Emotions And Organizational Behavior

1. A mental state that arises spontaneously rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes; a feeling: the emotions of joy, sorrow, reverence, hate, and love.

2. A state of mental agitation or disturbance: spoke unsteadily in a voice that betrayed his emotion. See Synonyms at feeling.

3. The part of the consciousness that involves feeling; sensibility: “The very essence of literature is the war between emotion and intellect” (Isaac Bashevis Singer).

any strong feeling, as of joy, sorrow, or fear

A psychological state that arises spontaneously rather than through conscious effort and is sometimes accompanied by physiological changes; a feeling.

noun

a strong feeling deriving from one’s circumstances, mood, or relationships with others:she was attempting to control her emotions[mass noun] :his voice was shaky with emotion

[mass noun] instinctive or intuitive feeling as distinguished from reasoning or knowledge:responses have to be based on historical insight, not simply on emotion

Origin:

mid 16th century (denoting a public disturbance): from French émotion, from émouvoir ‘excite’, based on Latin emovere, from e- (variant of ex-) ‘out’ + movere ‘move’. The current sense dates from the early 19th century

Emotions and

Organizational Behavior

Robert G. Lord

Ruth Kanfer

During the past two decades, substantial advances have been made

in understanding the structure and role of affect and emotions in

human behavior. Industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologists

and other applied researchers have recognized the relevance of

such advances for understanding workplace behavior, producing

a number of recent articles, special issues (Deiner, 1999; Fisher &

Ashkanasy, 2000; Larsen, 2000; Rosenberg & Fredrickson, 1998;

Weiss, 2001), and books (Ashkanasy, Hartel, & Zerbe, 2000; Lewis

& Haviland-Jones, 2000) on emotions and emotions at work. Building

on this progress, a growing number of organizational researchers

have begun to integrate these advances into theory and

research pertaining to employee cognition, affect, and behavior.

In some areas of I/O psychology, such as job satisfaction, new perspectives

on affect have begun to reshape the domain (Fisher,

2000; Judge & Hulin, 1993; Weiss & Cropazano, 1996). In other

areas, basic research on affect and emotions has been used as a

foundation for new perspectives on established topics, such as leadership

(Fitness, 2000; Glomb & Hulin, 1997; Lewis, 2000) or group

processes (George, 1990). This research is also relevant to such

timely issues as employee violence and employee reactions to organizational

justice (Cropanzano, Weiss, Suckow, & Grandey,

2000). Concerns with emotions have spawned new areas of research,

such as emotional labor in the workplace and its costs and

EMOTIONS REVEALED

by Paul Ekman

Times Books ISBN 0-8020-7275-6

Emotions are what “make life livable,” writes psychologist Paul Ekman in Emotions Revealed, a hands-on book that flirts shrewdly with psychology and anthropology. Ekman’s more than 40 years of research have led him to the conclusion that emotions, and accompanying facial expressions, are largely universal.

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According to Ekman, emotions themselves can’t be turned off, but they can be controlled. In his book, he draws upon the Buddhist concept of mindfulness to explain how, by tuning into a person’s own emotional triggers, one can develop a heightened “attentiveness,” thereby side-stepping future blowouts. He addresses the “cascade of changes” that occur physiologically in an individual in the throes of one of five salient emotional categories.

Ekman has been studying facial expression of emotions for 30 years. This book is a document of this research. Over the decades, Ekman and his colleagues gathered evidence of the universality of seven facial expressions of emotion-anger, happiness, fear, surprise, disgust, sadness and contempt. In every culture they studied a large majority could recognize the basic emotional expressions portrayed by people in other cultures, and others could recognize theirs.

Certain emotions are universal, hardwired into facial expressions and the brain. However, emotional expressions are culture-specific. People smile or display anger for many reasons, and they don’t reveal these emotions when such displays would be considered rude or inappropriate. Ekman and his collaborator Wallace Friesen created a coding system that identifies each of the nearly 80 muscles of the face, as well as the thousands of combinations of muscles associated with various emotions.

Ekman found that when people try to hide their feelings, they use different groups of muscles than they do for authentic feelings. For example, authentic smiles of joy involve the muscles surrounding the eyes; false or social smiles bypass the eyes completely. In Emotions Revealed, Ekman, who is a professor of psychology at the University of California at San Francisco, beautifully interweaves his research with anecdotes, recommendations, and the behind-the-scenes flubs, accidental discoveries and debates that never make their way into published articles but that are the essence of scientific inquiry.

He reviews what’s known about the triggers, automatic and learned, that set off an emotion and how we might learn to manage or even get rid of them.

He then examines five emotions in detail: sadness, anger, fear, disgust and contempt, and the “enjoyable emotions.” He even includes wonder, defined in terms of “its rarity and the feeling of being overwhelmed by something incomprehensible.” Because of Ekman’s emphasis on the universality of emotions, especially those written on the face, readers will not learn much about the raging debate about emotions that do not necessarily have particular facial expressions, such as pride, envy, jealousy, compassion, and romantic or parental love.

A renowned expert in nonverbal communication, Paul Ekman has led a revolution in our scientific understanding of emotions. Now he assembles his path breaking research and theories in a comprehensive look at human emotional life.

Emotions Revealed explores the evolutionary essence of anger, sadness, fear, surprise, disgust, contempt, and happiness. It answers such questions as: What triggers emotions and can we stop them? How does our body signal to others whether we are slightly sad or anguished, peeved or enraged? Can we learn to distinguish between a polite smile and the genuine thing?

