case study on emotions at workplace

Positive emotion in workplace impact: The case of a work-based learning project utilising appreciative inquiry

Journal of Work-Applied Management

ISSN : 2205-2062

Article publication date: 4 December 2017

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role of positive emotions in generating workplace impacts and examine it through the application of an adapted appreciative inquiry process in the context of a work-based project aimed at promoting integrated working under challenging organisational circumstances.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adopts a case study methodology which highlights how an organisation facing difficult circumstances (such as austerity measures, siloed cultures, constant threats of reorganisation, and requirement to work across occupational boundaries) adapted an appreciative inquiry intervention/method.

This paper found, first, that the utilisation of appreciative inquiry in the context of an adapted work-based project in difficult organisational circumstances generated positive emotions manifest through a compelling vision and action plans, second, that the impacts (such as a vision) can become entangled and therefore part of the wider ecological context which promotes pathways to such impact, but that, third, there are a various cultural and climate features which may limit the implementation of actions or the continuation of psychological states beyond the time-bound nature of the work-based project.

Practical implications

The paper illustrates how an organisation adapted a form of appreciative inquiry to facilitate organisational change and generated outcomes which were meaningful to the various occupational groupings involved.

Originality/value

This paper offers new evidence and insight into the adaptation of appreciative inquiry under challenging circumstances in the context of a work-based learning project. It also provides a richer picture of how positive emotion can manifest in ways which are meaningful to a localised context.

• Work-based learning
• Positive psychology
• Positive emotion
• Appreciative inquiry

Wall, T. , Russell, J. and Moore, N. (2017), "Positive emotion in workplace impact: The case of a work-based learning project utilising appreciative inquiry", Journal of Work-Applied Management , Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 129-146. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWAM-07-2017-0017

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Tony Wall, Jayne Russell and Neil Moore

Published in Journal of Work-Applied Management . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial & non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Introduction

There is now extensive evidence of the beneficial impacts of positive emotion at the personal, organisational, and societal levels ( Quoidbach et al. , 2015 ), and more specifically to the workplace, impacts including well-being and broader health, job satisfaction, and personal and organisational resilience ( Quoidbach et al. , 2015 ). In terms of pathways to such impacts, there is increasing evidence of its generative role with respect to learning and knowledge to create these impacts in the workplace ( Gander et al. , 2016 ). It seems that positive emotions create safe workplaces spaces to explore values, meaning, accomplishment, and vision where personal and organisational transformation can happen. However, rather than such an asset view which focusses on what is present and on vision (i.e. something to create) ( Wall, 2015, 2016b ), the families of approaches used to explore work-based learning and work place change tend to rely on a deficit model of the world, which focusses on problems, issues, and discomforts ( Wall, 2014 ).

An exception to this that has emerged is appreciative inquiry, a positive, strengths-based methodology, and research echoes the broader findings into the pathways to impacts above. However, there are ongoing concerns of the extent to which focussing on the positive can deliver deeper transformations. This is important in the context of work-based change methodologies, as work-based students will invariably need to apply it in the context and constraints of a work-based learning project and adapt it within their own specific personal and organisational contexts. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to examine the role of positive emotions in generating workplace impacts, and then to examine a particular implementation of appreciative inquiry as part of a work-based learning and change project. The overall intention is to prompt further consideration, deployment, and examination of positive emotion broadly, and appreciative inquiry more specifically, in the context of work-based change methodologies.

This paper is structured as follows. The first section discusses the contemporary empirical evidence in relation to the role of positive emotion in relation to impacts in the workplace. This emphasises the important role of positive emotions in relation to change, learning, and knowledge generation at work, and the specific intervention/method of appreciative inquiry to exemplify such evidence. The second section then outlines the methodology of this paper, that is, a case-based approach to a manager designing a bespoke appreciative inquiry intervention. The paper adopts a case study methodology which highlights how a student (manager) in an organisation facing difficult circumstances adopted an appreciative inquiry process in a work-based learning project.

The case study is then presented in the following section, which outlines the details of the manager’s intervention and its impacts. The specific application of the appreciative inquiry was framed as a way of exploring the perceptions, enablers and barriers to integrated working across the different areas of practice within the organisation. The ultimate aim was to enhance integrated working practices. The paper then moves on to discuss links between the study and contemporary knowledge and concludes with key insights and implications. The paper found that the utilisation of work-based project involving appreciative inquiry in the context of difficult organisational change did generate positive emotions and action, in line with contemporary evidence of the relationship between positive emotion and impact generally ( Mills et al. , 2013 ), and appreciative inquiry more specifically ( Ridley-Duff and Duncan, 2015 ). This paper therefore contributes new evidence into how appreciative inquiry processes can be adapted in the context of a work-based learning project, and under challenging organisational circumstances.

