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fitruong
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 107

CHAPTER 4
Emotions and Moods
LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, students should be able to:

4-1. Differentiate between emotions and moods.


4-2. Identify the sources of emotions and moods.
4-3. Show the impact emotional labor has on employees.
4-4. Describe affective events theory.
4-5. Describe emotional intelligence.
4-6. Identify strategies for emotional regulation.
4-7. Apply concepts about emotions and moods to specific OB issues.

INSTRUCTOR RESOURCES

Instructors may wish to use the following resources when presenting this chapter.

Text Exercises

 Myth or Science?: “Smile, and the Work World Smiles with You”
 An Ethical Choice: Should Managers Use Emotional Intelligence (EI) Tests?
 MyLab Management
o Personal Inventory Assessment: Emotional Intelligence Assessment
o Try It!: Emotions and Mood
o Watch It!: East Haven Fire Department: Emotions and Moods
 Career OBjectives: How Do I Turn Down the Volume on My Screaming Boss?
 Point/Counterpoint: Sometimes Yelling Is for Everyone’s Good
 Questions for Review
 Experiential Exercise: Mindfulness at Work
 Ethical Dilemma: Data Mining Emotions

Text Cases

 Case Incident 1: Managers Have Feelings, Too!


 Case Incident 2: When the Going Gets Boring

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.


Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 108

Instructor’s Choice

This section presents an exercise that is NOT found in the student's textbook. Instructor's
Choice reinforces the text's emphasis through various activities. Some Instructor's Choice
activities are centered on debates, group exercises, Internet research, and student
experiences. Some can be used in class in their entirety, while others require some
additional work on the student's part. The course instructor may choose to use these at
any time throughout the class—some may be more effective as icebreakers, while some
may be used to pull together various concepts covered in the chapter.

Web Exercises

At the end of each chapter of this Instructor’s Manual, you will find suggested exercises
and ideas for researching OB topics on the Internet. The exercises “Exploring OB Topics
on the Web” are set up so that you can simply photocopy the pages, distribute them to
your class, and make assignments accordingly. You may want to assign the exercises as
an out-of-class activity or as lab activities with your class.

Summary and Implications for Managers

Emotions and moods are similar in that both are affective in nature. But they’re also
different—moods are more general and less contextual than emotions. The time of day
and day of the week, stressful events, social activities, and sleep patterns are some of the
factors that influence emotions and moods.
OB research on emotional labor, affective events theory, emotional intelligence, and
emotion regulation helps us understand how people deal with emotions.
Emotions and moods have proven relevant for virtually every OB topic we study, and
they have implications for managerial practice. Specific implications for managers are
below:
 Recognize that emotions are a natural part of the workplace and good
management does not mean creating an emotion-free environment.
 To foster effective decision making, creativity, and motivation in employees, look
to model positive emotions and moods as much as is authentically possible.
 Provide positive feedback to increase the positivity of employees. Of course, it
also helps to hire people who are predisposed to positive moods.
 In the service sector, encourage positive displays of emotion, which make
customers feel more positive and thus, improve customer service interactions and
negotiations.
 Understand the role of emotions and moods to significantly improve your ability
to explain and predict your coworkers’ and other’s behavior.

This chapter begins with a vignette discussing the controversy over price hikes in the pharmaceutical
industry. As the outrage over drug profiteering illustrates, emotions can greatly influence our attitudes
toward others, our decision making, and our behaviors. It can even spark conflict with potentially
disastrous consequences. In truth, we cannot set aside our emotions, but we can acknowledge and work
with them. And not all emotions have negative influences on us. Given the obvious role emotions play in

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.


Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 109

our lives, it might surprise you that, until recently, the field of OB has not given the topic of emotions much
attention. Why? Generally, because emotions in the workplace were historically thought to be detrimental
to performance. Although managers knew emotions were an inseparable part of everyday life, they tried to
create organizations that were emotion-free. Researchers tended to focus on strong negative emotions—
especially anger—that interfered with an employee’s ability to work effectively. Thankfully, this type of
thinking is changing. Certainly some emotions, particularly exhibited at the wrong time, can hinder
performance. Other emotions are neutral, and some are constructive. Employees bring their emotions to
work every day, so no study of OB would be comprehensive without considering their role in workplace
behavior.

BRIEF CHAPTER OUTLINE

I. What Are Emotions and Moods?


A. Introduction
1. Affect is a generic term that covers a broad range of feelings that people
experience, and encompasses both emotions and moods.
2. Emotions are intense feelings that are directed at someone or something.
3. Moods are less intense feelings than emotions and often arise without a
specific event acting as a stimulus.
4. Exhibit 4-1 shows the relationships among affect, emotions, and mood.
B. The Basic Emotions
1. Numerous researchers have tried to limit and define the dozens of emotions
into a basic set of emotions.
2. Cultural norms that govern emotional expression – how we experience an
emotion isn’t always the same as how we show it.
3. Researchers agree on six universal emotions: happiness—surprise—fear—
sadness—anger—disgust.
C. Moral Emotions
1. Researchers have been studying what are called moral emotions; that is,
emotions that have moral implications because of our instant judgement of the
situation that evokes them.
2. Interestingly, research indicates that our responses to moral emotions differ
from our responses to other emotions.
3. Moral emotions are learned, usually in childhood, and thus, they are not
universal like innate emotions.
4. Because morality is a construct that differs between cultures, so do moral
emotions. Therefore, we need to be aware of the moral aspects of situations
that trigger our emotions and make certain we understand the context before
we act, especially in the workplace.
D. The Basic Moods: Positive and Negative Affect
1. One way to classify emotions is by whether they are positive or negative.
a. Positive emotions—such as joy and gratitude—express a favorable
evaluation or feeling.
b. Negative emotions—such as anger or guilt—express the opposite.
2. When we group emotions into positive and negative categories, they become
mood states because we are now looking at them more generally instead of
isolating one particular emotion.

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.


Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 110

a. In Exhibit 4-2, excited is a pure marker of high positive affect, while


boredom is a pure marker of low negative affect.
b. Nervous is a pure marker of high negative affect; relaxed is a pure marker
of low positive affect.
c. We can think of positive affect as a mood dimension consisting of positive
emotions such as excitement, alertness, and elation at the high end and
contentedness, calmness, and serenity at the low end.
d. Negative affect is a mood dimension consisting of nervousness, stress, and
anxiety at the high end and boredom, depression, and fatigue at the low
end.
E. Experiencing Moods and Emotions
1. As if it weren’t complex enough to consider the many distinct emotions and
moods a person might identify, the reality is that we all experience moods and
emotions differently.
2. For most people, positive moods are somewhat more common than negative
moods. Indeed, research finds a positivity offset, meaning that at zero input
(when nothing in particular is going on), most individuals experience a mildly
positive mood.
3. Does the degree to which people experience positive and negative emotions
vary across cultures? Yes (see the OB Poll).
4. People in most cultures appear to experience certain positive and negative
emotions, and people interpret them in much the same way worldwide.
5. However, an individual’s experience of emotions appears to be culturally
shaped.
F. The Function of Emotions
1. Do emotions make us irrational?
a. Observations of emotions suggest rationality and emotion are in conflict,
and that if you exhibit emotion, you are likely to act irrationally.
b. These perspectives suggest that the demonstration or even experience of
emotions can make us seem weak, brittle, or irrational.
2. Do emotions make us ethical?
a. A growing body of research has begun to examine emotions and moral
attitudes.
b. Decision making was believed to be a higher-order cognitive process, but
recent research on moral emotions questions this assumption.
II. Sources of Emotions and Moods
A. Personality
1. Affect intensity—individual differences in the strength with which
individuals experience their emotions.
B. Time of the Day
1. Moods vary by time of day.
2. Researchers analyzed millions of Twitter messages from around the globe.
a. Exhibit 4-3 shows positive affect increased after sunrise, tended to peak at
midmorning, remained stable until roughly 7 p.m., and then tended to
increase again until the midnight drop.
C. Day of the week

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.


Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 111

1. In most cultures, people are in better moods on the weekend.


2. Exhibit 4-4 shows that this is true in several cultures.

D. Weather
1. Weather has little effect on mood.
2. Illusory correlation occurs when people associate two events, but in reality
there is no connection.
E. Stress
1. Stress can be cumulative and does affect mood and emotional states.
F. Social activities
1. Social activities tend to increase positive mood.
2. People who are in positive moods seek out social activities.
G. Sleep
1. A large portion of the U.S. workforce suffers from sleep deprivation.
2. Sleep quality affects mood.
H. Exercise
1. Research consistently shows that exercise enhances peoples’ positive moods.
I. Age
1. Older adults tend to focus on more positive stimuli (and on less negative
stimuli) than younger adults, a finding confirmed across nearly 100 studies.
J. Sex
1. Women show greater emotional expression than men, experience emotions
more intensely, and display more frequent expressions of both positive and
negative emotions.
2. Women also report more comfort in expressing emotions.
3. Women are better at reading nonverbal cues than men are.
III. Emotional Labor
A. Introduction
1. Emotional labor is an employee’s expression of organizationally desired
emotions during interpersonal transactions at work.
B. Felt Versus Displayed Emotions
1. Separate emotions into felt (an individual’s actual emotions) and displayed
(those that the organization requires workers to show and considers
appropriate in a given job).
2. Displayed emotions may require acting to keep employment.
3. Surface acting is hiding inner feelings and forgoing emotional expressions in
response to display rules.
4. Deep acting is the modification of inner feelings.
5. Displaying emotions we don’t really feel is exhausting, so it is important to
give employees who engage in surface displays a chance to relax and
recharge.
6. The disparity between employees having to project one emotion while feeling
another is called emotional dissonance.
IV. Affective Events Theory
A. Understanding emotions at work has been helped by a model called affective
events theory (AET).

