Chapter 11 : Processes of Emotion in the Workplace

There are several main emotions seen in organizations: stress, burnout and social support in organizations, and each affects the organization in its own way.

Most models view the typical workplace as a setting governed by logic and rationality; however, it has been proven that interactions between individuals within the organizations are often controlled by emotion rather than logic.

Previously, theorists looked at the concept of bounded rationality in the workplace, that looked at decision making as not being perfectly rational due to cognitive and situational limits.

Dennis Mumby and Linda Putnam, however, looked at bounded emotionality, considering emotional life as a central focus of organizational research and how it might help in understanding the workplace.

In many occupations, communication between employee and client involved emotional or affective content. Emotional labour is used to refer to workers who are expected to display certain feelings, which can be falsified, in order to satisfy organizational role expectations. Emotional work refers to the work in which employees are allowed to show their genuine emotions. These usually refer to workers who are engaged in compassionate communication, where processes such as noticing, connecting and responding are utilized.

Emotions that arise from relationships in the workplace are referred to as emotions at work, and these are a major source of organizational emotion. One of the extreme situations is the psychological abuse of others through workplace bullying.

There are several aspects of work relationships that create potential for intense emotions in organizations: the tension between the public and private in work relationships, relational networks and emotional ‘buzzing’, conflicting allegiances, emotional rights and obligations at work.

There are several rules that dictate the display of emotion: express emotions in a professional way, express emotions to improve situations, express emotions to the right people, express emotions to help individuals, do not manage emotions for personal benefit to the detriment of others, the expression of certain emotions is always inappropriate.

Stress can be referred to aspects of the workplace that are difficult to deal with, or the negative outcomes that arise from those work conditions. This can lead to burnout in the individual, causing negative psychological, physiological and organizational outcomes. Burnout can consist of three interrelated dimensions: emotional exhaustion, lack of personal accomplishment and depersonalization.

Three frequent causes of burnout are: workload, role conflict and role ambiguity. Occasionally external influences such as balancing work and home life may also lead to burnout, and may cause a negative variety of physiological, attitudinal and organizational effects on the person.

Poor communication, emotional labour, emotional contagion and emphatic concern may also contribute to burnout.

There are several methods of coping with burnout. Some are individual orientated, such as dysfunctional reactions, problem-centred coping, appraisal-centred coping and emotion-centred coping. Another method of coping is to participate in decision making, as it can reduce role conflict and role ambiguity. Social support can be given to individuals to help cope with burnout. These can involve emotional, informational and instrumental support, and can come from supervisors, co-workers, friends and family.

Emotion is considered differently by different approaches:

• Classical- seen as lowering worker productivity, but those affected tend to get replaced easily
• Human relations- dealt with through provision of emotional support or boosting of self-esteem
• Human resources- dealt through participative decision making or changes designed to enhance employee control
• Cultural- seen as an aspect of values and assumptions held by organizational members, and created through social interactions of organizational participants
• Systems- seen as sense making opportunities
• Critical- seen as an indicator of strain in the relationship between employees and owners in the organizational context

Reference:

Miller, K 2009, Organizational Communication: Approaches and Processes, 6^th edition, Belmont, CA, Wadsworth Publishing Company.