Pathways to impact in workplaces: positive emotion and appreciative inquiry

Positive emotion and workplace impacts.

There is now strong evidence that positive emotions are worth cultivating, not only as ends in themselves but also as a means of achieving success and psychological growth, improved mental and physical health, more satisfying and lasting social and marital relationships, and even more societal changes.

In terms of learning and emotion in workplaces, evidence indicates that when people are more emotionally (and positively) engaged, workplace learning is more effective ( Hazelton, 2014 ; Taylor and Statler, 2014 ). Gander et al. (2016 , p. 1), for example, found that workplace activity which were designed to evoke positive experiences such as pleasure, meaning and accomplishment were effective in generating subjective and physical well-being at work. Here, it is suggested that positive emotion intensifies collaboration, help-seeking and help-giving behaviours, and even sensory-motor connectivity in knowledge creation ( Aarrestad et al. , 2015 ).

Emotion and workplace learning have been conceptualised as being deeply intertwined factors that mutually and dynamically inform each other ( Simpson and Marshall, 2010 ; Benozzo and Colley, 2012 ; Paterson et al. , 2014 ; Hodgins and Dadich, 2017 ). Indeed, as Steigenberger (2015) argues, emotions are not just states which stimulate or dampen processes of knowledge, but they also shape sensemaking and the specific cognitive content of situations. For example, it is argued that emotions such as anger, fear, anxiety, or hope can shape the “content and motivational strength of sense-making accounts, influence the likelihood that a person will engage in sense-giving activities” ( Steigenberger, 2015 , p. 432).

However, this conception of emotion and learning goes beyond a simplistic positive/good-negative/bad dichotomy which masks the differential effects of discrete emotions. Indeed, even pride, interest, and gratitude have been found to have differential effects in terms of the outcomes identified above ( Kuby, 2014 ; Bryant and Wolfram Cox, 2014 ; Hu and Kaplan, 2015 ; Methot et al. , 2017 ). Similarly, research indicates that negative emotions during a task conflict can also generate positive emotions and outcomes ( Tsai and Bendersky, 2015 ; O’Neill and McLarnon, 2017 ). This points to the more nuanced framework proposed by Todorova et al. (2014) who argue that positive-negative emotions are not a singular continuum, but rather two separate, orthogonal dimensions (i.e. more akin to an x and y axis). Here, they argue, negative emotion conflict can lead to additional information which can enable people to “feel more active, energized, interested, and excited, and these positive active emotions increase job satisfaction” ( Todorova et al. , 2014 , p. 451).

In addition, the realised effects of emotion have also been found to differ amongst individuals, with different levels of susceptibility to positive emotion ( Liang and Chi, 2013 ), or the cultural and political context in which emotion is expressed ( Benozzo and Colley, 2012 ). For example, emotions can be interpreted and manifest in variable ways through social structures, such as class, gender and race, and have been found to have active roles in facilitating and indeed “blocking” workplace learning ( Benozzo and Colley, 2012 , and also see Wall and Tran, 2015, 2016 ; Wall, Tran and Soejatminah, 2017 ; Wall, Jamieson, Csigás and Kiss, 2017 ; Wall, Hindley, Hunt, Peach, Preston, Hartley and Fairbank, 2017 ; Pradhan et al. , 2017 ). This aligns with the idea that the contextual and time-bound nature of how emotional responses arise, are interpreted, and turned in to action across different contexts with different rules ( Fink and Yolles, 2015 ; Thompson and Willmott, 2016 ).

Positive emotion through work-based methodologies

There are many different “families” of work-based learning and change working ( Wall, 2013, 2014, 2016c ). They can include work-based learning with various degrees of negotiation ( Boud and Solomon, 2001 ; Raelin, 2008 ), reflective and critically reflective practices ( Helyer, 2015 ; Wall, 2017a, 2018 ), action research ( Gearty et al. , 2015 ), action learning ( Trehan and Rigg, 2015 ), and other approaches which combine aspects or processes of these such as action inquiry ( Torbert, 2004 ), synergic inquiry (e.g. Tang and Joiner, 2006 ), and work applied learning ( Abraham, 2012 ). Most, if not all, of these families are conceptualised as focussing on problems, problem solving, challenge, tension, dilemma, dichotomy, power struggles, or other uncomfortable feeling ( Wall, 2014, 2016a, c ).

There are consequences of conceptualising organisational change in this way ( Wall and Perrin, 2015 ). As Lewis et al. (2011) assert, if organisational function is described as a well-oiled machine, when something is seen as not working, the method to fixing the problem lies with its identification of the issue and the method to resolve it. This approach can work well when there is a known outcome to the problem, with a skilled motivated team for its implementation. However, this logic is based on the assumption that the resolution of organisational issues is linear, a function of solving how to get from A to B, perhaps not taking into consideration the entangled nature of humans, values and beliefs in organisational life ( Wall and Knights, 2013 ).