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.


Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 112

1. Employees react emotionally to things that happen to them at work and this
influences job performance and satisfaction.
2. Work events trigger positive or negative emotional reactions to which
employees’ personalities and moods predispose them to respond with greater
or lesser intensity.
B. In summary, AET offers two important messages:
1. First, emotions provide valuable insights into how workplace hassles and
uplifting events influence employee performance and satisfaction.
2. Second, employees and managers shouldn’t ignore emotions or the events that
cause them, even when they appear minor, because they accumulate.
V. Emotional Intelligence
A. Introduction
1. Emotional intelligence (EI) is a person’s ability to:
a. Perceive emotions in the self and others.
b. Understand the meaning of these emotions.
c. Regulate one’s emotions accordingly in a cascading model, as shown in
Exhibit 4-5.
2. Several studies suggest EI may play an important role in job performance.
3. EI has been a controversial concept in OB, with supporters and detractors.
B. Emotional Regulation
1. Emotion regulation means to identify and modify the emotions you feel.
C. Emotion Regulation Influences and Outcomes
1. As you might suspect, not everyone is equally good at regulating emotions.
2. Individuals who are higher in the personality trait of neuroticism have more
trouble doing so and often find their moods are beyond their ability to control.
3. The workplace environment has an effect on an individual’s tendency to
employ emotion regulation.
4. In general, diversity in work groups increases the likelihood that you will
regulate your emotions.
5. Racial diversity also has an effect: if diversity is low, the minority will engage
in emotion regulation, perhaps to “fit in” with the majority race as much as
possible; if diversity is high and many different races are represented, the
majority race will employ emotion regulation, perhaps to integrate themselves
with the whole group.
a. These findings suggest a beneficial outcome of diversity—it may cause us
to regulate our emotions more consciously and effectively.
6. Changing your emotions takes effort, and this effort can be exhausting.
7. From another perspective, research suggests that avoiding negative emotional
experiences is less likely to lead to positive moods than does seeking out
positive emotional experiences.
D. Emotion Regulation Techniques
1. Researchers of emotion regulation often study the strategies people employ to
change their emotions.
a. Surface acting and deep acting are emotion regulation techniques.
2. One technique of emotion regulation is emotional suppression, or suppressing
initial emotional responses to situations.

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Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 113

a. This response seems to facilitate practical thinking in the short term.


However, it appears to be helpful only when a strongly negative event
would illicit a distressed emotional reaction in a crisis situation.
3. Thus, unless we’re truly in a crisis situation, acknowledging rather than
suppressing our emotional responses to situations, and re-evaluating events
after they occur, yields the best outcomes.
4. Cognitive reappraisal, or reframing our outlook on an emotional situation, is
one way to effectively regulate emotions.
a. This result suggests that cognitive reappraisal may allow people to change
their emotional responses, even when the subject matter is as highly
emotionally charged as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
5. Another technique with potential for emotion regulation is social sharing, or
venting.
6. Research shows that the open expression of emotions can help individuals to
regulate their emotions, as opposed to keeping emotions “bottled up.”
7. Social sharing can reduce anger reactions when people can talk about the facts
of a bad situation, their feelings about the situation, or any positive aspects of
the situation.
8. A final emotion regulation technique, mindfulness—receptively paying
attention to and being aware of the present moment, events, and experiences
— has started to become popular in organizations.
9. While emotion regulation techniques can help us cope with difficult
workplace situations, research indicates that the effect varies.
10. Thus, while there is much promise in emotion regulation techniques, the best
route to a positive workplace is to recruit positive-minded individuals and
train leaders to manage their moods, job attitudes, and performance.
E. Ethics of Emotion Regulation
1. Emotion regulation has important ethical implications. Some people might
argue that controlling your emotions is unethical because it requires a degree
of acting.
2. Recent research has found that acting like you are in a good mood might put
you in a good mood.
VI. OB Applications of Emotions and Moods
A. The Selection Process
1. One implication from the evidence on EI to date is that employers should
consider it a factor in hiring employees, especially in jobs that demand a high
degree of social interaction.
2. More employers are starting to use EI measures to hire people.
B. Decision Making
C. OB researchers are increasingly finding that moods and emotions have important
effects on decision making, but there are other variables that require further
research. Creativity
1. Good moods are associated with idea generation.
2. Some believe that good moods make people more creative, but others don’t
agree.
D. Motivation

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Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 114

1. Several studies have highlighted the importance of moods and emotions on


motivation.
E. Leadership
1. Effective leaders rely on emotional appeals to help convey their messages.
2. The expression of emotion is often the critical element that results in
individuals accepting or rejecting a leader’s message.
F. Negotiation
1. Displaying a negative emotion can be effective in negotiation.
2. Emotions may impair negotiator performance.
G. Customer service
1. Workers’ emotional states influence the level of customer service they give,
which in turn influences levels of repeat business and customer satisfaction.
2. This result is primarily due to emotional contagion—the “catching” of
emotions from others.
H. Job Attitudes
1. Several studies have shown people who had a good day at work tend to be in a
better mood at home that evening, and vice versa.
2. People who have a stressful day at work also have trouble relaxing after they
get off work.
3. If you’ve had a bad day at work, your spouse is likely to have an unpleasant
evening.
I. Work-Life Satisfaction
1. A positive mood at work can apparently spill over to your off-work hours, and
a negative mood at work can be restored to a positive mood after a break.
J. Deviant Workplace Behaviors
1. Negative emotions can lead to deviant workplace behaviors.
2. For example, envy is an emotion that occurs when you resent someone for
having something that you do not, and which you strongly desire; it can lead
to malicious deviant behaviors.
3. Once aggression starts, it’s likely that other people will become angry and
aggressive, so the stage is set for a serious escalation of negative behavior.
4. Managers, therefore, need to stay connected with their employees to gauge
emotions and emotional intensity levels.
K. Safety and Injury at Work
1. Employers might improve health and safety (and reduce costs) by ensuring
that workers aren’t engaged in potentially dangerous activities when they’re in
a bad mood.
2. Individuals in negative moods tend to be more anxious, which can make them
less able to cope effectively with hazards.
3. Negative moods also make people more distractible, and distractions can
obviously lead to careless behaviors.
4. Selecting positive team members can have a contagion effect, as positive
moods transmit from team member to team member.
VII. Summary and Implications for Managers
A. Emotions and moods are similar in that both are affective in nature. But they’re
also different—moods are more general and less contextual than emotions.

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.


Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 115

B. The time of day and day of the week, stressful events, social activities, and sleep
patterns are some of the factors that influence emotions and moods.
C. OB research on emotional labor, affective events theory, emotional intelligence,
and emotion regulation helps us understand how people deal with emotions.
D. Emotions and moods have proven relevant for virtually every OB topic we study,
and they have implications for managerial practice. Specific implications for
managers are below:
1. Recognize that emotions are a natural part of the workplace and good
management does not mean creating an emotion-free environment.
2. To foster effective decision making, creativity, and motivation in employees,
look to model positive emotions and moods as much as is authentically
possible.
3. Provide positive feedback to increase the positivity of employees. Of course,
it also helps to hire people who are predisposed to positive moods.
4. In the service sector, encourage positive displays of emotion, which make
customers feel more positive and thus, improve customer service interactions
and negotiations.
5. Understand the role of emotions and moods to significantly improve your
ability to explain and predict your coworkers’ and others’ behavior.

EXPANDED CHAPTER OUTLINE

I. What Are Emotions and Moods?


A. Introduction
1. Affect is a generic term that covers a broad range of feelings that people
experience and encompasses both emotions and moods.
2. Emotions are intense, discrete, and short lived feeling experiences that are
often caused by a specific event.
3. Moods are longer-lived and less intense feelings than emotions and often arise
without a specific event acting as a stimulus.
4. Exhibit 4-1 shows the relationships among affect, emotions, and mood.
B. The Basic Emotions
1. Numerous researchers have tried to limit and define the dozens of emotions
into a basic set of emotions.
2. Differences exist among researchers in this area.
3. Contemporary research, psychologists have tried to identify basic emotions by
studying facial expressions.
4. Cultures also have norms that govern emotional expression, so the way we
recognize an emotion isn’t always the same as how we show it.
5. There has been agreement on six essentially universal emotions – anger, fear,
sadness, happiness, disgust, and surprise.
C. Moral Emotions
1. Researchers have been studying what are called moral emotions; that is,
emotions that have moral implications because of our instant judgement of the
situation that evokes them.

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.


Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 116

2. Interestingly, research indicates that our responses to moral emotions differ


from our responses to other emotions.
3. Moral emotions are learned, usually in childhood, and thus, they are not
universal like innate emotions.
4. Because morality is a construct that differs between cultures, so do moral
emotions. Therefore, we need to be aware of the moral aspects of situations
that trigger our emotions and make certain we understand the context before
we act, especially in the workplace.
D. The Basic Moods: Positive and Negative Affect
1. One way to classify emotions is by whether they are positive or negative.
a. Positive emotions—such as joy and gratitude—express a favorable
evaluation or feeling.
b. Negative emotions—such as anger or guilt—express the opposite.
c. Keep in mind that emotions can’t be neutral. Being neutral is being non-
emotional.
2. When we group emotions into positive and negative categories, they become
mood states because we are now looking at them more generally instead of
isolating one particular emotion.
a. In Exhibit 4-2, excited is a pure marker of high positive affect, while
boredom is a pure marker of low negative affect.
b. Nervous is a pure marker of high negative affect; relaxed is a pure marker
of low positive affect.
c. We can think of positive affect as a mood dimension consisting of positive
emotions such as excitement, alertness, and elation at the high end and
contentedness, calmness, and serenity at the low end.
d. Negative affect is a mood dimension consisting of nervousness, stress, and
anxiety at the high end and boredom, depression, and fatigue at the low
end.
E. Experiencing Moods and Emotions
1. As if it weren’t complex enough to consider the many distinct emotions and
moods a person might identify, the reality is that we all experience moods
and emotions differently.
2. For most people, positive moods are somewhat more common than negative
moods. Indeed, research finds a positivity offset, meaning that at zero input
(when nothing in particular is going on), most individuals experience a
mildly positive mood.
3. Does the degree to which people experience positive and negative emotions
vary across cultures? Yes (see the OB Poll).
4. People in most cultures appear to experience certain positive and negative
emotions, and people interpret them in much the same way worldwide.
5. However, an individual’s experience of emotions appears to be culturally
shaped.
F. The Function of Emotions
1. Do emotions make us irrational?
a. Observations of emotions suggest rationality and emotion are in conflict,
and that if you exhibit emotion, you are likely to act irrationally.

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.


Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 117

b. These perspectives suggest the demonstration or even experience of


emotions can make us seem weak, brittle, or irrational.
1) The example of Phineas Gage and many other brain injury studies
show emotions are critical to rational thinking.
2. Do emotions make us ethical?
a. A growing body of research has begun to examine emotions and moral
attitudes.
b. Decision making was believed to be a higher-order cognitive process, but
recent research on moral emotions questions this assumption.
1) To some degree, our beliefs are shaped by the groups we belong to,
which influence our perceptions of the ethicality of certain situations,
resulting in unconscious responses and shared moral emotions.
2) Unfortunately, these shared emotions may allow us to justify purely
emotional reactions as rationally “ethical” just because we share them
with others.
G. Sources of Emotions and Moods
1. Personality
a. Affect intensity—individual differences in the strength with which
individuals experience their emotions.
b. Affectively intense people experience both positive and negative emotions
more deeply:
1) When they’re sad, they’re really sad.
2) When they’re happy, they’re really happy.
2. Time of Day
a. Levels of positive affect tend to peak in the late morning and then remain
at that level until early evening.
b. Most research suggests that negative affect fluctuates less than positive
affect, but the general trend is for it to increase over the course of a day.
c. Researchers analyzed millions of Twitter messages from individuals
across the globe.
3. Exhibit 4-3 shows positive affect increased after sunrise, tended to peak at
midmorning, remained stable until roughly 7 p.m., and then tended to increase
again until the midnight drop. Day of the Week
a. In most cultures, people are in better moods on the weekend.
b. Exhibit 4-4 shows that this is true in several cultures.
4. Weather
a. Weather has little effect on mood.
b. Illusory correlation occurs when people associate two events, but in
reality, there is no connection.
5. Stress
a. Stress can be cumulative and does affect mood and emotional states.
6. Social Activities
a. Social activities tend to increase positive mood.
b. People who are in positive moods seek out social activities.
c. The type of social activity matters – activities that are physical, informal,
or epicurean are more strongly associated with increases in positive mood.

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.


Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 118

7. Sleep
a. A large portion of the U.S. workforce suffers from sleep deprivation.
b. Sleep quality affects mood and decision making.
c. Poor sleep also impairs job satisfaction because people that feel fatigue are
irritable and less alert.
8. Exercise
a. Research consistently shows that exercise enhance peoples’ positive
moods.
9. Age
a. Older adults tend to focus on more positive stimuli (and less on negative
stimuli) than younger adults, a finding confirmed across nearly 100
studies.
10. Sex
a. Women show greater emotional expression than men, experience
emotions more intensely, and display more frequent expressions of both
positive and negative emotions.
b. People also tend to attribute men’s and women’s emotions in ways that
might be based on stereotypes of what typical emotional reactions are.
II. Emotional Labor
A. Introduction
1. Emotional labor is an employee’s expression of organizationally desired
emotions during interpersonal transactions at work.
2. The concept emerged from studies of service jobs.
B. Felt Versus Displayed Emotions
1. Separate emotions into felt (an individual’s actual emotions) and displayed
(those that the organization requires workers to show and considers
appropriate in a given job).
2. Displaying fake emotions requires us to suppress real ones.
a. Surface acting is hiding inner feelings and hiding emotional expressions
in response to display rules.
b. Deep acting is trying to modify our true inner feelings based on display
rules.
3. Displaying emotions we don’t really feel is exhausting, so it is important to
give employees who engage in surface displays a chance to relax and
recharge.
4. The disparity between employees having to project one emotion while
feeling another is called emotional dissonance.
III. Affective Events Theory
A. A model called affective events theory (AET) demonstrates that employees react
emotionally to things that happen to them at work, and this reaction influences
their job performance and satisfaction.
1. Employees react emotionally to things that happen to them at work and this
influences job performance and satisfaction.
2. Work events trigger positive or negative emotional reactions.
3. The events-reaction relationship is moderated by the employee’s personality
and mood.

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.


Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 119

4. A person’s emotional response to a given event can change depending on his


or her mood.
B. In summary, AET offers two important messages:
1. First, emotions provide valuable insights into how workplace hassles and
uplifting events influence employee performance and satisfaction.
2. Second, employees and managers shouldn’t ignore emotions or the events that
cause them, even when they appear minor, because they accumulate.
IV. Emotional Intelligence
A. Introduction
1. Emotional intelligence (EI) is a person’s ability to:
a. Perceive emotions in the self and others.
b. Understand the meaning of these emotions.
c. Regulate one’s emotions accordingly in a cascading model, as shown in
Exhibit 4-5.
2. Several studies suggest EI may play an important role in job performance.
a. One study that used functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
technology found executive MBA students who performed best on a
strategic decision making task were more likely to incorporate emotion
centers of the brain into their choice process.
b. The students also de-emphasized the use of the more cognitive parts of
their brains.
3. EI has been a controversial concept in OB, with supporters and detractors.
B. Emotion Regulation
1. Emotion regulation, which is part of the EI literature, is increasingly being
studied as an independent concept.
2. The central ideal behind emotion regulation is to identify and modify the
emotions you feel.
C. Emotion Regulation Influences and Outcomes
1. As you might suspect, not everyone is equally good at regulating emotions.
2. Individuals who are higher in the personality trait of neuroticism have more
trouble doing so and often find their moods are beyond their ability to
control.
3. The workplace environment has an effect on an individual’s tendency to
employ emotion regulation.
4. In general, diversity in work groups increases the likelihood that you will
regulate your emotions.
5. Racial diversity also has an effect: if diversity is low, the minority will
engage in emotion regulation, perhaps to “fit in” with the majority race as
much as possible; if diversity is high and many different races are
represented, the majority race will employ emotion regulation, perhaps to
integrate themselves with the whole group.
a. These findings suggest a beneficial outcome of diversity – it may cause us
to regulate our emotions more consciously and effectively.
6. Changing your emotions takes effort, and this effort can be exhausting.

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.


Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 120

7. From another perspective, research suggests that avoiding negative emotional


experiences is less likely to lead to positive moods than does seeking out
positive emotional experiences.
D. Emotion Regulation Techniques
1. Researchers of emotion regulation often study the strategies people employ
to change their emotions (for example, as we discussed earlier in the chapter,
deep acting and surface acting are emotion regulation techniques).
2. One technique of emotion regulation is emotional suppression, or
suppressing initial emotional responses to situations.
a. This response seems to facilitate practical thinking in the short term.
However, it appears to be helpful only when a strongly negative event
would illicit a distressed emotional reaction in a crisis situation.
3. Thus, unless we’re truly in a crisis situation, acknowledging rather than
suppressing our emotional responses to situations, and re-evaluating events
after they occur, yields the best outcomes.
4. Cognitive reappraisal, or reframing our outlook on an emotional situation, is
one way to effectively regulate emotions.
a. This result suggests that cognitive reappraisal may allow people to change
their emotional responses, even when the subject matter is as highly
emotionally charged as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
5. Another technique with potential for emotion regulation is social sharing, or
venting.
6. Research shows that the open expression of emotions can help individuals to
regulate their emotions, as opposed to keeping emotions “bottled up.”
7. Social sharing can reduce anger reactions when people can talk about the
facts of a bad situation, their feelings about the situation, or any positive
aspects of the situation.
8. A final emotion regulation technique, mindfulness—receptively paying
attention to and being aware of the present moment, events, and experiences
—has started to become popular in organizations.
9. While emotion regulation techniques can help us cope with difficult
workplace situations, research indicates that the effect varies.
10. Thus, while there is much promise in emotion regulation techniques, the best
route to a positive workplace is to recruit positive-minded individuals and
train leaders to manage their moods, job attitudes, and performance.
E. Ethics of Emotion Regulation
1. Emotion regulation has important ethical implications. Some people might
argue that controlling your emotions is unethical because it requires a degree
of acting.
2. Recent research has found that acting like you are in a good mood might put
you in a good mood.
V. OB Applications of Emotions and Moods
A. Selection
1. One implication from the evidence on EI to date is that employers should
consider it a factor in hiring employees, especially in jobs that demand a high
degree of social interaction.

