challenges. Not too much stress just at some level

Ways to build and maintain affective commitment

1) Justice and support 2)Shared value 3) Trust 4) Organizational comprehension 5) Employee involvement

Managing Work-Related Stress

1) Removing the stressor 2) Withdraw from the stressor 3) Change stress perceptions 4) Control stress consequences 5) Receive social support

Job Satisfaction and Business Ethics

Along with its significant effect on employee behavior, job satisfaction is an ethical issue that influences the organization's reputation in the community. People spend a large portion of their time working in organization, any many societies now expect companies to provide work environments that are safe and enjoyable. Indeed, employees in several countries closely monitor ratings of the best companies to work for, an indication that employee satisfaction is a virtue worth considerable goodwill to employers. This virtue is apparent when an organization has low job satisfaction. The company tries to hide this fact, and when moral problems become public, corporate leaders are usually quick to improve the situation.

Attitudes are judgments, whereas emotions are experiences.

Attitudes involve evaluations of an attitude object, whereas emotions operate as events, usually without our awareness. Attitudes might also operate nonconsciously, but we are usually aware of and consciously think about these evaluations. Another distinction is that we experience most emotions very briefly, whereas our attitude toward someone or something is more stable over time. Until recently, experts believed that attitudes could be understood just by the three cognitive components: beliefs, feelings, and behavioral intentions.

Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence

Awareness of own emotions -Yourself -Recognition of emotions Awareness of others' emotions -Others -Recognition of emotions Management of own emotions -Regulation of emotions -Yourself Management of other's emotions -Regulation of emotions -Others

Managing Work-Related Stress (Control Stress Consequences)

Keeping physically fit and maintaining a healthy lifestyle are effective stress management strategies because they control stress consequences. Good physical fitness reduces the adverse physiological consequences of stress by helping employees moderate their breathing and heart rate, muscle tension and stomach acidity. They variable here is physical fitness, not exercise. Exercise leads to physical fitness, but research suggest that exercise does not reduce stress symptoms among people who are not yet physically fit. Various forms of meditation reduce anxiety and other symptoms of stress, but their effect on blood pressure and other physiological symptoms is minimal. Wellness programs also can assist in controlling the consequences of stress. These programs inform employees about better nutrition and fitness, regular sleep, and other good health habits. Many large companies offer employee assistance programs (EAPs) which are counseling services that help employees resolve marital, financial, or work-related troubles.

Cognitive Dissonance

Occurs when people perceive that their beliefs, feelings, and behavior are incongruent with one another. The inconsistency among these three attitude components generates emotions (such as feeling hypocritical) that motivate the person to create more consistency by changing one or more of them. Most people like to think of themselves and be viewed by others as rational and logical. Cognitive dissonance occurs when our behavior and beliefs conflict, which is not so rational.

Emotional Display Norms Across Cultures

One large global study reports that several countries in Asia and Africa strongly discourage emotional expression. Instead, people are expected to be subdued, have relatively monotonic voice intonation, and avoid physical movement and touching that display emotions. In contrast, several Latin and Middle Eastern cultures allow or encourage more vivid display of emotions and expect people to act more consistently with their true emotions. In these cultures, people are expected to more honestly reveal their thoughts and feelings, be dramatic in their conversational tones, and be animated in their use of nonverbal behaviors.

Building Organization Commitment (Organizational Comprehension)

Organizational comprehension refers to how well employees understand the organization, including its strategic direction, social dynamics, and physical layout. This awareness is a necessary prerequisite to affective commitment because it is difficult to identify with or feel loyal to something that you don't know very well. Furthermore, lack of information produces uncertainty (i.e., the organization). The practical implication here is to ensure that employees develop a reasonably clear and complete mental model of the organization. This occurs by giving staff information and opportunities to keep up to date about organizational events, interact with coworkers, discover what goes on in different parts of the organization, and learn about the organization's history and future plans.

Service Profit Chain Model (Explanation)

Organizational practices-> Employee satisfaction and commitment-> Employee retention & Employee motivation and behavior-> Service quality-> Customer satisfaction/ perceived value-> Customer loyalty and referrals-> Company profitability and growth

The influence of both cognitive reasoning and emotions on attitudes is most apparent when they disagree with each other.

People occasionally experience this mental tug-of-war, sensing that something isn't right even though they can't think of any logical reason to be concerned. This conflicting experience indicates that the person's logical analysis of the situation generates feelings that differ from emotional reaction.

