Emotions & Attitudes

Sandeep Hegde
What Are Emotions?

Affect Emotions Moods

 What are Emotions?
• Three related terms:
– 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.
 Emotions
Emotions: “Complex, patterned, organismic reactions to how
we think we are doing in our lifelong efforts to survive and flourish
and to achieve what we wish for ourselves.”
Positive and Negative Emotions
Negative emotions (Goal
incongruent):
- Anger - Fright/anxiety
- Guilt/shame - Sadness
- Envy/jealousy - Disgust

Positive emotions (Goal

congruent)
- Happiness/joy - Pride
- Love/affection - Relief
 Six
Six Universal
Universal Emotions
Emotions

Happiness Fear Anger

Surprise Sadness Disgust

 Emotional competence
• Emotional competence refers to a
person's ability in expressing or releasing
their inner feelings (emotions). It implies
an ease around others and determines
one's ability to effectively and successfully
lead and express
 Daniel Goleman’s Emotional
Intelligence Competencies Model
• Self Awareness
– Emotional self-awareness
– Accurate self-assessment
– Self-confidence
• Self Management
– Self-control
– Trustworthiness
– Conscientiousness
– Adaptability
– Achievement orientation
– Initiative
 EI Competencies
• Social Awareness
– Empathy
– Organisational Awareness
– Service Orientation
• Social skills
– Influence
– Leadership
– Developing Others
– Communication
– Change Catalyst
– Conflict Management
– Building Bonds
– Teamwork and Collaboration
 Emotions
Emotions and
and
Organizational
Organizational
Behavior
Behavior

Felt
Felt Displayed
Displayed
Emotions
Emotions Emotions
Emotions
Emotional
Emotional
Labor
Labor
 Choosing Emotions: Emotional
Labor
• When an employee expresses
organizationally desired emotions during
interpersonal interactions.
• Employees can experience a conflict
between what they feel, and what’s
expected of them.
 Emotional labor
• Emotional labor is a form of emotional
regulation wherein workers are expected
to display certain emotions as part of their
job, and to promote organizational goals.
The intended effects of these emotional
displays are on other, targeted people,
who can be clients, customers,
subordinates or co-workers.
 Emotional labor
• The term "emotional labor" was first defined by
the sociologist Arlie Hochschild as the
"management of feeling to create a publicly
facial and bodily display“.
• According to Hochschild, jobs involving
emotional labor are defined as those that:
(1) require face-to-face or voice-to-voice contact
with the public;
(2) require the worker to produce an emotional
state in another person;
(3) allow the employees to exercise a degree of
control over their emotional activities
 Forms of emotional labor
• Employees can display organizationally-desired
emotions by acting out the emotion. Such acting
can take two forms:
– Surface Acting - involves "painting on" affective
displays, or faking; Surface acting involves an
employee's (presenting emotions on his or her
"surface" without actually feeling them. The employee
in this case puts on a facade as if the emotions are
felt, like a "persona").
– Deep Acting - wherein they modify their inner
feelings to match the emotion expressions the
organization requires.
 Emotional Dissonance
• Though both forms of acting are internally false, they
represent different intentions. That is, when engaging in
deep acting, an actor attempts to modify feelings to
match the required displays, in order to seem authentic
to the audience ("faking in good faith"); in surface
acting, the alternative strategy, employees modify their
displays without shaping inner feelings. They conform to
the display rules in order to keep the job, not to help the
customer or the organization, ("faking in bad faith").
• Deep acting is argued to be associated with reduced
stress and an increased sense of personal
accomplishment; whereas surface acting is associated
with increased stress, emotional exhaustion, depression,
and a sense of inauthenticity
• In 1983, Arlie Russell Hochschild, who wrote about
emotional labour, coined the term emotional dissonance
to describe this process of "maintaining a difference
between feeling and feigning".
 External Constraints on
Emotions
Organizational
Organizational Cultural
Cultural
Influences
Influences Influences
Influences

Individual
Individual
Emotions
Emotions
Emotions and OB Applications
Ability and
Selection