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Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 121

2. More employers are starting to use EI measures to hire people.


B. Decision Making
1. Traditional approaches to the study of decision making in organizations have
emphasized rationality.
2. But OB researchers are increasingly finding that moods and emotions have
important effects on decision making.
3. Positive emotions can increase problem solving and facilitate the integration
of information.
4. OB researchers continue to debate the role of negative emotions and moods in
decision making.
a. Recent research suggests that depressed people make poorer decisions.
C. Creativity
1. People in good moods tend to be more creative than people in bad moods.
2. But some researchers do not believe that a positive mood makes people more
creative.
a. They argue that when people are in positive moods, they may relax and
not engage in the critical thinking necessary for some forms of creativity.
D. Motivation
1. Several studies have highlighted the importance of moods and emotions on
motivation.
a. One study set two groups of people to solving word puzzles.
1) The first group saw a funny video clip, intended to put the subjects in a
good mood first.
2) The other group was not shown the clip and started working on the
puzzles right away.
3) The positive-mood group reported higher expectations of being able to
solve the puzzles, worked harder at them, and solved more puzzles as a
result.
b. The second study found that giving people performance feedback—
whether real or fake—influenced their mood, which then influenced their
motivation.
1) So a cycle can exist in which positive moods cause people to be more
creative, which leads to positive feedback from those observing their
work.
2) This positive feedback further reinforces the positive mood, which
may make people perform even better, and so on.
c. Another study looked at the moods of insurance sales agents in Taiwan.
1) Agents in a good mood were more helpful toward their coworkers and
also felt better about themselves.
2) These factors in turn led to superior performance in the form of higher
sales and better supervisor reports of performance.
E. Leadership
1. Effective leaders rely on emotional appeals to help convey their messages.
2. Transformational leaders recognize the effect emotion has on their followers
and often freely share their own emotions.

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Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 122

3. Corporate executives know emotional content is critical if employees are to


buy into their vision of the company’s future and accept change.
F. Negotiation
1. Displaying a negative emotion can be effective in negotiation, but feeling bad
about your performance appears to impair future negotiations.
G. Customer Service
1. Workers’ emotional states influence the level of customer service they give,
which in turn influences levels of repeat business and customer satisfaction.
2. His result is primarily due to emotional contagion—the “catching” of
emotions from others.
3. When someone experiences positive emotions and laughs and smiles at you,
you tend to respond positively.
H. Work-Life Satisfaction
1. Several studies have shown people who had a good day at work tend to be in a
better mood at home that evening, and vice versa.
2. People who have a stressful day at work also have trouble relaxing after they
get off work.
3. If you’ve had a bad day at work, your spouse is likely to have an unpleasant
evening.
I. Deviant Workplace Behaviors
1. Negative emotions can lead to a number of deviant workplace behaviors.
2. Employee deviance: voluntary actions that violate established norms and
which threaten the organization, its members, or both.
J. Many of these deviant behaviors can be traced to negative emotions. For example,
envy is an emotion that occurs when you resent someone for having something
that you do not, and which you strongly desire, and can lead to malicious deviant
behaviors. Safety and Injury at Work
1. Employers might improve health and safety (and reduce costs) by ensuring
that workers aren’t engaged in potentially dangerous activities when they’re in
a bad mood.
2. Individuals in negative moods tend to be more anxious, which can make them
less able to cope effectively with hazards.
3. Negative moods also make people more distractible, and distractions can
obviously lead to careless behaviors.
4. Selecting positive team members can have a contagion effect as positive
moods transmit from team member to team member.
VI. Summary and Implications for Managers
A. Emotions and moods are similar in that both are affective in nature. But they’re
also different—moods are more general and less contextual than emotions. And
events do matter.
B. The time of day and day of the week, stressful events, social activities, and sleep
patterns are some of the factors that influence emotions and moods.
C. OB research on emotional labor, affective events theory, emotional intelligence,
and emotion regulation helps us understand how people deal with emotions.

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D. Emotions and moods have proven relevant for virtually every OB topic we study,
and they have implications for managerial practice. Specific implications for
managers are below:
1. Recognize that emotions are a natural part of the workplace and good
management does not mean creating an emotion-free environment.
2. To foster effective decision making, creativity, and motivation in employees,
look to model positive emotions and moods as much as is authentically
possible.
3. Provide positive feedback to increase the positivity of employees.
In the service sector, encourage positive displays of emotion, which make
customers feel more positive and thus, improve customer service interactions
and negotiations.
3. In the service sector, encourage positive displays of emotion, which make
customers feel more positive and thus, improve customer service interactions
and negotiations.
4. Understand the role of emotions and moods to significantly improve your
ability to explain and predict your coworkers’ and others’ behavior.

Myth or Science?
“Smile, and the Work World Smiles with You”

This exercise contributes to:


Learning Objective: Differentiate between emotions and moods
Learning Outcome: Discuss the importance of individual moods and emotions in the workplace
AACSB: Written and oral communications; Reflective thinking

It is true that a smile is not always an emotional expression. Smiles are used as social
currency in most organizations to create a positive atmosphere, and a smile usually
creates an unconscious reflexive return smile. However, anyone who has ever smiled at
an angry manager knows this doesn’t always work. In truth, the giving and withholding
of smiles is an unconscious power play of office politics.

Research on the “boss effect” suggests that the amount of power and status a person feels
over another person dictates who will smile. Subordinates generally smile more often
than their bosses smile back at them. This may happen in part because workers are
increasingly expected to show expressions of happiness with their jobs. However, the
perception of power is complex and varies by national culture. In one study, Chinese
workers reflexively smiled only at bosses who had the power to give them negative job
evaluations, while U.S. participants smiled most to managers perceived to have higher
social power. Other researchers found that when individuals felt powerful, they usually
didn’t return even a high-ranking individual’s smile. Conversely, when people felt
powerless, they returned everyone’s smiles.

The science of smiling transcends the expression of emotion. While an angry manager
may not smile back, a happy manager might not as well, according to “boss effect”
Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 124

research. “The relationship of what we show on our face and how we feel is a very loose
one,” acknowledged Arvid Kappas, a professor of emotion research at Jacobs University
Bremen in Germany. This suggests that, when we want to display positive emotions to
others, we should do more than smile, such as when service representatives try to create
happy moods in their customers with excited voice pitch, encouraging gestures, and
energetic body movement.

The science of smiling is an area of current research, but it is clear already that knowing
about the “boss effect” suggests many practical applications. For one, managers and
employees can be made more aware of ingrained tendencies toward others and, through
careful self-observation, change their habits. Comprehensive displays of positive emotion
using voice inflection, gestures, and word choice may also be more helpful in building
good business relationships than the simple smile.
Sources: R. L. Hotz, “Too Important to Smile Back: The ‘Boss Effect,’” The Wall Street Journal, October 16, 2012, D2; P.
Jaskunas, “The Tyranny of the Forced Smile,” The New York Times, February 15, 2015, 14; and
E. Kim and D. J. Yoon, “Why Does Service with a Smile Make Employees Happy? A Social Interaction Model,” Journal
of Applied Psychology 97 (2012): 1059–1067.

Class Exercise

1. Divide the class into groups of three to five students.


2. Have each group discuss situations in which students experienced the “boss
effect” either as the superior in the relationship or as the subordinate.
3. Have students try to remember how they felt about the other person in this
situation.
4. Ask students whether they think their expression or that of the other individual
really reflected how they each felt.
5. Have the group write down the results.
6. Have the groups present to the class their perceptions about smiling in the
workplace and whether smiling accurately conveys what people feel.

Teaching Notes

This exercise is applicable to face-to-face classes or synchronous online classes such as


BlackBoard 9.1, WIMBA, and Second Life Virtual Classrooms. See
(http://www.wimba.com/solutions/higher-education/wimba_classroom_for_higher_education) and
(http://docplayer.net/19442732-Effective-use-of-collaboration-tools-for-online-learning-jennifer-pontano-
ke-anna-skipwith-drexel-university-e-learning-2-0-conference-march-2011.html) for more information.

Ethical Choice
Should Managers Use Emotional Intelligence (EI) Tests?