Model of Emotions, Attitudes, and Behavior

Perceived Environment = Cognitive Process->Beliefs->Feelings->Behavioral Intentions =Attitude Perceived Environment = Emotional Process->Emotional Episodes (Beliefs & Feelings)-> Behavior

Managing Work-Related Stress (Receive Social Support)

Social support occurs when coworkers, supervisors, family members, friends, and others provide emotional and/or informational support to buffer an individual's stress experience. For instance, employees whose managers are good at empathizing experienced fewer stress symptoms than do employees who managers were less empathetic. Social support potentially (but not always) improves the person's optimism and self-confidence because support makes people feel valued and worthy. Social support also provides information to help the person interpret, comprehend, and possibly remove the stressor. For instance, to reduce a new employee's stress, coworkers could describe ways to handle difficult customers. Seeking social support is called a "tend and befriend" response to stress, and research suggest that women often follow this route rather than the "fight-or-flight".

Model of Emotions, Attitudes, and Behavior ( Behavioral Intentions)

This third element represents your planned effort to engage in a particular behavior regarding the attitude object. Upon hearing that the company will merge with another organization, you might plan to look for a job elsewhere or possibly to complain to management about the merger decision. Your feelings toward mergers influence your behavioral intentions, and which actions you choose depends on your past experience, personality, and social norms of appropriate behavior.

Stressors (Work Overload)

"We just keep rushing along in a confused state of never having time to do the things that seem to be pressing upon us." Sound familiar? Most of us probably had this thought from time to time. But this comment wasn't written in the past year or even in the past decade. It came from an article "Let's Slow Down!" in a financial institution's newsletter to clients in 1949! The fact is, people have been struggling for more than a half century with the pace of life, including the challenges of performing too many tasks and working too many hours. Work overload is one of the most common workplace stressors. Employees are expected (or believe they are expected) to complete more work with more effort than they can provide within the allotted time. Work overload is evident when employees consume more of their personal time to get the job done. Technology and globalization also contribute to work overload because they tether employees to work for more hours of the day. People increasingly work with coworkers in a distant time zone, and their communication habits of being constantly "on" make it difficult to separate work from personal life. Some employees amplify their work overload by adopting an "ideal worker norm" in which the expect themselves and others to work longer hours. For many, toiling away far beyond the normal workweek is a badge of honor, a symbol of their superhuman capacity to perform above others. For example, 39% of Millennial employees in one recent large-scale survey admitted that they work long hours and have a 24/7 schedule so they look like a "work martyr" to their boss.

Stress

Most often described as an adaptive response to a situation that is perceived as challenging or threatening to the person's well-being. It is a physiological and psychological condition that prepares us to adapt to hostile or noxious environmental conditions. t One school of thought suggests that stress is a negative evaluation of the external environment. However, critics of this "cognitive appraisal" perspective point out that stress is more accurately describes as an emotional experience, which may occur before or after a conscious evaluation of the situation.

Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence (Management of others' emotions)

This dimension of EI refers to managing other people's emotions. It includes consoling people who feel sad, emotionally inspiring team members to complete a class project on time, getting strangers to feel comfortable working with you, and dissipating coworker stress and other dysfunctional emotions that they experience.

Within the service profit chain model are two key explanations why satisfied employees tend to generate happier and more loyal customers.

1) Job satisfaction tends to put employees in a more positive mood, and people in a good mood more naturally and frequently display friendliness and positive emotions. 2) Satisfied employees are less likely to quite their jobs, so they have more work experience (i.e., better knowledge and skills) to serve clients. Lower turnover also enables customers to have the same employees serve them on different occasions, so there is more consistent service.

Individual Differences In Stress

1) The employees physical health. Regular exercise and a healthy lifestyle produce a larger store of energy to cope with stress. 2) The coping strategy employees use to ward off a particular stressor. People sometimes figure out ways to remove the stressor or to minimize its presence. Seeking support from others, reframing the stressor or to minimize its presence. Seeking support from others, reframing the stressor in a more positive light, blaming others for the stressor, and denying the stressor's existence are some coping mechanisms. 3) Personality. Possibly the most important reason why people experience different levels of stress when faced with the same stressor.

Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence (Management of our own emotions)

Emotional intelligence includes the ability to manage our own emotions, something that we all do to some extent. We keep disruptive impulses in check. We try not feel angry or frustrated when even go against us. We try to feel and express joy and happiness toward others when the occasion calls for these emotional displays. We re-energize ourselves later in the workday. Notice that management of our own emotions goes beyond enacting desired emotions in a particular situation. It also includes generating or suppressing emotions. In other words, the deep acting described earlier requires high levels of the self-regulation component of emotional intelligence.

Almost everyone is required to abide by display rules. These norms or explicit rules require employees to engage in emotions performance, that is, to display behaviors representing specific emotions and to hide observable evidence of other emotions.