Deviant Leadership
Behavior

Decision
Motivation Making

Interpersonal
Conflict
 Negative Workplace Emotions
• Negative emotions can lead to a number
of deviant workplace behaviours. They fall
in categories such as:
– Production (leaving early, intentionally
working slowly)
– Property (stealing, sabotage)
– Political (gossiping, blaming co-workers)
– Personal aggression (sexual harassment,
verbal abuse)
 Personality Structure
“Personality arises from conflict twixt aggressive,
pleasure-seeking impulses and social restraints”

Super
Ego
Ego

Id
 Personality Structure
Id - energy constantly striving to satisfy basic drives
Pleasure Principle

Ego - seeks to gratify the Id in realistic ways

Reality Principle
Super
Ego
Ego Super Ego
- voice of conscience
that focuses on how
Id we ought to behave
 Attitudes

Stable clusters of feelings, beliefs,

and behavioral intentions toward
specific, objects, people, or
institutions
 What is an attitude?
A mental and neural state of readiness, organised through experience,
exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s
response to all objects and situations with which it is related
Allport, 1935

An attitude is a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating

a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour
Eagly & Chaiken, 1998
Three Basic Components of
Attitudes
Evaluative or
Affective
Component
(how you feel)
Attitude
Object

Cognitive
Component
(what you Behavioral
believe) Component
(how you are
predisposed
to act)
Attitude

3
 Do Attitudes Determine
Behavior?
• An underlying assumption in persuasion
research is: Shift a person’s attitude in the right
direction and behavior will follow.
Examples:
1. If people see the value of wearing their
seatbelt then they are more likely to actually
wear it.
2. If people think that smoking is bad for their
health then they will quit.
 How do Attitudes Actually
Predict Behavior?
• Two theoretical models that explain why
attitudes predict behavior.
• Theory of Reasoned Action:
– Theory relevant when the behavior is thoughtfully
planned in advance.
• Attitude-To-Behavior Process Model
– Theory relevant when behavior is a spontaneous
reaction to one’s immediate situation.
The theory of reasoned action

Attitude

Behaviour
The theory of reasoned action

Attitude

Intention Behaviour
The theory of reasoned action

Attitude

Intention Behaviour
Subjective
Norms
The theory of planned behaviour

Attitude

Intention Behaviour
Subjective
Norms

Perceived
behavioural control
 Functions of Job Attitudes
• predict behavior
• adapt to environment
– adjustment function
– ego-defense function
– value-expressive function
– knowledge function
 Job Satisfaction

a pleasurable or positive
emotional state resulting from
the appraisal of one’s job or job
experiences.
 Responses to Job Dissatisfaction

Active

Exit Voice
Destructive Constructive

Neglect Loyalty

Passive
 Productivity
Productivity
Job
Job
Satisfaction
Satisfaction Absenteeism
Absenteeism
and
and Employee
Employee
Performance
Performance
Turnover
Turnover
 Consequences of
Low Job Satisfaction
1. Turnover is higher
2. Absenteeism is higher
3. Performance is lower
4. Accidents increase
5. Personal health decreases (due to stress)
6. Unionization efforts increase
7. Stock prices are lower
 Voluntary Turnover: An
Overview
Job Satisfaction

Thoughts of
quitting

Intention to search
for new job

Thoughts of Intention to
quitting quit or stay

Action:
quit or stay
Probability of finding an
acceptable alternative job

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 Promoting Job Satisfaction
1. Pay people fairly (Equity Theory)
2. Improve quality of supervision
3. Decentralize control of power
4. Match people’s interests to job
Hackman and Oldham’s Model of
Job Characteristics
Hackman & Oldham identified five ‘core job characteristics’ that
relate to the motivation and satisfaction of employees. These
characteristics are:

1. Skill variety: the degree to which the job requires different skills

2. Task identity: the degree to which the job involves completing a

whole, identifiable piece of work rather than simply a part.

3. Task significance: the extent to which the job has an impact on

other people, inside or outside the organization

4. Autonomy: the extent to which the job allows jobholders to exercise

choice and discretion over work

5. Feedback from the job: the extent to which the job itself (as
opposed to other people) provides jobholders with information on
their performance.
Hackman and Oldham’s