An alternative is conceptualising the world in more complex, dynamic, and humanistic ways ( Wall and Rossetti, 2013 ; Wall, 2015 ; Wall and Jarvis, 2015 ; Wall et al. , 2016 ; Wall, Tran and Soejatminah, 2017 ; Wall, Jamieson, Csigás and Kiss, 2017 ; Wall, Hindley, Hunt, Peach, Preston, Hartley and Fairbank, 2017 ). A specific approach to work- or community-based learning which adopts such a perspective is appreciative inquiry ( Cooperrider et al. , 2008 ; Lewis et al. , 2011 ; Ridley-Duff and Duncan, 2015 ). Appreciative inquiry assumes a stance which focusses on positive emotion to mobilise collective energy and action towards a more desired, future state. There are a variety of conceptualisations of appreciative inquiry, but one of the most popular is the 4D “cycle” (see Figure 1 ). Although the depiction of “Discovery, Dream, Design, and Destiny” as a cycle is common, appreciative inquiry was originally derived as a flexible conceptualisation of the positive core of organisations ( Cooperrider et al. 2008 ).

Since the inception of appreciative inquiry in the 1980s, evidence continues to suggest that it is a more generative form of inquiry than problem solving ( Calabrese et al. , 2013 ; Harmon, 2013 ; Bushe and Paranjpey, 2015 ; Sharp et al. , 2017 ). For example, Calabrese et al. (2013) found that through appreciative inquiry, participants developed a new and compelling vision, a stronger sense of empowerment, and clear action plans to achieve their goals. Similarly, Harmon (2013) found evidence of managers building and gaining trust within their organisations. For Sharp et al. (2017) , the appreciative perspective invokes the motivational curiosity which encourages collaborative change efforts because it creates a safe space to reflect and explore values without judgement.

However, others criticise appreciative inquiry for its perceived inability to transform deeper structures and claim that practitioners have a preoccupation with “positivity” which inhibits appreciative inquiry’s ability to develop generative theory ( Ridley-Duff and Duncan, 2015 , p. 1579). These barriers censor certain content and emotions and are described by Fitzgerald et al. (2010) as the “shadow side” of appreciative inquiry. Such elements have the potential to suppress and stifle deeper appreciation and critical inquiry processes which enable people to “deconstruct experience and then engage critical appreciative processes during the remainder of the appreciative inquiry cycle to construct new experiences” ( Ridley-Duff and Duncan, 2015 , p. 1579).

Drawing this discussion together, there is now ample evidence about the role positive emotion has in creating a wide variety of impacts within the workplace. The pathways to these impacts include creating a safe space for people to express and explore values, meaning, accomplishments, vision, and the actions to be able to deliver them. These pathways to impact are echoed in the research into appreciative inquiry, one of the few work-based change methodological approaches which focus on a positive, or asset-/strengths-based approach. At the same time, questions remain as to the deeper critical processes of positive or appreciative frames to facilitate deeper levels of change and transformation. Therefore, it is unclear how impacts might unfold (if at all) in the context of work-based learning projects, where the student (manager) may be politically constrained in many and multiple ways to deliver the impacts. As the student (manager) may also need to adapt their application of appreciative inquiry to meet their specific study and organisational contexts and aims, it is also unclear how this might manifest pathways to organisational impact.

Methodology

This paper adopts a case approach to document and examine a work-based learning project utilising an adapted appreciative inquiry approach aimed at investigating and supporting integrated working within an organisation. Key features of the organisation’s context include the imposition of extensive austerity measures, siloed cultures, constant threats of reorganisation, and a requirement to work across occupational boundaries (more about this is detailed below). Although the organisational change described in this case involved 500 staff, the data for this paper were drawn from an initial pilot study. Methodologically, the study adopted a theoretical sampling frame ( Stokes and Wall, 2014 ), focussing on the aspects deemed to be important to the overall theme of the study. Specifically, this was to explore the use of appreciative inquiry within the context of a work-based learning programme, and, on a more specific level, to explore the experiences of a diverse set of occupational managers engaged in and responsible for integrated working. This meant that the sampling frame was to include participants who had influence over different organisational units within the new structure, and represented all of organisational units from the central management team.

Managers across the organisation were invited to participate through the researcher’s internal networks, management team meetings, and through e-mail and informal conversations. Ten managers agreed to participate, and included a strategic manager, a manager from information and learning resources, a manager from the gym, an operational manager, a manager from the information technology operations, and a manager from the healthy lifestyles team. Together, these covered all sections on the site. Each manager signed an informed consent before participating in the sessions. The organisation and managers are anonymised in this paper. More details about the case study context, appreciative inquiry intervention/method, and the findings, are now discussed in detail.