This exercise contributes to:


Learning Objective: Describe emotional intelligence

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Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 125

Learning Outcomes: Discuss the importance of individual moods and emotions in the workplace
AACSB: Ethical understanding and reasoning; Reflective thinking

As we discussed in this chapter, the concept of emotional intelligence has raised some
debate. One of the topic questions for managers is whether to use EI tests in the selection
process. Here are some ethical considerations:
 There is no commonly accepted test. For instance, researchers have recently used the
Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), the Trait Emotional
Intelligence Questionnaire, and the newly developed Situational Judgment Test of
Emotional Intelligence (SJT of EI) in studies. Researchers feel EI tests may need to
be culturally specific because emotional displays vary by culture; thus, the
interpretation of emotional cues differs. For example, a recent study comparing the
emotional intelligence scores for Indian and North American executives using the
Emotional Competence Inventory test (ECI-2) found the results similar but not the
same, suggesting the need for modification.
 Applicants may react negatively to taking an EI test in general, or to parts of it. The
face recognition test, for example, may seem culturally biased to some if the subject
photos are not diverse. Also, participants who score high on EI tests tend to consider
them fair; applicants who score lower may not perceive the tests to be fair and can
thus consider the hiring organizations unfavorably—even if they score well on other
assessments.
 EI tests may not be predictive of performance for all types of jobs. In a study of 600
Romanian participants, results showed that EI was valid for salespeople, public
servants, and CEOs of public hospitals, but these were all roles requiring significant
social interaction. EI tests may need to be tailored for each position category or not be
used when the position description does not warrant such tests.
 It remains somewhat unclear what EI tests are actually measuring. They may reflect
personality or intelligence, in which case, other measures might be better. Also,
mixed EI tests may predict job performance, but many of these tests include
personality constructs and measures of general mental ability.
 There is not enough research on how emotional intelligence affects, for instance,
counterproductive work behaviors. It may not be prudent to test and select applicants
who are rated high on EI when we aren’t yet certain that everything about EI leads to
desired workplace outcomes.

These concerns suggest EI tests should be avoided in hiring decisions. However, because
research has indicated that emotional intelligence does predict job performance to some
degree, managers should not be too hasty to dismiss the tests. Rather, those wishing to
use EI in hiring decisions should be aware of these issues in order to make informed and
ethical decisions about not only whom to hire, but how.
Sources: D. Iliescu, A. Ilie, D. Ispas, and A. Ion, “Emotional Intelligence in Personnel Selection: Applicant Reactions, Criterion, and
Incremental Validity,” International Journal of Selection and Assessment (September 2012), pp. 347–358; R. Sharma, “Measuring
Social and Emotional Intelligence Competencies in the Indian Context,” Cross Cultural Management 19 (2012), pp. 30–47; and S.
Sharma, M. Gangopadhyay, E. Austin, and M. K. Mandal, “Development and Validation of a Situational Judgment Test of Emotional
Intelligence,” International Journal of Selection and Assessment (March 2013), pp. 57–73.

Class Discussion

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Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 126

Ask students whether they have ever taken an EI test. If they have, did they think it
provided an accurate assessment of their EI? Did the results of the test prevent them from
getting a position they wanted? Then, ask students whether they would rely on EI tests
when making hiring decisions.

MyLab Management
Watch It!
Verizon: East Haven Fire Department: Emotions and
Moods

If your instructor has assigned this activity, go to www.pearson.com/mylab/management


to complete the video exercise.

MyLab Management
Personal Inventory Assessments
Emotional Intelligence Assessment

Have you ever been able to “read” others well? Do people say you seem to have “the
right thing to say” for every occasion? Complete this PIA to determine your emotional
intelligence (EI).

MyLab Management
Try It!
Emotions and Moods

If your instructor has assigned this activity, go to www.pearson.com/mylab/management


to complete the video exercise.

Career OBjectives
How do I turn down the volume on my screaming boss?

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.


Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 127

This exercise contributes to:


Learning Objective: Apply concepts about emotions and moods to specific OB issues
Learning Outcome: Discuss the importance of individual moods and emotions in the workplace
AACSB: Written and oral communications; Reflective thinking

My boss is a yeller. One time, he kicked my chair and yelled for me to get out of the
office just because I’d forgotten to tell him that lunch had been delivered. His rage makes
me so mad I want to yell back, but I don’t because it isn’t professional. Is there a way to
get him to think before he fumes? —Leslie
Dear Leslie:
We feel for you! Actually, your internal anger response is perfectly normal. Almost
everyone has an emotional reaction to screaming and other situations of workplace
incivility like swearing and rude behavior, and a majority of employees react somehow.
For example, 66 percent of participants in a recent study reported their performance
declined when they were the recipients of incivility, and 25 percent admitted they took
their frustration out on customers. Another study found that verbal aggression reduces
victims’ working memory, making even simple instructions difficult to follow. So you’re
right to want to strategize how to calm the situation since it hurts you, your coworkers,
and the company.

The good news is that you can work on your reactions to de-escalate an episode. Experts
suggest empathizing with your boss (often we find if we try to understand where
someone is coming from, it helps us deal with the emotions more effectively),
apologizing if you’ve done something wrong, and not talking back (incivility is never
cured by payment in kind). Find situations where you can laugh over mutual frustrations
and don’t take his outbursts personally.

The bad news is that you probably can’t change his emotional response to incidents, but
you may be able to help him see the error of his ways by modeling better behavior. Of
course, there are situations in which you cannot and should not tolerate uncivil behavior
(such as when you are being threatened or when the behavior becomes truly abusive). In
those cases, you may need to deal with the situation more directly by first calmly
confronting your boss or, if that fails, seeing someone in human resources. But short of
that breaking point, our experience and the research suggest that your best response is not
to respond outwardly but rather to rethink the way you are responding inwardly.

As the British poster says, “Keep calm and carry on!”


Sources: C. Porath and C. Pearson, “The Price of Incivility,” Harvard Business Review (January–February 2013): 114–121; A. Rafaeli
et al., “When Customers Exhibit Verbal Aggression, Employees Pay Cognitive Costs,” Journal of Applied Psychology (September
2012): 931–950; S. Shellenbarger, “‘It’s Not My Fault!’ A Better Response to Criticism at Work,” The Wall Street Journal, June 18,
2014, D1, D4; and S. Shellenbarger, “When the Boss Is a Screamer,” The Wall Street Journal, August 15, 2012, D1, D2.

Point/Counterpoint
Sometimes Yelling is for Everyone’s Good

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Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 128

This exercise contributes to:


Learning Objectives: Differentiate between emotions and moods; Show the impact emotional labor has on
employees; Identify strategies for emotion regulation; Apply concepts about emotions and moods to
specific OB issues
Learning Outcome: Discuss the importance of individual moods and emotions in the workplace
AACSB: Written and oral communications; Reflective thinking

Point

Anger is discussed throughout this chapter for a reason: It’s an important emotion. There
are benefits to expressing anger. For one, research indicates that only employees who are
committed to their organizations tend to express their anger, and generally only to leaders
who created the situation. This type of expression of anger could lead to positive
organizational change. Second, suppressed anger can lower job satisfaction and lead to a
feeling of hopelessness about things improving.

Even with these findings, we hear a lot about not responding emotionally to work
challenges. Work cultures teach us to avoid showing any anger at all, lest we be seen as
poor workers or, worse, unprofessional, or even deviant or violent. While, of course,
there are times when the expression of anger is harmful or unprofessional, we’ve taken
this view so far that we now teach people to suppress perfectly normal emotions, and to
ignore the effectiveness of some emotional expression.

Emerging research shows that suppressing anger takes a terrible internal toll on
individuals. One Stanford University study found, for example, that when individuals
were asked to wear a poker face during the showing of a movie clip depicting the atomic
bombings of Japan during World War II, they were much more stressed in conversations
after the video. Other research shows that college students who suppress emotions like
anger have more trouble making friends and are more likely to be depressed, and that
employees who suppress anger feel more stressed by work.

For the good of organizations and their employees, we should encourage people not to
hold back their emotions, but to share them constructively.

Counterpoint

Yes, anger is a common emotion. But it’s also a toxic one for the giver and the receiver.
Angry outbursts can compromise the heart and contribute to diabetes, among other ill
effects. The experience of another’s anger and its close correlate, hostility, is also linked
to many counterproductive behaviors in organizations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics
estimates that 16 percent of fatal workplace injuries result from workplace violence. That
is why many organizations have developed counteractive techniques—to blunt the
harmful effects of anger in the workplace.

To reduce outcomes, many companies develop policies that govern conduct such as
yelling, shouting profanities, and making hostile gestures. Others institute anger
management programs. For example, one organization conducted mandatory in-house

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Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 129

workshops that showed individuals how to deal with conflicts in the workplace before
they boil over. The director who instituted the training said it “gave people specific tools
for opening a dialogue to work things out.” MTS Systems, a Minnesota engineering firm,
engages an outside consulting company to conduct anger management programs for its
organization. Typically, MTS consultants hold an 8-hour seminar that discusses sources
of anger, conflict resolution techniques, and organizational policies. This is followed by
one-on-one sessions with individual employees that focus on cognitive behavioral
techniques to manage their anger. The outside trainer charges around $10,000 for the
seminar and one-on-one sessions. The financial cost, though, is worth it for the emotional
benefits the participants receive. “You want people to get better at communicating with
each other,” says MTS manager Karen Borre.

