literature review
Emotions in the workplace play a significant role in how an whole organization communicates within itself and to the exterior world. According to (Weiss, 2002), procedures at work have real emotional effect on participants and the results of emotional states in the workplace, both behavioral and attitudinal, have considerable implication for persons, groups, and society. Positive emotions in the workplace assist workers attain favorable results such as achievement, job enrichment and higher quality social context (Staw et al 1994). On the other hand, Negative emotions, such as fear, anger, stress, hostility, sadness, and guilt, elevate the predictability of workplace deviance, and how the outer world sights the organization.
Emotions in general are associated with precise events or occurrences and are severe enough to interrupt thought processes. (Brief, 2002) says that Moods , are more “generalized feelings or states that are not classically recognized with a particular stimulus and not suitably intense to disrupt ongoing thought procedures. There can be numerous consequences for allowing negative emotions to influence attitude or mood at work. Emotions and emotion management are a prominent attribute of organizational success. Therefore, it is crucial “to create a publicly observable and desirable emotional display as a part of a job role.
Role of emotions
The capacity to efficiently deal with emotions and emotional information at workplace helps workers in managing occupational stress and sustaining psychological well-being. This shows that stress reduction and health safety could be attained not only by lessening work burden or stressors but also by raising the personal resources of employees, such as emotional intelligence. According to (Oginska, 2005),the improving emotional intelligence skills such as empathy, impulse control are necessary for successful job performance and can assist workers deal more effectively with their feelings, and thus directly decrease the level of job stress and indirectly protect their health
Positive emotions
Positive emotions at employment such as high accomplishment and enthusiasm have “desirable outcome independent of a person’s associations with others, including greater task activity, perseverance and enhanced cognitive function (Sutton, 1994).Sound positive emotions of emotionally intelligent people include optimism, positive mood, self-efficacy, and emotional resilience to persevere under adverse circumstances (Abraham. 1999).Optimism rests on the premise that collapse is not inherent in the individual; it may be recognized to circumstances that may be distorted with a refocusing of endeavor. Those who convey positive emotions in the workplace are better prepared to manipulate their coworkers constructively.
Negative emotions
Negative emotions at work can be created by “work overload, poor rewards, and social relations which seem to be the most traumatic work-related factor sarcasm is a negative affective response to the organization. Cynics feel disapproval, distress, shame, and even disgust when they reflect upon their organizations” (Abraham, 1999). Negative emotions are driven by variety of issues, such as aggression, verbal abuse, sexual harassment, computer flaming, blogging, assertiveness training, grapevines, and non verbal behavior(Muir, 2006).Stress is the difficulty of each person experiencing it. Negative emotions may also be caused by bad leadership, absence of guidance, lack of support and backup. (Olofsson, 2003) says that employees need confidence in their capacity to deal with work burden and their lack of confidence in coworker may also generate prolonged negative stress. Showing stress exposes weakness, therefore, employees contain their negative emotions at work and home. Individual who repeatedly hide their emotions has been established to be more susceptible to disease compared to those who are emotionally expressive.
Part B. Self Awareness
Self-Awareness
Improving self-awareness is a strategic approach towards to attaining higher emotional intelligence. Individuals need to be aware of their emotions before they can manage them effectively. Self-awareness of our emotions can also help one to empathize, and enhance understanding on what others are experiencing.
Persons with elevated emotional self-awareness understand their feeling at given moments can discover the source of those feelings and can recognize how the feelings manifest in physical symptoms, such as sweaty palms and headaches. Among the many methods for enhancing emotional self-awareness.
Some of the approaches that has been in self Check in”. This as where time is Set aside to assess your emotional state. During this period one needs to ask him/herself a series of questions and answer them honestly. (Friedman, 1980) Like seen in the self assessment survey, some of the self checking questions addressed include what am feeling, what are my thoughts concerning a given stimuli, how to the feelings manifest and many
Secondly the assessment survey also entails Labeling of emotions. After determining the feelings, labeling of emotions, helps identify the source or “trigger” of negative feelings. Some frequent illustrations of labels for emotions include anger, fear, surprise and passion( Bono, 2007). The identification helps improves clarity on what should be improved in response to a trigger.
The third approach is being in the moment which entails listening to what emotions and feelings might be telling at any given moment. This entails learning how to use the information you heard from within to gain an added insight and guidance in working through an issue or problem.
