LOVE AT WORK: TABOO NO MORE?

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t one time, workplace romances were a taboo topic. When they were discussed by organizations, it was often by means of a memo outlining the policy against such liaisons among co-workers.

Though the motivations behind such policies were not evil—mostly, it was a desire to avoid sexual harassment lawsuits emanating from one employee’s amorous pursuit of another—they also overlooked a real prob- lem: a large percentage of couples first met in the workplace, and for many reasons, work is a great place to meet a future mate.

In one 2011 survey of 3,900 workers, nearly 20 percent indicated they had dated co-workers at least twice in their working career, and about one-third of those who did ended up marrying a person they dated at work. What’s more—65 percent of those who date someone at work say they are open about it at work.

Nathan Shaw and Maiko Sato met at a Cisco training program. For two years, they dated openly as fellow employees. When Nathan decided to propose to Maiko, he asked his boss to help with a ruse. During a fake test of teleconferencing equipment, Nathan’s proposal flashed on the screen. Maiko said yes, and they remain happily married and working at Cisco’s San Jose, CA, headquarters.

To Stacie Taylor, who has been dating Cary Costello, a fellow employee of Zoot Enterprises (a Bozeman, Montana, technical services provider), for more than 3 years, finding a mate at work is logical. “People spend so much of their time working that it’s unavoidable,” she said. Cary adds, “If you’re around a bunch of like-minded people who have similar interests, it’s bound to happen.”

There are risks. When 27-year-old Arti Banerjee’s relationship with her co-worker went sour, her ex-boyfriend started spreading rumors about her in the office and on Facebook. He forwarded some of her text messages to co-workers. After two months, Banerjee quit.

Another risk is violations of privacy. Some employees—to protect their privacy or from fear of their organization’s reaction—try to keep their relationship under wraps. It generally doesn’t work. When GMR Marketing co-workers Michelle Walters and Ryan Scholz began dating, they hid their relationship, only to be found out. As it turns out, they had nothing to fear. Their boss, Gary Reynolds, says GMR has no dating policy: “Why try to mandate behavior and develop policy when you don’t need it?”

Sources: S. Shallenbarger, “For Office Romance, The Secret’s Out,” The Wall Street Journal (February 10, 2010), pp. D1–D2; “Survey: Workplace Dating Losing Stigma,” UPI (February 13, 2011), www.upi.com ; R. T. Sharma, “How to Handle an Office Romance, Especially after a Messy Breakup,” Economic Times (May 1, 2011), http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ .

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

1

Differentiate emotions from moods and list the basic emotions and moods.

2

Discuss whether emotions are rational and what functions they serve.

3

Identify the sources of emotions and moods.

4

Show the impact emotional labor has on employees.

5

Describe affective events theory and identify its applications.

6

Contrast the evidence for and against the existence of emotional intelligence.

7

Identify strategies for emotion regulation and their likely effects.

8

Apply concepts about emotions and moods to specific OB issues.

MyManagementLab

Access a host of interactive learning aids to help strengthen your understanding of the chapter concepts at

www.mymanagementlab.com

Emotions

and Moods 4

Time cools, time clarifies; no mood can be maintained quite unaltered through the course of hours.

—Mark Twain

Photo: Stock photo. Source: © Beyond/SuperStock

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s the preceding stories illustrate, emotions can be an important part of the way people behave at work. Given the obvious role emotions play in our lives, it might surprise you that, until recently, the field of OB has given the topic of emotions little attention. ¹ Why? We offer two possible explanations.

First is the myth of rationality. ² Until very recently, the protocol of the work world kept a damper on emotions. A well-run organization didn’t allow employ- ees to express frustration, fear, anger, love, hate, joy, grief, or similar feelings thought to be the antithesis of rationality. Though researchers and managers knew emotions were an inseparable part of everyday life, they tried to create organizations that were emotion-free. Of course, that wasn’t possible.

The second explanation is that many believed emotions of any kind were dis- ruptive. ³ Researchers looked at strong negative emotions—especially anger—

that interfered with an employee’s ability to work effectively. They rarely viewed emotions as constructive or contributing to enhanced performance.