Unique exercises and photographs help readers identify emotions in themselves and others. Emotions Revealed is a practical, mind-opening, and potentially life-changing exploration.

Emotional Intelligence And The Performance At Workplace

By Aakanksha Kataria

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5789377

The emotions are of quite extraordinary importance in the total economy of living organisms and do not deserve being put into opposition with “intelligence”. There is an intelligence based on emotions, people who have this capacity are less depressed, more employable and have better relationships. Emotions cause people to react and to lose control, thus an important psychological determinant of human behaviour. People usually wonder what the use of emotions in intelligence is. Notion of emotions is an old phenomenon but its linkage to intelligence is a relatively recent occurrence.

The word “EMOTION” is derived from the old French word esmovoir means to stir up and the Latin word emovere means to move. Emotions make things happen. This is the core of emotions: they move us to action. Human beings cannot escape from their feelings, moods and emotions. And yes they affect their thinking and vice-versa.

For example when a person is in negative mood his search for errors is enhanced he is more focused on details and tend to be more critical. Now in the case when he is in a positive mood he tends to generate and looks for more opportunities and have an open view of the world around him.

EMOTIONS AND INTELLIGENCE

Intelligence is the cognitive capacity or functioning of a person’s mind that is being measured by IQ. But IQ alone is not an indicator of an individual’s ability to adapt and cope with life situations and his work place efficiency. Intelligence based on emotions determines the success of a person at work place or outside work place.IQ gets you hired an EQ gets you fired or promoted. And a combination of both determines the professional success. There is a very close linkage between an individual’s intrapersonal capacity and his interpersonal skills. For example there is 3 R’s formula work in this concept.

1. RECOGNIZE

2. REDIRECT

3. REFLECT

Recognizing one’s own feelings and redirecting those feelings (intrapersonal capacity) and reflecting that redirection of feelings in one’s behaviour for better communication, effectiveness in interactions and exhibiting greater understanding of one’s environment.

WHILE HUMAN BEINGS FUNCTION ON BOTH RATIONAL AND EMOTIONAL LEVELS, EMOTIONS ARE THE HEART OF OUR ENERGY, COMMITMENT AND MOTIVATION.

EMPLOYEE’S EMOTIONAL RESPONSES AND THEIR WORK PERFORMANCE

The pendulum has now swung towards recognition that employee emotions are unavoidable and they influence their work behaviour and outcomes. The notion that emotions influences work performances is not new what is new that linking emotions to work performance and its valuable consequences in organizations.

In organisations, skills relevant to the SELF can be categorizes into self-awareness (emotional awareness, accurate self assessment, self confidence) and SELF MANAGEMENT (self control, transparency, adaptability, achievement, initiative, optimism).

Skills with reference to OTHERS can be described as social awareness (empathy, organizational awareness) and RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (inspiration, influence, developing others, change catalyst, conflict management, teamwork and collaboration).

What I have observed at my workplace is employee’s having low emotional competencies lose their jobs even after being selected from hundreds of applicants interviewed. Like one employee joined the organisation, during the faculty development programme was called to share her experiences but she refused by saying that she is not prepared, our director took her refusal as her shyness, nervousness to come in front and gave so much motivating examples from his own life and with expressing his disappointment due to her refusal and then again asked her to speak but all in vain because she took that behaviour as insult failing to recognise her emotions and emotional responses and those of director’s and reacted as a slave of emotions. She could not bear that incidence and never came back.

Emotional intelligence can help explain why employees with strong academic backgrounds or cognitive skills are not always the best team members and leaders.

For example I am college topper in BIM and university topper in MBA but at work place my colleague having average academic scores is most effective employee and most desirable person there just because of that 3R’sConcept recognising her emotions and those of others well and redirecting her emotions and reflecting these competencies in her behaviour to better communicate and interact with others and to have better relationships.

Thus these differences in employee’s emotional competencies and their responses towards other employees, situations whether determine their personal as well as professional success, and to which extent if measured properly at the time of recruitment, instead of just measuring their IQ could increase workplace efficiency and reframing their HR strategy, thus increasing overall organisational effectiveness

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Aakanksha Kataria

Research Scholar, IITR

UTTRAKHAND, 247667

INDIA

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5789377

BETTER DEAL WITH EMOTION IN THE WORKPLACE

(includes extracts from new text book ‘Behavioral Coaching’ by Zeus and Skiffington -published and copyrighted by McGraw-Hill, New York)

Emotions do not just effect organizations but contribute to their structure. In fact a great deal of leadership is actually about emotion management. Organizations are emotional places, organizations and businesses use emotions to motivate employees to perform. Various events in organizations create emotions and affect an employee’s sense of satisfaction or well-being. Our sense of organizational identity is connected to how we feel. Emotions are also essential to inspirational leadership. However, emotions can harm employees, affect how they react to pressures and be the cause of low productivity and poor results.

Today, through the use of cutting-edge behavioral change models and techniques, negative emotions can be reframed to become a positive force to produce lasting beneficial results.

Moods and emotions affect our selection and the quality of our actions.

Emotions are a part of our everyday existence as they move through the body, affecting our state-of-mind, performance, health and energy. Some recent research even suggests that all decisions are emotionally based, and that logic is used to provide a rational explanation for whatever decision is taken.

It is important to distinguish between moods and emotions. Emotions are responses to specific events however moods are long term emotions people can find themselves in, such as pessimism, optimism, melancholy, resentment and anxiety. Moods have a major bearing on a person’s emotional response to what is happening around them. They underpin a person’s morale, their desire for improvement, their commitment to the process of change, their ability to problem-solve and their creative and innovative thinking.