Self-Assessment is important from a management point of view; it is significantly for an organization’s managers to possess high levels of emotional self-awareness (Diefendorff et al, 2003). Self assessment will build leadership skills by helping one to have an acute understanding of how feelings can affect their behavior, mood and performance. It also enables one as a manger to remain cognizant of how their mood affects the mood of others in the organization and team performance.
To evaluate self-awareness and other emotional intelligent factors, one is required to honestly assess their emotional intelligence shortcomings and strengths. There are a number of proven measurement tools that may be used, including the EI Profile’s four-quadrant method.
Individual can also self-assess their respective EI using less formal methods (Hesmondhalgh et al 2008). For instance, to evaluate their self-awareness, they can proactively seek feedback from others, including other employees in the organization. When people go looking for candid feedback from others, it’s imperative to stay open and approachable to what they hear without being self-protective. They also need to thank those offering the feedback for their frankness.
Actions like these assist people to establish a culture and environment where honest and open feedback is not only accepted, but expected. They also reveal a obligation to workers personal and specialized expansion that makes learning, growth and permanent self-improvement a priority.
Part C. Case Study
1. How would you describe the ‘emotional labour’ of Laura? Would you consider she shows the ability to exhibit high levels of ‘emotional labour’? Use literature to support your answer.
Emotional labor is emotional organization within the workforce that establishes a condition in which the emotion organization by employees can be exchanged in the marketplace. According to (Hochschild, 1983) Emotional labor is a kind of emotion regulation that establishes a publicly visible facial and bodily display ( Hochschild, 1979). Laura exhibits high standards of emotional labor because she tries to regulate his emotions by creating a public visible facial display in order to avoid offending her employers. She has to hide her emotion put putting on an act to show that there is nothing wrong or emotional taking place.
2. How do you think Laura would function on the five dimensions of emotional intelligence? Use literature to support your answer.
Self-awareness is the ability to identify and realize personal moods and emotions and drives, as well as their effect on others and this primary approach towards achieving high standards of Emotional Intelligence. Components of emotional intelligence include .Self-regulation which is the ability to direct or redirect disrupting impulses and moods, and the tendency to delay judgment and to think before acting (Rafaeli, 1989). Characteristics include trustworthiness and integrity; comfort with ambiguity; and openness to change. Laura functions well with this component since she has been able to adapt with the negatives aspects of the employment and comp with the conditions of her managers.
Internal motivation is the second component and its a. passion to work for internal motives that go past money and status which considered as external rewards while inner motivation include inner vision of what is important in life, a joy in doing something, curiosity in learning, A propensity to pursue goals with energy and persistence. Features include a strong drive to achieve, optimism even in the face of failure, and organizational commitment(Seymour, 2000). Laura does not function well with this component since just driven by the fact the she is working despite the fact and she is optimistic that things will be better.
The third component is empathy which is a skill in treating people inline with their emotional reactions. Hallmarks include expertise in building and retaining talent, cross-cultural sensitivity, and service to clients and customers (Glomb et al 2004). In an educational context, empathy is often thought to include, or lead to, sympathy, which implies concern, or care or a wish to soften negative emotions or experiences in others. The final component is Social skills which is the ability in manage relationships and building networks, and an ability to find common ground and create rapport. Features of social skills are such as efficiency in leading change, persuasiveness, and expertise building and leading teams. Laura does function well since her work place with anger and hatred and she has not made any attempt to correct the situation.
Appendix
Big 5 Personality (long)
Extraversion: 3.38 out of 5
Agreeableness: 4.11 out of 5
Conscientiousness: 3.22 out of 5
Neuroticism: 3.63 out of 5
Openness: 3.7 out of 5
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)
Positive emotion: 38
Negative emotion: 20
Jungian 16-Type Personality
Introverted: 1 vs. Extroverted: 7
Sensing: 2 vs. Intuitive: 6
Thinking: 4 vs. Feeling: 4
Judging: 4 vs. Perceiving: 4
Type A or B Personality
Score: 108
Emotion Regulation Questionnaire
Cognitive Reappraisal Score: 6.17 out of 7
Expressive Suppression Score: 3.75 out of 7
Authentic Expression Score: 6.75 out of 7
STEM
Final score: 0.467
STEU
Final score: 0.52
Vocabulary Test
Score: 9 out of 18
Percentage Correct: 50%
Average Confidence: 77.65%
Bias in perceptual estimate: 27.65%
Letter Series Test
Score: 7 out of 15
Percentage Correct: 46.67%
Average Confidence: 69.38%
Bias in perceptual estimate: 22.71%
Reference
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