Emotional labor demands are higher in job requiring a variety of emotions (e.g., anger as well as joy) and more intense emotions (e.g., showing delight rather than smiling weakly), as well as in jobs where interaction with clients is frequent and longer. Emotional labor also increases when employees must precisely rather than casually abide by the display rules. This work requirement is most common in service industries, where employees have frequent face-to-face interaction with clients.

Strategies For Displaying Expected Emotions

Emotional labor is ultimately about how we exhibit behavior depicting specific emotions we are expected to display in that situation. Two general approaches to emotional labor are to 1) consciously engage in verbal and nonverbal behaviors that represent the expected emotions and 2) actively change our emotional experiences so they are aligned with the expected emotions and emotional performance.

Stressors (Interpersonal Conflict)

Employees usually agree on the organization's overall objective, but they frequently disagree with one another regarding how to achieve those goals as well as how the work and resources should be distributed along that journey. Therefore, conflict is a way of life in organizations. Dysfunctional conflict can easily flair up and, left unchecked, escalate to a level that produces considerable stress and counterproductive work behaviors. In organizational settings, most interpersonal conflict is caused by structural sources such as ambiguous rules, lack of resources, and conflicting goals between employees or departments. However, a variety of interpersonal conflict that has become an increasing concern is workplace harassment, including workplace bullying, sexual harassment, and other forms of mistreatment by coworkers, managers, or customers.

EVLN (Exit)

Exit includes leaving the organization, transferring to another work unit, or at least trying to get away from the dissatisfying situation. The traditional theory is that job dissatisfaction builds over time and is eventually strong enough to motivate employees to search for better work opportunities elsewhere. This is likely true to some extent, but the most recent opinion is that specific "shock events" quickly energize employees to think about and engage in exit behavior. For example, the emotional reaction you experience to an unfair management decision or a conflict episode with a coworker motivates you to look at job ads and speak to friends about job opportunities where they work. This begins the process of visualizing yourself working at another company and psychologically withdrawing from your current employer.

Job Satisfaction in Selected Countries

Hong Kong-47% Japan-50% Hungary-62% China-67% France-67% Italy-68% United Kingdom-72% Denmark-78% United States-80% India-80% Mexico-84%

Managing Work-Related Stress (Change Stress Perceptions)

How much stress employees experience depends on how they perceive the stressor. Consequently, another way to manage stress is to help employees improve their self-concept so job challenges are not perceived as threatening. Personal goal setting and self-reinforcement also can reduce the stress that people experience when they enter new work settings. In addition, research suggests that some (but not all) forms of humor can improve optimism and create positive emotions by taking some psychological weight off a stressful situation.

Stressors (Organizational Constraints)

Stress research has identified organizational constraints as one of the most pervasive causes of workplace stress. This stressor includes lack of equipment, supplies, budget funding, coworker support, information, and other resources necessary to complete the required work. Most employees experience stress because these constraints interfere with task performance, which indirectly threatens their rewards, status, and job security. Organizational constraints refer to situational factors, which is on of the four direct predictors of individual behavior and performance. It is the only direct influence on individuals performance that is beyond the employee's immediate control. This lack of control is a powerful stressor because it threatens the individual's fundamental drive to influence his or her external environment.

Model of Emotions, Attitudes, and Behavior (Emotional Process Note)

The arrow from emotional episodes to behavior. It indicates that emotions directly influence a person's behavior without conscious thought. This occurs when we jump suddenly if someone sneaks up on us. It also occurs in everyday situations because even low-intensity emotions automatically change our facial expressions. These actions are not carefully thought out. They are automatic emotional responses that are learned or hardwired by heredity for particular situations.

How Emotions Influence Attitudes and Behavior

The cognitive model describes to some extent how employees form and change their attitudes, but emotions also have a central role in this process. The emotional process of the Model of Emotions, Attitudes, and Behavior illustrates this process, which (like the cognitive process) also begins with perceptions of the world around us. 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. These markers are not calculated feelings; they are automatic and nonconscious emotional responses based on very thin slices of sensory information. The experienced emotions then influence our feelings about the attitude object.

Building Organization Commitment (Shared Values)

The definition of affective commitment refers to a person's identification with the organization, and that identification is highest when employees believe their values are congruent with the organization's dominant values. Employees also experience more positive emotions when their personal values are aligned with corporate values and actions, which increases their motivation to stay with the organization.

Emotional Labor

The effort, planning, and control needed to express organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions.

Cynicism (depersonalization)

The second stage in job burnout, also known as depersonalization. It is an indifferent attitude toward work, emotional detachment from clients, a cynical view of the organization, and a tendency to strictly follow rules and regulations rather than adapt to the needs of others.