Case study: a work-based project using appreciative inquiry

The context of this study was a manager (researcher) adopting the role of a practitioner researcher by undertaking a work-based learning project as part of a master’s programme. Her aim was to respond sensitively to the increasing demands and challenges placed on the organisation in which she worked. As a response to severe political austerity at central and local government levels, the organisation had recently moved from public ownership, where the organisation was organised in to clear functional areas and operational units, to a business model requiring the staff of 500 to work in a much more integrated way and for-profit. This shift was from the security and stability of a national health service delivering free services to a company charging for integrated leisure, lifestyles and information services in a hub style environment. This was acknowledged to be a major cultural shift, placing additional demands and pressures on staff to deliver in a more competitive environment.

The transition involved a period of staff consultation, redeployment, and recruitment followed by the implementation of new organisational strategies, structures and job roles. Despite these changes the researcher recognised from internal management and monitoring processes that integrated working was still problematic and conversations internally amongst the management team suggested that it would be useful to investigate how to improve this form of working through a pilot. The study was therefore framed as a way of exploring the perceptions, enablers and barriers to integrated working across the different areas of practice within the organisation. The ultimate aim was to enhance integrated working practices.

The researcher decided to utilise an appreciative inquiry informed intervention to undertake the study for two reasons: the organisational context of the study was a sensitive and emotionally charged situation of externally imposed transition and change, so needed an approach that would provide a positive frame and thereby be sensitive to the wellness and health of the participants, and the intervention would focus on forward-looking and actionable outcomes which could then inform other developmental work beyond the initial pilot. As appreciative inquiry was initially conceived as a body of principles to be utilised flexibly in the circumstances of practice ( Cooperrider et al. 2008 ), the manager designed an intervention that would be feasible within the context of her organisation and her own management sphere of influence. The next section outlines details of the specific intervention.

An appreciative inquiry informed intervention/method

Table I – “discovery”: When did we work well together?

Table II – “dreaming”: What would be the ideal of us working well together look like?

Table III – “designing”: What do we need to prioritise to make this happen?

The fourth element of the framework, the “destiny” stage, was not utilised in the pilot study for three reasons: any “design” phase outcomes generated through the process would need to be ratified and agreed by other management structures within the organisation, and could not be generated through the pilot study; the timescales of the (academic, work-based learning) project required a rapid turnaround before other changes happened in the organisation; and there was ambiguity over the potential outcomes and experiences of the pilot, so it was important to manage the expectations of the participants and management team. Although the omission of the destiny stage is an unfortunate necessity, it emphasises the adaptable and the flexible nature of appreciative inquiry ( Cooperrider et al. 2008 ).

An independent facilitator was utilised to facilitate the session, to create a greater sense of independence and to minimise compliance bias ( Stokes and Wall, 2014 ). The facilitator utilised an ice breaker question at the start of the session to help frame the sessions and to “warm up”: participants were asked “what is the best thing that has happened to you today?”. Personal stories were then shared to encourage trust, collective working, and relaxation ( Wall and Rossetti, 2013 ).

answer the table question by writing an individual response on the tablecloth; then

as a group, discuss the question; then

write and/or draw a group response on the tablecloth; and then

move to the next table, and repeat the above, until all tables have been visited.

Once completed, the data generated were predominantly image based, with a diverse set of expressions through shapes, colour, detail, simplicity, landscape, metaphor, and character. The researcher then used Broussine’s (2008) “multifaceted” method to systematically explore and qualitatively analyse picture data utilising the research questions as sub headings. Two of the main qualities used in the analysis of drawings are in part from the metaphorical representation and multifaceted components which offer insights into unconscious thought and expression ( Broussine, 2008 ; Page et al. , 2014 ). Data analysis involved a prolonged and intimate period with the data, iteratively cross-referencing the data in relation to the research questions ( Creswell, 2007 ). An example of a participant drawing is presented in Plate 1 , and an initial analysis of the content by the researcher is represented in Table I .

Once analysis had been completed, the second session was then primarily a way to verify the findings from the first session, using a form of peer review and member checking ( Creswell, 2007 ), to help prioritise which would then be taken through to the management structure and process for decision making. The data from the first session ( Plate 2 ) were presented alongside the researcher’s analysis ( Plate 3 ) on large walls and participants were given time to observe and compare. Participants were then invited to reflect on the analysis check whether they thought it represented the original data, e.g. whether everything had been captured, and whether there was anything missing. Next, the participants were invited to move the themes, and asked to collectively agree which items needed priority in terms of being moved forward in action (as part of the “design” phase). This process, and the dialogue that emerged, highlighted that a tenth theme “community” was missing and so this was added.

