Managing Emotions in the Workplace

Perhaps the picture of a figure like this is quite familiar to you: coworkers who never had a pleasant word, be it in the weekly staff meeting or in a lunch conversation in the cafeteria. People like these suck the energy from a brainstorming session with his comments that "not important".

Their tendency to easily "bete" is also disturbing. In short, their negativity can contaminate even good news. As confirmed by Wharton management professor Sigal Barsade who studied the influence of emotions in the workplace, emotional contagion. "A variety of emotions spread from one person to another like a virus," he said.

Barsade join the team of authors paper "Why Does Affect Matter in Organizations?" In the study of organizational behavior, "Affect" is another word for "emotion". And, answers to written questions from the paper's title: mood, emotions and attitudes of all employees have an influence on performance, decision making, creativity, turnover, teamwork, negotiation and leadership. "Everybody brings their emotions to the workplace," says Barsade.

"You bring your brain to work. You also carry your emotions while working. Various feelings that drive performance."
In the paper, Barsade and colleagues detailing the existence of three different types of feelings:
1. Discrete, alias momentary emotions, like love, anger, fear and disgust.
2. Mood, the feelings of long-term and not related to specific causes, such as a jovial person, or insecure.
3. Dispositional, or personal properties attached to a person who 'defines' in question as a whole. We often hear people comment, "She was always happy," or, "He's always been prejudiced."

According to Barsade, some people do have better control of his emotions than others. However, it does not mean that the people around him are not affected by their mood. "You might not realize that you're showing your emotions, but that's reflected in facial expressions or body language. Emotions we do not realize it could influence the thinking and behavior," he said.

To managers menstrasfer Barsade suggests that positive emotions, such as by saying, "I know you're worried. Things did not look good, but you know we have a ways to handle it and we can work together."

Employees will appreciate the honesty like that and can get a sense of comfort to be optimistic.


Tags: managing emotions, managing emotions in the workplace, emotions and attitudes of employees, negotiation and kepemiminan, positive emotions, the transfer of emotion, a sense of comfort, being optimistic, influence thought and behavior, prejudice.