In the end, everyone wins when organizations seek to diminish both the experience and
the expression of anger at work. The work environment becomes less threatening and
stressful to employees and customers. Employees are likely to feel safer, and the angry
employee is often helped as well.
Sources: B. Carey, “The Benefits of Blowing Your Top,” The New York Times, July 6, 2010, D1; R. Y. Cheung and I. J. Park,“Anger
Suppression, Interdependent Self-Construal, and Depression among Asian American and European American College Students,”
Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 16, no. 4 (2010): 517–525; D. Geddes and L. T. Stickney, “The Trouble with
Sanctions: Organizational Responses to Deviant Anger Displays at Work,” Human Relations 64, no. 2 (2011): 201–230; J. Fairley,
“Taking Control of Anger Management,” Workforce Management (October 2010): 10; L. T. Stickney and D. Geddes,“Positive,
Proactive, and Committed: The Surprising Connection between Good Citizens and Expressed (vs. Suppressed) Anger at Work,”
Negotiation and Conflict Management Research 7, no. 4 (November 2014): 243–264; and J. Whalen, “Angry Outbursts Really Do
Hurt Your Health, Doctors Find,” The Wall Street Journal, March 24, 2015, D1, D4.

Class Exercise

1. Divide the class into two groups—one group to take on the issues raised in Point,
the other group to take on the issues raised in Counterpoint. You may want to
divide each half into smaller groups to enable all class members to participate in
the group’s discussions.
2. Ask the class to act as an organization’s management team. Their job is to make
recommendations for a company policy on displays of anger in the work place.
3. Have students present their recommendations to the class and make a decision as
to what the best arguments are and why. What gains do they expect as a result of
the criteria that they used?
4. Have them list the recommendations and benefits on the board for the class to
evaluate during the discussion.

Teaching Notes

This exercise is applicable to face-to-face classes or synchronous online classes such as


BlackBoard 9.1, WIMBA, and Second Life Virtual Classrooms. See
(http://www.wimba.com/solutions/higher-education/wimba_classroom_for_higher_education) and
(http://docplayer.net/19442732-Effective-use-of-collaboration-tools-for-online-learning-jennifer-pontano-
ke-anna-skipwith-drexel-university-e-learning-2-0-conference-march-2011.html ) for more
information.

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.


Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 130

Questions for Review


4-1. How are emotions different from moods?
Answer: Emotions are intense feelings directed at someone or something. Moods
are feelings that tend to be less intense than emotions and often lack a contextual
stimulus. Thus, the similarities are the “feelings” component, but the differences
lie in the intensity and context. The basic emotions on a continuum are happiness
– surprise – fear – sadness – anger – disgust. The basic emotions are classified as
those with a positive affect, such as joy and gratitude, and those with a negative
affect, such as anger or guilt.
Learning Objective: Differentiate between emotions and moods
Learning Outcome: Discuss the importance of individual moods and emotions in the workplace
AACSB: Written and oral communications; Reflective thinking

4-2. What are the sources of emotions and moods?


Answer: The primary sources of emotions and moods are:
a. Personality: there is a trait component – affect intensity
b. Time of day: happier in the midpoint of the daily awake period
c. Day of week: happier toward the end of the week
d. Weather: illusory correlation – no effect
e. Stress: even low levels of constant stress can worsen moods
f. Social activities: physical, informal, and dining activities increase positive
moods
g. Other factors are sleep, age, gender, etc.
Learning Objectives: Show the impact emotional labor has on employees; Apply concepts about
emotions and moods to specific OB issues
Learning Outcome: Discuss the importance of individual moods and emotions in the workplace
AACSB: Written and oral communications; Reflective thinking

4-3. What impact does emotional labor have on employees?


Answer: Emotional labor is when an employee expresses organizationally desired
emotions during interpersonal transactions. It was originally developed in relation
to service jobs, but now seems to apply to every job. For example, you are
expected to be courteous and not hostile in interactions with coworkers.
Learning Objective: Show the impact emotional labor has on employees
Learning Outcome: Discuss the importance of individual moods and emotions in the workplace
AACSB: Written and oral communications; Reflective thinking

4-4. What is affective events theory?


Answer: Affective events theory states that an event in the work environment
triggers positive or negative emotional reactions. AET recognizes that emotions
are a response to an event in the individual work environment. The environment
creates work events that can be hassles, uplifts, or both. These work events trigger
positive or negative emotional reactions that are moderated by the employee’s
personality and mood. AET offers two important messages. First, emotions

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Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 131

provide valuable insights into understanding employee behavior. Second,


emotions in organizations and the events that cause them shouldn’t be ignored,
even when they appear to be minor. This is because they accumulate. It’s not the
intensity of hassles and uplifts that leads to emotional reactions, but more the
frequency with which they occur. Current and past emotions can affect job
satisfaction. Emotional fluctuations over time can create variations in job
performance. Both negative and positive emotions can distract workers and
reduce job performance.
Learning Objective: Describe affective events theory
Learning Outcome: Discuss the importance of individual moods and emotions in the workplace
AACSB: Written and oral communications; Reflective thinking

4-5. What is emotional intelligence?


Answer: Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to an assortment of non-cognitive
skills, capabilities, and competencies that influence a person’s ability to succeed
in coping with environmental demands and pressures.
a. Self-awareness: being aware of what you are feeling.
b. Self-management: the ability to manage one’s own emotions and impulses.
c. Social skills: the ability to handle or detect the emotions of others.
d. Several studies suggest EI may play an important role in job performance.
e. EI is controversial and there are pros and cons.
Learning Objective: Describe emotional intelligence
Learning Outcome: Discuss the importance of individual moods and emotions in the workplace
AACSB: Written and oral communications; Reflective thinking

4-6. What are some strategies for emotion regulation?


Answer: Emotion regulation is part of the EI literature but has also been studied
as an independent concept. The central ideal behind emotion regulation is to
identify and modify the emotions you feel. Strategies to change your emotions
include thinking about more pleasant things, suppressing negative thoughts,
distracting yourself, reappraising the situation, or engaging in relaxation
techniques. Changing your emotions takes effort, and this effort can be
exhausting. Emotion suppression appears to be especially difficult to do
effectively and can lead to more negative emotions; reappraising situations is
usually more effective in increasing positive emotions and limiting negative
emotions.
Learning Objective: Identify strategies for emotion regulation
Learning Outcome: Discuss the importance of individual moods and emotions in the workplace
AACSB: Written and oral communications; Reflective thinking

4-7. How do you apply concepts about emotions and moods to specific OB issues?
Answer: Emotions and moods have proven relevant for virtually every OB topic
we study, and they have implications for managerial practice. Increasingly,
organizations are selecting employees they believe have high levels of emotional
intelligence. Research has helped to refine theory related to emotional intelligence
in recent years, which should lead to superior tools for assessing ability-based EI.
Emotions and positive moods appear to facilitate effective decision making and
creativity in organizations, making them superior skills for all employees.

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Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 132

Recent research suggests mood is linked to motivation, especially through


feedback. Leaders rely on emotions to increase their effectiveness. The display of
emotions is important to social behavior like negotiation and customer service.
The experience of emotions is closely linked to job attitudes and behaviors that
follow from attitudes, such as deviant workplace behavior.

Certainly there are practical and ethical limits to controlling employees’ and
colleagues’ emotions and moods. Emotions and moods are a natural part of an
individual’s makeup. Where managers err is in ignoring coworkers’ and
employees’ emotions and assessing others’ behavior as if it were completely
rational. Managers who understand the role of emotions and moods will
significantly improve their ability to explain and predict their coworkers’ and
employees’ behavior.
Learning Objective: Apply concepts about emotions and moods to specific OB issues
Learning Outcome: Discuss the importance of individual moods and emotions in the workplace
AACSB: Reflective thinking

Experiential Exercise
Mindfulness at Work

This exercise contributes to:


Learning Objectives: Differentiate between emotions and moods; Apply concepts about emotions and
moods to specific OB issues
Learning Outcome: Discuss the importance of individual moods and emotions in the workplace
AACSB: Written and oral communications; Reflective thinking

The concept of mindfulness emphasizes trying to focus your mind in the present moment,
immersing yourself in what’s going on around you. Core principles include suspending
immediate judgment of the environment and your own thoughts, and keeping yourself
open to what is around you. The benefits of mindfulness can reach beyond reducing
stress to include increased creativity, longer spans of attention, reductions in
procrastination, and improved performance.
The Procedure
Start this exercise individually and then come together into groups of three or four
individuals to discuss what you have found. Although full workplace mindfulness
interventions can take several weeks, some basic starting exercises can be done in a
relatively short period and give you a feeling for what a full course of mindfulness would
be like. Here are three simple exercises to try. For all these, everyone needs to put
everything away (especially phones, tablets, and computers!) and focus on what is going
on in the immediate environment.
• Mindful breathing: Clear your head of everything except thoughts of your own breaths.
Concentrate on how you are inhaling and exhaling. It is sometimes helpful to count how
long each breath takes. Try to maintain this mindful breathing for 3 minutes. The group
will then take 3 minutes to discuss how this made them feel.

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• Mindful listening: Now clear your head of everything except what is going on in the
immediate environment. Try to hear as many sounds around you as you can, without
judging or evaluating them. Try to maintain this mindful listening for 3 minutes. The
group will then take 3 minutes to discuss some of the details they noticed.
• Mindful thinking: As with listening, clear your head of everything, but now focus just
on your ideas about mindfulness and stress. Do not talk about or write down what you’re
thinking (yet); just focus your whole quiet attention on this exercise and what it means.
Try to maintain this mindful thinking for 3 minutes. The group will then take 3 minutes
to talk about what this experience was like. As noted earlier, these are just brief examples
of what mindfulness exercises are like. In a full mindfulness program, you would go
through several sessions of up to an hour each. Now that you have an idea of what it feels
like to do mindfulness work, consider the following questions in your groups:

4-8. Were there any aspects of the mindfulness practice sessions that you found
especially pleasant or useful? Were there any aspects of the sessions that you
found unpleasant or uncomfortable?
4-9. What concerns might you have about implementing a mindfulness intervention in
the workplace? What are some of the obstacles you might face in trying to have
employees engage in a mindfulness stress reduction program?
4-10. Bring the class together and discuss your responses.