Findings and recommendations: insights into integrated working, appreciative inquiry and positive emotion

From the manager’s perspective, the appreciative inquiry primarily aimed to generate insight into the perceptions, enablers and barriers of integrated working in a particular localised context and to then inform and enhance working practices. The intention was that the work-based project would provide sufficient detail on these areas to target impact in the workplace through changed policies and practices. The final set of verified themes is outlined in Table II . At the same time, the intention was to be sensitive to the organisational circumstances in which the study was undertaken – or in other words, the pathway to workplace impact purposively took a positive frame, focus, and process. The feedback from the sessions indicated that a positive, open, sharing, and reflective space was generated through the particular appreciative inquiry design adopted, as shown in Table III . The following section outlines the themes generated through and verified by the appreciative inquiry, and a selection of the resulting recommendations to the organisation.

space: infused with sunshine, relaxation and is harmonious;

tasks: are done in unison with passion;

equipment: using “free rope” type equipment and styles, perhaps integrating the cultivation of the outdoors that surround the work environment as part of the change strategy; and

people: are curious about their work, supporting one another, and their well-being.

In order to develop these elements a key initial step is to replicate the appreciative inquiry intervention across the organisation to consolidate further learning and to explore and collate areas of effective practices already in place. In a broader sense, these findings also indicated the way in which the adapted appreciative inquiry process, which was deployed in the case setting as part of a work-based learning project, generated positive emotion as a space whereby these insights were generated. The final column in Table II indicates a number of positive emotions which seemed to be generated through the appreciative inquiry process including positive orientation, hope, harmony, positive environments (e.g. unison and support), and relaxation. These reflect the characteristics of the pathways to impact discussed earlier, but also demonstrate more localised manifestations or expressions which were meaningful to the participants in the organisation.

In a strict sense, whereas positive emotion may form a frame and focus for an intervention, appreciative inquiry may provide a specific intervention as a pathway to generating impact. However, in line with Steigenberger (2015) , and as can be seen from the analysis of the work-based project using appreciative inquiry, it is difficult to disentangle or isolate the differential effects of positive emotion and appreciative inquiry processes. They are entangled and mutually reinforcing, for example, it is difficult to see how the portrait painted in Table II , of working together in unison and in the sunshine, can be attained without hope or curiosity. The themes and experiences of participants in this study therefore reflect both the outcomes and the pathways to impacts, and in this way, align closely with contemporary empirical evidence of how positive emotion and appreciative inquiry processes exemplify the pathways to impacts in workplace contexts ( Watkins et al. , 2016 ; Sharp et al. , 2017 ). As such, this highlights the importance of the wider ecological system in the workplace which, as described by the participants of this study, as a particular manifestation of “space, task, equipment, and people”, is meaningful to the particular organisational setting.

As part of this wider ecological system, such outcomes and pathways to impact seem to reflect processes which attend to the basic psychological needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness – but also and more directly in terms of positive emotion – the psychological dimensions of self-efficacy, optimism, resilience, and hope (see Tables II and III ) ( Verleysen et al. , 2015 ). In this way, the wider positive frame and focus can direct the activity in the specific intervention (or pathway to impact) which pays attention to these basic psychological needs. For example, there is increasing recent research into the positive emotion generated through relaxation and mindfulness in organisations and the related impacts on job performance, team conflict, resilience, corporate social responsibility, and subjective well-being ( Zeng et al. , 2015 ; Wall, 2016b ; Good et al. , 2016 ; Yu and Zellmer-Bruhn, 2017 ; Fehr et al. , 2017 ). Here, the broader positive frame and focus contains the specific activity in ways that the outcomes can be seen as both the impacts of such positive interventions, but also part of the ecological setting, or “space, task, equipment and people” which form the basis of a pathways to impact.

Despite the complex and challenging circumstances of the case organisation (e.g. under sever austerity measures, siloed cultures, constant threats of reorganisation, and requirement to work across occupational boundaries), this study indicates that a bespoke application of appreciative inquiry can have generative impacts in practice, for example, the compelling vision agreed and validated by a diverse group of occupational groupings in the organisation. However, the study also raises the question of the continued existence of such endeavours, where the manager who undertakes the work-based learning project might typically be located within wider management structures, or where the appreciative inquiry might be a temporary (project bound) intervention/method (for the duration of the academic project) ( Wall, Tran and Soejatminah, 2017 ; Wall, Jamieson, Csigás and Kiss, 2017 ; Wall, Hindley, Hunt, Peach, Preston, Hartley and Fairbank, 2017 ; Wall, 2017b ). In other words, the positive frame and focus and the specific intervention in the workplace are time-bound.