Certainly some emotions, particularly exhibited at the wrong time, can hinder performance. But employees do bring their emotions to work every day, and no study of OB would be comprehensive without considering their role in workplace behavior.

How Are You Feeling Right Now?

In the Self-Assessment Library (available on CD or online), take assessment IV.D.1 (How Are You Feeling Right Now?) and answer the following questions.

1. What was higher—your positive mood score or negative mood score? How do these scores compare with those of your classmates?

2. Did your score surprise you? Why or why not?

3. What sorts of things influence your positive moods, your negative moods?

S A L

SELF-ASSESSMENT LIBRARY

In our analysis, we’ll need three terms that are closely intertwined: affect, emotions, and moods.

Affect is a generic term that covers a broad range of feelings people experience, including both emotions and moods. ⁴ Emotions are intense feelings directed at someone or something. ⁵ Moods are less intense feelings than emotions and often (though not always) arise without a specific event acting as a stimulus. ⁶

Most experts believe emotions are more fleeting than moods. ⁷ For example, if someone is rude to you, you’ll feel angry. That intense feeling probably comes and goes fairly quickly, maybe even in a matter of seconds. When you’re in a bad mood, though, you can feel bad for several hours.

Emotions are reactions to a person (seeing a friend at work may make you feel glad) or an event (dealing with a rude client may make you feel frustrated).

You show your emotions when you’re “happy about something, angry at some- one, afraid of something.” ⁸ Moods, in contrast, aren’t usually directed at a person or an event. But emotions can turn into moods when you lose focus on the event or object that started the feeling. And, by the same token, good or bad moods can make you more emotional in response to an event. So when a colleague criticizes how you spoke to a client, you might show emotion (anger)

What Are Emotions and Moods?

1

Differentiate emotions from moods and list the basic emotions and moods.

toward a specific object (your colleague). But as the specific emotion dissipates, you might just feel generally dispirited. You can’t attribute this feeling to any single event; you’re just not your normal self. You might then overreact to other events. This affect state describes a mood. Exhibit 4-1 shows the relationships among affect, emotions, and mood.

First, as the exhibit shows, affect is a broad term that encompasses emotions and moods. Second, there are differences between emotions and moods. Some of these differences—that emotions are more likely to be caused by a specific event, and emotions are more fleeting than moods—we just discussed. Other differences are subtler. For example, unlike moods, emotions like anger and disgust tend to be more clearly revealed by facial expressions. Also, some re- searchers speculate that emotions may be more action-oriented—they may lead us to some immediate action—while moods may be more cognitive, meaning they may cause us to think or brood for a while. ⁹

Finally, the exhibit shows that emotions and moods are closely connected and can influence each other. Getting your dream job may generate the emotion of joy, which can put you in a good mood for several days. Similarly, if you’re in a good or bad mood, it might make you experience a more intense positive or neg- ative emotion than otherwise. In a bad mood, you might blow up in response to a co-worker’s comment that would normally have generated only a mild reaction.

Affect, emotions, and moods are separable in theory; in practice the distinc- tion isn’t always crystal-clear. In some areas, researchers have studied mostly moods, in other areas mainly emotions. So, when we review the OB topics on emotions and moods, you may see more information about emotions in one area and about moods in another. This is simply the state of the research.

affect A broad range of feelings that people experience.

emotions Intense feelings that are directed at someone or something.

moods Feelings that tend to be less intense than emotions and that lack a contextual stimulus.

Affect, Emotions, and Moods Exhibit 4-1

Emotions

• Caused by specific event

• Very brief in duration (seconds or minutes)

• Specific and numerous in nature (many specific emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust, surprise)

• Usually accompanied by distinct facial expressions

• Action oriented in nature

Moods

• Cause is often general and unclear

• Last longer than emotions (hours or days)

• More general (two main dimensions—

positive affect and negative affect—

that are composed of multiple specific emotions)

• Generally not indicated by distinct expressions

• Cognitive in nature Affect

Defined as a broad range of feelings that people experience.

Affect can be experienced in the form of emotions or moods.

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