Teaching Notes

This exercise is applicable to face-to-face classes or synchronous online classes such as


BlackBoard 9.1, WIMBA, and Second Life Virtual Classrooms. See
(http://www.wimba.com/solutions/higher-education/wimba_classroom_for_higher_education) and
(http://docplayer.net/19442732-Effective-use-of-collaboration-tools-for-online-learning-jennifer-pontano-
ke-anna-skipwith-drexel-university-e-learning-2-0-conference-march-2011.html ) for more
information.

Ethical Dilemma
Data Mining Emotions

This exercise contributes to:


Learning Objective: Apply concepts about emotions and moods to specific OB issues
Learning Outcome: Discuss the importance of individual moods and emotions in the workplace
AACSB: Ethical understanding and reasoning; Reflective thinking

Did anyone ever tell you that you wear your heart on your sleeve? It’s a popular
expression, but obviously no one is looking at your sleeve to read your emotions. Instead,
we tend to study a person’s facial expressions to “read” their emotions. Most of us think
we’re rather good at reading faces, but we couldn’t say exactly how we make our
interpretations, and we don’t know whether they are accurate. But what if we could use

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Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 134

technology to know how another person is feeling? Would it be ethical to do so in the


workplace and then act on our findings?

Thankfully, technology is not quite ready to do this. Face reading is a complex science.
Paul Eckman, a noted psychologist, may be the best human face reader in the world. He
has been studying the interpretation of emotions for over 40 years and developed a
catalog of over 5,000 muscle movements and their emotional content. His work even
spawned a television series called Lie to Me, in which the main characters analyzed
microexpressions —expressions that occur in the fraction of a second—to assist in
corporate and governmental investigations. Using Eckman’s Facial Coding System,
technology firms like Emotient Inc. have been developing algorithms to match
microexpressions to emotions. These organizations are currently looking for patterns of
microexpressions that might predict behavior.

Honda, P&G, Coca-Cola, and Unilever have tried the technology to identify the reactions
to new products, with mixed results. For one thing, since expressions can change
instantly, it is challenging to discern which emotions prevail. A person watching a
commercial, for instance, may smile, furrow his brow, and raise his eyebrows all in the
space of 30 seconds, indicating expressiveness, confusion, and surprise in turn. Second, it
is difficult to know whether a person will act upon these fleeting emotions. Third, the
technology might misinterpret the underlying emotions or their causes.

The potential applications of this technology to the workplace include surveillance,


gauging reactions to organization announcements, and lie detection. Cameras could be in
every meeting room, hallway, and even on employees’ computer screens. Emotion
monitoring could be an announced event—say, every Monday from 8 to 9 a.m.—or
random. Monitoring could be conducted with or without the knowledge of employees; for
instance, data on the emotional reactions of every employee in an organizational
announcement meeting could be read and interpreted through a camera on the wall.

So far, the most reliable workplace application seems to be using the technology to
capture inconsistencies (lying). Even the pioneer of facial emotion recognition, Ekman,
said, “I can’t control usage [of his technology]. I can only be certain that what I’m
providing is at least an accurate depiction of when someone is concealing emotion.”

For each usage, there is an ethical consideration and a responsibility, particularly if a


manager is going to act on the findings or infer the employee’s future behavior. The fact
that the technology has not yet fully evolved for workplace application allows time for
ethical guidelines to be developed. Foremost among the ethical concerns is privacy. “I
can see few things more invasive than trying to record someone’s emotions in a
database,” said privacy advocate Ginger McCall. Concerns about ethical usage are also
highly important if managers use the technology to make decisions about employees. For
example, what if a manager learns from the software that an employee is unhappy and
thus decides to look for a work reassignment for the employee, when actually the
employee is unhappy about his spouse? Former U.S. counterterrorism detective Charles

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Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 135

Lieberman advises, “Recognize [the technology’s] limitations—it can lead you in the
right direction but is not definitive.”
Sources: Paul Ekman profile, Being Human, http://www.beinghuman.org/mind/paul-ekman, accessed April
17, 2015; E. Dwoskin and E. M. Rusli, “The Technology That Unmasks Your Hidden Emotions,” The Wall
Street Journal, January 29, 2015, B1, B8; and D. Matsumoto and H. S. Hwang, “Reading Facial Expressions
of Emotion,” Psychological Science Agenda, May 2011,
http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2011/05/facial-expressions.aspx.

Questions

4-11. What do you think are the best workplace applications for emotion reading
technology?
Answer: Responses to this question will vary by student. However, at the
moment, the most reliable workplace application is using the technology to
capture inconsistencies.

4-12. What are the ethical implications of reading faces for emotional content in the
workplace?
Answer: Again, responses to this question will vary by student, but most students
will probably focus on the implications of misreading an individual and making
decisions based upon incorrect information.

4-13. Assuming you could become better at detecting the real emotions of others from
facial expressions, do you think it would help your career? Why or why not?
Answer: This item can be assigned as a Discussion Question in
MyManagementLab. Student responses will vary.

Case Incident 1
Managers Have Feelings, Too!

This exercise contributes to:


Learning Objectives: Show the impact emotional labor has on employees; Apply concepts about emotions
and moods to specific OB issues
Learning Outcome: Discuss the importance of individual moods and emotions in the workplace
AACSB: Written and oral communications; Reflective thinking

Liz Ryan, CEO and founder of Human Workplace, recalls how shocked she was as a
young business person when she found out just how personal the business world is. Your
relationship with your boss or co-workers, to Liz, seemed to be something that could help
your career sail forward and just as easily halt your progression, or even make your life
miserable. Notably, managers have their own likes and dislikes, and experience emotions
in a similar fashion as everyone else. Furthermore, these manager emotions are
contagious and powerful—as a manager, emotion regulation and management may go a
long way in forging a collaborative and non-hostile working environment. Research also
suggests that leader emotions are particularly important in the workplace. For one, some

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Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 136

researchers assert that “what goes around comes around,” meaning that negative
emotional displays from the leader can alter the shared emotions of the group, which in
turn can lead to disapproval of the leader and employee cynicism. On the other hand,
leaders who display empathy tend to be seen as less likely to become ineffective as
leaders, or to “derail.” Overall, displaying either positive or negative emotions (e.g., not
surface acting) can help bolster follower performance, because the followers likely take
in and use this information in making work-related decisions. The reality of manager
emotions can be particularly biting when you are an employee who feels as if your
manager does not like you. Your manager may exhibit emotional displays that suggest he
or she is angry with you, lacks confidence in your skills and abilities, or does not care
about your well-being and advancement in the organization. Although the dislike or
negative emotions toward you may be rooted in various perceptions of you (e.g., your
manager thinks you are incompetent, does not like your style, or does not relate to you),
the negative emotions may also stem from other sources, such as the manager’s
disposition or situational constraints placed on him or her. Notably, Joseph Barber,
associate director at Career Services at the University of Pennsylvania, asserts that it is
critical for employees to realize that their managers see the world differently and may be
experiencing very different emotional states at any given time. This form of perspective
taking, according to Barber, is especially useful as a job applicant trying to anticipate
what managers want in a new employee and highlighting the areas of your relevant
knowledge, skills, and abilities that match these qualifications.
Sources: J. Barber, “The Menagerie of Potential Employers,” Inside Higher Ed, March 20, 2017,
https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2017/03/20/importance-job-search-understandingemotions-employers-essay; L. Davey,
“What to Do When Your Boss Doesn’t Like You,” Harvard Business Review, December 8, 2014, https://hbr.org/2014/12/what-to-do-
when-your-boss-doesntlike-you; W. A. Gentry, M. A. Clark, S. F. Young, K. L. Cullen, and L. Zimmerman, “How Displaying
Empathic Concern May Differentially Predict Career Derailment Potential for Women and Men Leaders in Australia,” The
Leadership Quarterly 26 (2015): 641–53; L. M. Little, J. Gooty, and M. Williams, “The Role of Leader Emotion Management in
Leader-Member Exchange and Follower Outcomes,” The Leadership Quarterly 27 (2016): 85–97; A. McKee, “Empathy Is Key to a
Great Meeting,” Harvard Business Review, March 23, 2015, https://hbr.org/2015/03/empathy-is-key-to-a-greatmeeting; L. Ryan, “Ten
Signs Your Boss Hates You,” Forbes, March 17, 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2016/03/17/ten-signs-your-boss-hates-
you/#563e527428cf; and G. Wang and S. E. Seibert, “The Impact of Leader Emotion Display Frequency on Follower Performance:
Leader Surface Acting and Mean Emotion Display as Boundary Conditions,” The Leadership Quarterly 26 (2015): 577–93.
Questions

4-14. How do you think managers can strike a balance between authenticity and
managing their own emotional displays (e.g., surface acting) in organizations? Or
do you think it is impossible to achieve such balance? Why or why not?
Answer: This item can be assigned as a Discussion Question in
MyManagementLab. Student responses will vary.