Within the context of time-bound appreciative inquiry projects, the extent to which the impacts go beyond the project may link to the nature of the organisation and job design outside of the discrete project and project cycle. One of the important factors that appears to be the availability of resources for positive affect within the workplace setting, thereby limiting the pathways to impact and therefore the perpetuation of impacts. Xanthopoulou et al. (2012) found a positive association between perceived job resources (e.g. autonomy, supervisory coaching, cooperation, and warmth) and positive emotion as experienced on a daily basis, including experiences of self-efficacy, self-esteem, and optimism. This means that should organisational structures and practices be designed in ways which support positive emotion, this is likely to promote the longevity of the impacts generated through appreciative inquiry as designed through a work-based learning project. In contrast, should the resources for positive emotion not be in place, the impacts and pathways to these impacts (such as appreciative inquiry) may be very limited in terms of time and organisational location.

Similarly, the extent to which impacts reach beyond specific work-based projects utilising appreciative inquiry project cycles may also be linked to the localised “affective climate”, or the particular types of affective experiences or expressions that are expected in practices, routines and leadership, of an organisation or its sub units ( Parke and Seo, 2017 ). For example, affective climates such as positive display climates, negative display climates, and neutral display climates, differentially values, support, reward and manage particular emotions, thereby shaping how people relate to each other and therefore how performance is managed more broadly. These are important considerations in terms of the extent to which positive emotion frames and focusses pathways to impact in workplaces, and especially in relation to appreciative inquiry.

To embed workplace activities, or sustain particular ways of working, from a time-limited work-based project utilising appreciative inquiry may well be coherent in a positive display climate, but may well be problematic or disastrous within a neutral or negative display climate ( Parke and Seo, 2017 ). Indeed, such insights have previously been identified in earlier research into organisational learning and emotion. In workplace contexts where learning meets or exceeds expectations, people can experience comfort or excitement. Conversely, where there is a mismatch between the expectations and experiences of learning people experience unproductive anxiety and frustration ( Shipton and Sillince, 2013 ; Sillince and Shipton, 2013 ).

However, recent evidence also suggests that such mismatches may also produce generative outcomes. For example, Rothman and Melwani (2017) document evidence of workplace situations where people experienced complexity in their emotions, or indeed indifference, and emphasised how this can lead to greater affective and cognitive flexibility and therefore enhanced adaptive capacities. Similarly, Miron-Spektor et al. (2017) have found that a “paradox mindset”, or the extent to which a person accepts and is energised by emotional tension, can help enhance performance and workplace innovation. Though the evidence currently suggests that such flexibility outcomes are variable, they do tend to enable more proactive action ( Miron-Spektor et al. , 2017 ). In the context of designing and implementing work-based projects, it is important that the work-based researcher is aware of these expectations and tensions in the localised workplace context. The extent to which bespoke forms of positive pathways to workplace impacts such as appreciative inquiry can generate impacts beyond the life of the academic work-based project is therefore a complex but developing landscape of understanding.

Conclusions and implications

the evidence of the impact of asset- or strengths- based interventions/methods continue to expand and provide a useful option amongst difficulty organisational circumstances;

appreciative inquiry is a flexible set of principles which can be adapted for the circumstances of work-based projects, and can generate positive emotions and action plans; and

when implemented as a work-based learning project, appreciative inquiry might have limited effects, but this depends on the wider resources, climates and circumstances, and the capacities of people to deal with emotional complexity.

Aspects of appreciative inquiry

An example of participant drawing in the “dreaming” phase

Collection of data from the discovery, dreaming, and designing phases

Example coding process from the “dreaming” phase

An initial analysis of the data

A summary of the collectively verified themes

Summary of responses from participating in the sessions

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Further reading

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the receipt of a QR (Quality Research) Funding Grant at the University of Chester to develop this paper.

Corresponding author

About the authors.

Professor Tony Wall is the Director of the International Thriving at Work Research Group at the University of Chester, UK, and an International Visiting Scholar at research centres in the UK, Australia and the USA. He leads a number of research projects and champions sustainable work and working lives in various international professional bodies. He is the Chair of a Region for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, advises the European Mentoring and Coaching Council in Brussels about research and research policy, and is the Research Lead for Lapidus International (the words for well-being association).

Jayne Russell is a Researcher at the International Thriving at Work Research Group at the University of Chester and study well-being and resilience within organisations. She is currently involved in undertaking a national resilience management monitor with the Research Group.