Managing Work-Related Stress (Remove The Stressor)

There are many ways to remove the stressor, but some of the more common actions involve assigning employees to jobs that match their skills and preferences, reducing excessive workplace noise, having a complaint system that takes corrective action against harassment, and giving employees more control over the work process. Another important way that companies can remove stressors is through work-life integration initiatives. For example, personal leave benefits, such as maternity and paternity leave, temporarily offer employees paid nonwork time to manage special circumstances. Remote work potentially improves work-life integration by reducing or eliminating commuting time and increasing flexibility to perform nonwork obligations. Some companies and at least one government (France) have introduced policies that prohibit managers and employees from communicating work-related issues during nonwork hours.

Model of Emotions, Attitudes, and Behavior (Beliefs)

These are your established perceptions about the attitude object-what you believe to be true. For example, you might believe that mergers reduce job security for employees in the merged firms, or that mergers increase the company's competitiveness in this era of globalization. These beliefs are perceived facts that you acquire from experience and other forms of learning. Each of these beliefs also has a valence; that is you, you have a positive or negative feeling about each belief (e.g., reduced job security is bad).

Model of Emotions, Attitudes, and Behavior (Feelings)

This element represents your conscious positive or negative evaluations of the attitude object. Some people think mergers are good; others think they are bad. Your positive or negative opinion of mergers represents your assessed feelings. According to the traditional cognitive perspective of attitudes, feelings are calculated from your beliefs about mergers and the associated feelings about those beliefs. Consider the example of your attitude toward mergers. If you believe that mergers typically have negative consequences such as layoffs and organizational politics, then you will form negative feelings toward mergers in general or about a specific planned merger in your organization.

The Five Main Strategies For Regulating Emotions (Changing The Situation)

This involves moving out of or into work settings that affect our emotions. One example would be temporarily leaving a work area that makes us feel lethargic. At the same time, we might have a short walking break outside to regain our vigor. Another example is keeping away from a particular client who is deeply irritating.

It has been implied that emotional experiences are triggered by workplace experiences

This is mostly true, but emotions are also partly determined by an individual's personality. People with higher emotional stability and extraverted personalities tend to experience more positive emotions. Those with higher neuroticism (lower emotional stability) and introverted personalities tend to experience more negative emotions. Although positive and negative personality traits have some effect, studies have found that the actual situation in which people work has a noticeably stronger influence on their attitudes and behavior.

The cognitive model of attitudes (beliefs-feelings-intentions) gives the impression that we can predict behavior from each element of the individual's attitude.

This is potentially true, but contingencies at each stage in the model can weaken that predictability.

Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence (Awareness of others' emotions)

This is the ability to perceive and understand the emotions of other people. It relates to empathy which is having an understanding of and sensitivity to the feelings, thoughts, and situations of others. It includes understanding the other person's situation, experiencing his or her emotions, and knowing his or her needs, even when unstated. Awareness of others' emotions also includes being organizationally aware, such as sensing office politics and the existence of informal social networks.

Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence (Awareness of your own emotions)

This is the ability to perceive and understand the meaning of our own emotions. People with higher emotional intelligence have better awareness of their emotions and are better able to make sense of them. They can eavesdrop of their emotional responses to specific situations and use this awareness as conscious information.

The Five Main Strategies For Regulating Emotions (Shifting Attention)

This strategy involves changing the focus of our attention. Suppose that earlier today you led a client presentation that didn't go well. To minimize the negative emotions of that event, you might engage in work (such as another project with coworkers) that take your mind off the flawed presentation.

The Five Main Strategies For Regulating Emotions (Suppressing Or Amplifying Emotions)

This strategy involves consciously trying to block out dysfunctional emotions or to increase the intensity of expected emotions. Suppressing emotions is the most common activity in this category. We try to stop thinking about events that bother us or, at least, psychologically distance ourselves from those events. For instance, some medical staff suppress their emotional responses to patient suffering by maintaining an impersonal relationship with patients.

Stressors (Low Task Control)

Workplace stress is higher when employees lack control over how and when they perform their tasks as well as lack control over the pace of work activity. Work is potentially more stressful when it is paced by a machine, involves monitoring equipment, or the work schedule is controlled by someone else. Low task control is a stressor because employees face high workloads without the ability to adjust the pace of the load to their own energy, attention span, and other resources. Furthermore, the degree to which low task control is a stressor increases with the burden of responsibility the employee must carry. Assembly-line workers have low task control, but their stress can be fairly low if their level of responsibility is also low. In contrast, sports coaches are under immense pressure to win games (high responsibility), yet they have little control over what happens on the playing field (low task control).

Most OB theories still assume that a person's thoughts and actions are governed primarily or exclusively by logical thinking (called cognition)

Yet groundbreaking neuroscience discoveries have 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. By ignoring emotionality, many theories have overlooked a large piece of the puzzle about human behavior in the workplace.