4-15. Do you think there are any emotions that are off limits—that leaders (or
employees) should never display at work? What are they, and what makes them
off limits?
Answer: This item can be assigned as a Discussion Question in
MyManagementLab. Student responses will vary.

4-16. Do you think there is a way to improve your reading of your manager’s and
coworkers’ emotions, and adapting your behavior based on this emotional
information? What are some ways that you can work on these types of

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Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 137

behaviors?
Answer: This item can be assigned as a Discussion Question in
MyManagementLab. Student responses will vary.

Case Incident 2
When the Going Gets Boring

This exercise contributes to:


Learning Objective: Apply concepts about emotions and moods to specific OB issues
Learning Outcome: Discuss the importance of individual moods and emotions in the workplace
AACSB: Written and oral communications; Reflective thinking

We’ve all been there—whether your job itself is unfulfilling or if it’s a particularly slow
day at work, boredom strikes the best of us in the workplace. It is not a pleasant feeling.
As Andreas Elpidorou, a researcher at the University of Louisville notes, “Boredom is an
aversive state characterized by dissatisfaction, restlessness, and weariness. . . .
Being in a state of boredom feels like being emotionally trapped.” Boredom can hit
organizations hard. A study by Udemy, an online teaching and learning organization,
found that employees who are bored tend to be twice as likely to leave their organizations
within the next three to six months. Young millennial employees were especially prone to
becoming bored at work and were twice as likely to become bored than their baby
boomer counterparts. In another study by the Intelligence Group, 64 percent of
millennials would prefer to forego a $100,000 salaried position that they think is boring
for a $40,000 position that they love.

Being bored at work can have unacceptable consequences that can cause you a lot of
trouble if you are not careful. For one, you can let your coworkers down when you’re
unresponsive and they need you, especially when they can’t move forward without you.
Second, boredom can at times lead to complaining—although this may seem common in
organizations (due to media portrayals on TV and movies of complaining employees), it
can be irritating to many employees, especially those who are happy with their work.
Third, research shows that boredom can lead to the commission of CWBs, especially
psychologically withdrawing from the job, sabotaging work equipment, and abusing
other coworkers. Fourth, if work is central to an employee’s life and if employees are not
getting their needs met in their personal and work lives, boredom can lead to depression.
Finally, some people just tend to be more bored than others—the boredom-prone
experience a variety of undesirable outcomes, such as receiving less support from their
organizations, underemployment, and lower performance ratings.

So how can you get on track if you’re bored in the workplace? One of the keys to
tackling boredom is to take control and be proactive. Research on over 1,500 employees
in Finland (tracked over three years) suggests that taking control of your job and setting
challenges for yourself, along with acquiring the resources you need to do the job well,
reduce boredom gradually over time. Part of this involves forcing yourself to be more
curious and looking outside your own responsibilities. When we become overwhelmed

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Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 138

by the monotony of familiar work, it is time to find new insights, perspectives, and ways
of approaching our tasks. Others suggest that offering learning opportunities and reducing
consistent hours worked, especially for millennials, may be effective in reducing
boredom at work. Notably, the Udemy survey found that 80 percent of employees would
become more interested in their tasks if they were given the opportunity to learn more
skills. These results echo calls for the gamification of the workplace in which everyday
tasks can be altered to include game mechanics, potentially leading to a reduction in
boredom and an increase in cognitive control.
Sources: K. Bruursema, S. R. Kessler, and P. E. Spector, “Bored Employees Misbehaving: The Relationship between Boredom and
Counterproductive Work Behaviour,” Work & Stress 25, no. 2 (2011): 93–107; A. Gaskell, “How Gamification Can Drive Workplace
Performance,” Forbes, February 21, 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/adigaskell/2017/02/21/how-gamification-can-
driveworkplace-performance/#4493eae7f8e3; L. K. Harju, J. J. Hakanen, and W. B. Schaufeli, “Can Job Crafting Reduce Job
Boredom and Increase Work Engagement? A Three-Year Cross-Lagged Panel Study,” Journal of Vocational Behavior 95–96 (2016):
11–20; S. Harrison, “6 Ways the Most Successful People Conquer Boredom at Work,” Fast Company, November 13, 2015,
https://www.fastcompany.com/3053229/6-ways-the-most-successful-people-conquer-boredom-at-work; J. Lumsden, E. A.
Edwards, N. S. Lawrence, D. Coyle, and M. R. Munafó, “Gamification of Cognitive Assessment and Cognitive Training: A
Systematic Review of Applications and Efficacy,” JMIR Serious Games 4, no. 2 (2016): e11; R. Moy, “3 Inexcusable Mistakes
You’re Probably Making If You’re Bored at Work,” Forbes, October 27, 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2016/10/27/3-
inexcusable-mistakes-youre-probably-making-if-youre-bored-at-work/#154d5d044216; M. L. M. van Hooff and E. A. J. van Hoof,
“Boredom at Work: Proximal and Distal Consequences of Affective Work-Related Boredom,” Journal of Occupational Health
Psychology 19, no. 3 (2014): 348–359; M. L. M. van Hooff and E. A. J. van Hoof, “Work-Related Boredom and Depressed Mood
from a Daily Perspective: The Moderating Roles of Work Centrality and Need Satisfaction,” Work & Stress 30, no. 3 (2016): 209–
227; J. D. Watt and M. B. Hargis, “Boredom Proneness: Its Relationship with Subjective Underemployment, Perceived Organizational
Support, and Job Performance,” Journal of Business and Psychology 25, no. 1 (2010): 163–174; E. Wiechers, “2016 Udemy
Workplace Boredom Study,” Udemy Blog, October 26, 2016, https://about.udemy.com/udemy-for-business/workplaceboredom-
study/; and K. Zimmerman, “What to Do with a Millenial Employee That’s Bored at Work,” Forbes, November 13, 2016,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kaytiezimmerman/2016/11/13/
what-to-do-with-a-millennial-employee-that-is-bored-at-work/#3a1649a33014.
Questions

4-17. Who is responsible for reducing boredom in the workplace and why? Is it the
employer? The one who is bored?
Answer: This item can be assigned as a Discussion Question in
MyManagementLab. Student responses will vary.

4-18. Do you think certain tasks are inherently boring and thus cannot be changed? If
yes, what are they? If there are tasks that cannot be made more interesting, how
can the negative effects of boredom be mitigated for the employees who must
perform those tasks?
Answer: This item can be assigned as a Discussion Question in
MyManagementLab. Student responses will vary.

4-19. Which emotion regulation technique do you think would be the most successful
in mitigating boredom and why?
Answer: This item can be assigned as a Discussion Question in
MyManagementLab. Student responses will vary.

MyLab Management
Go to www.pearson.com/mylab/managementfor Auto-graded writing questions as well
as the following Assisted-graded writing questions:

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Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 139

4-20. Refer again to the Ethical Dilemma. In what scenarios would you agree to having
your emotions read and interpreted by your organization?
4-21. Refer again to Case Incident 1, Have you ever had to adapt to a supervisor’s (or
superior’s) emotional state? If so, what was the outcome of your adaptation?
MyManagement Lab only – comprehensive writing assignment for this chapter.

Instructor’s Choice
Promoting Organizational Citizenship Behavior

This exercise contributes to:


Learning Objective: Apply concepts about emotions and moods to specific OB issues
Learning Outcome: Discuss the importance of individual moods and emotions in the workplace
AACSB: Written and oral communications; Reflective thinking

Begin this exercise by reinforcing the definition or description of what organizational


citizenship behavior is and what it is not. The voluntary aspect of the term is important.
Students should be sure to describe the behavior itself, not just the end result of the
behavior. For example, “people were helped” is not as clear as describing exactly how a
specific person(s) was (were) helped. Students must also be able to separate this type of
behavior from normal duties. For example, a receptionist or greeter might normally “go
the extra mile” to show someone where they need to go, or a greeter walks someone
across campus to the exact building referenced instead of showing the party a map,
because of the general atmosphere or culture of the organization. In other words, there
might be degrees of organizational citizenship behavior. Students should be looking for
exceptional behavior. Group discussion will oftentimes reveal these actions from
presented examples. Lastly, as students compile their lists of managerial steps to promote
organizational citizenship behavior, have them reference the section in the chapter that
deals with this form of behavior to find examples that will reveal some potential steps.

Exploring OB Topics on the Web


This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objectives: Apply concepts about emotions and moods to specific OB issues
Learning Outcome: Discuss the importance of individual moods and emotions in the workplace
AACSB: Written and oral communications; Reflective thinking

1. Learn more about yourself! Go to http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/. There


you will find a variety of personality tests such as “Are you a Type A?,” the
“Stress O Meter,” and other IQ and personality tests. Most are free and often fun
to take. Take two or three of your choice. Print the results you get on yourself and
bring them to class where we will discuss the validity of your findings.

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Chapter 4 Emotions and Moods Page 140

2. What is EQ? Visit the Internet’s leading site on EQ: http://www.eq.org. There you
will find a wide variety of resources to assist you in researching this interesting
topic.

3. Bring five new facts you learned from at least two of the above websites to class
for a group discussion.

Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.

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