Dr Neil Moore is a Senior Lecturer and a Programme Leader for the work-based learning MBA at the University of Chester and a Researcher at the International Thriving at Work Research Group. He lectures, tutors and consults in a range of business and management areas. These include management and professional development, organisational environment, international business, contemporary management issues in small- and medium-sized enterprises and sport management. His interest in business, management and sport led to his doctoral research into business management practices in the English professional football industry. He has also researched and published in a range of other areas including coaching and organisational development, talent management, event management, and research methodology. He is currently a Visiting Lecturer and an Academic Advisor in a number of HE institutions in the UK and overseas. He is also an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Organizational Analysis .

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All the Feels: Why It Pays to Notice Emotions in the Workplace

Leaders who recognize employees’ feelings are tapping into an important way to build trust.

May 13, 2021

“When we acknowledge emotions, we humanize and validate the person being acknowledged,” says Alisa Yu. | iStock/shapecharge

Alisa Yu first became intrigued with emotional acknowledgment while interviewing nurses working in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. The nurses told her that verbally acknowledging their young patients’ fears and stress created trust, which enabled them to do their jobs more effectively. “From then on, I began to see emotional acknowledgment everywhere,” recalls Yu, a PhD candidate in organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

This realization prompted Yu to team up with Justin Berg , an assistant professor of organizational behavior at Stanford GSB, and Julian Zlatev , an assistant professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, to conduct a series of studies exploring the effects of emotional acknowledgment in the workplace. Their findings , published in May in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes , illuminate a straightforward yet powerful technique leaders can use to build trust with their employees.

Emotional acknowledgment is the simple act of noticing a nonverbal emotional cue — like a frown or grin — and mentioning it. This mention can be a question or a statement such as “You look upset,” or “You seem excited.”

The authors borrow from costly signaling theory, a concept proposed by evolutionary biologist Amotz Zahavi in the 1970s, to suggest that this small act can have a powerful effect because it is read as a sign of genuine intentions. As an example, Zahavi argued that when peacocks fan out their tails to attract mates, it is an “honest signal” of their reproductive fitness. That’s because the colorful display also attracts predators, a potentially fatal risk for weaker peacocks.

Similarly, Yu and her coauthors argue that in a work environment, a supervisor who shows concern for others’ emotional state is signaling a willingness to get involved in a potentially messy situation. “A leader could very easily see someone in distress and choose to ignore it,” Yu says. “But only a leader who truly is benevolent and cares about employees would risk getting involved by voluntarily acknowledging the distressed employee. Thus, employees might take this as a signal that this leader is someone who can be trusted with their well-being.”

More Than a Feeling

This is exactly what Yu, Berg, and Zlatev discovered in their research across six studies, which included a field study with hospital employees and experiments in which participants were shown videos of two actors demonstrating emotional acknowledgment in a workplace break room. Throughout the studies, participants reported higher levels of trust in people who engaged in emotional acknowledgment than those who did not.

“Our effect sizes are pretty robust,” says Yu. “There was a big trust gap between no acknowledgment and acknowledgment when expressers displayed positive emotions, but this gap was even more pronounced when expressers displayed negative emotions.” The latter finding isn’t surprising when viewed through the lens of costly signaling theory: Asking someone who seems unhappy about their emotional state engenders higher levels of trust because it is riskier and involves a greater investment of attention, time, and effort than asking someone who seems happy.

Quote The worst thing leaders can do when employees are feeling badly is to do nothing. Attribution Alisa Yu

One of the studies’ unexpected findings is that acknowledging an employee’s emotional state is more powerful than only acknowledging the situation that produced the emotions. “It turns out that saying something like, ‘You looked upset after that meeting. How are you feeling about it?’ lands better than saying something like, ‘It looked like the meeting went poorly. How are you thinking about it?’ Yu explains. “People trust the person who acknowledges the emotion directly more than the person who acknowledges the situation. There’s just something special and unique about emotions — they are really core to a person’s inner experience and sense of self. So when we acknowledge emotions, we humanize and validate the person being acknowledged.”

Better to Be Wrong Than Silent

In another unanticipated finding, the research team shows that the trust-building effect of emotional acknowledgment is not always dependent on correctly interpreting emotions, particularly when positive feelings are misread. “I think there is a lay theory that inaccurate interpretation is punished,” Yu explains. “We found that if you are feeling negatively and I say, ‘Hey, you seem happy,’ there is a trust penalty. But if you are feeling positively and I say, ‘Hey, you seem upset,’ there was virtually no penalty. And that’s because even though you didn’t need my support, my willingness to call out a negative emotion signals a readiness for me to provide support to you.”

The benefits of emotional acknowledgment at work may stem in part from the fact that it isn’t a common practice among leaders. “Leaders experience a tension between being task oriented and people oriented. They need to get things done. There’s also some research that shows they see emotional support as falling outside of their formal job expectations,” Yu says. “So, there is evidence to suggest that leaders are not acknowledging emotions as much as they could. And even when they are doing it, I suspect that they are celebrating wins and acknowledging and amplifying positive emotions more than they are acknowledging pain or distress because it’s easier.”

Yu thinks this is a particularly good time for leaders to adopt emotional acknowledgment as a regular practice. Employees’ emotions may be especially significant right now: Many people are still struggling to manage their work/life balance after more than a year of pandemic-related disruptions. Those who have been working remotely may be uneasily anticipating the call to return to their workplaces and an uncertain future.

“The worst thing leaders can do when employees are feeling badly is to do nothing. If leaders want to signal care and build trust, they need to meet people where they are,” Yu says. “Our research suggests one way to do that is by proactively engaging in emotional acknowledgment because it grants employees the space and license to share their emotions.”

For media inquiries, visit the Newsroom .

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Hardwired for hierarchy: our relationship with power, quick thinks: how others define us, what is normal how culture affects communication styles, editor’s picks.

Emotional Acknowledgment: How Verbalizing Others’ Emotions Fosters Interpersonal Trust Alisa Yu Justin M. Berg Julian Zlatev

March 12, 2021 The Positive Side of Negative Emotions The mental judo known as “cognitive reappraisal” — minimizing the emotional impact of bad situations — can be good for the soul but bad for the firm.

November 20, 2020 Feelings First: How Emotion Shapes Our Communication, Decisions, and Experiences In this episode, we discuss how recognizing your audience’s emotional needs can help you achieve your communication goals.

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Emotions in the Workplace: How to Deal With Emotions at Work

Jocelyn Stange

January 21, 2021 | 6 minute read

Almost everything we do relates to emotions, even at work.

Did you laugh or smile at work today? Were you bored in your last meeting? Upset or sad about losing a customer? Excited about hitting a goal? These are all examples of the many emotional moments that occur in the workplace each day.

To offer insights into the variety and complexity of emotions at work, we conducted a research study to understand employee emotions and how they relate to employee engagement at work.

In this blog, we’ll cover everything you need to know to understand and manage emotions in the workplace, including:

The most common emotions at work

How emotions differ throughout the organization, the relationship between emotions and employee engagement, how to manage emotions in the workplace.

To create awesome emotional cultures , organizations need to understand which emotions are prevalent in the workplace and how they affect employees.

Here are the most common positive and negative emotions at work:

• Comfortable
• Enthusiastic

Positive emotions at work

Positive emotions aren’t limited to only optimistic and hopeful feelings. Examples of positive emotions could include calm, comfortable, energetic, enthusiastic, excited, happy, joyful, peaceful, relaxed, and satisfied.

Our research found that the top three positive emotions felt by employees at work are:

• Comfortable (47.8%)
• Satisfied (37.1%)
• Enthusiastic (36.6%)

Negative emotions at work

There are a lot of negative emotions that can surface at work. Examples of negative emotions could include annoyed, anxious, bored, disinterested, dissatisfied, frustrated, gloomy, miserable, sad, stressed, tired, uncomfortable, unhappy, upset, and worried.

Here's what employees identified as the top three negative emotions felt at work: 

• Frustrated (56.2%)
• Stressed (45.1%)
• Anxious (30.4%)

Negative moral emotions at work

Basic emotions like happiness and sadness are pretty straightforward and easy to understand. But many of the emotions we experience in the workplace are much more complex—especially moral emotions.

Morals are the principles that differentiate between good and bad behavior, and they vary from person to person . Emotions that are influenced by our morals are called moral emotions. They include emotions like guilt, regret, and shame—and they carry much more weight than our primary emotions.

When taking average rank and top 3 percentage into account, employees believe the most negative moral emotions are:

• Humiliation

There’s a lot that can contribute to both negative and positive emotions at work. Many factors occur in our personal and professional lives, but what about things like tenure and position level?

Individual contributors may feel frustrated from a lack of support or satisfied when they receive a promotion.

Managers may feel stressed from conducting many 1:1s or comfortable with the progress their team has made.

Leaders may feel anxious about the forecast of their business or enthusiastic about starting the year fresh with a brand new focus.

We are all capable of feeling a variety of emotions at work. Yet, our research uncovered some differences between individual contributors and managers.

There are many factors that contribute to our emotions. Managers may tend to feel positive emotions more often due to their roles as coaches. At the same time, managers often have more responsibilities and encounter more barriers than individual contributors. This could explain a higher frequency of stress.

For some, emotions can take a toll on our day. Some may disengage from their work and some may miss work altogether. Our research shows some clear connections between emotional culture and levels of engagement. Engagement impacts a wide variety of important business outcomes —making a solid case for addressing emotions at work.

Burying emotions hurts engagement, but so does being in a toxic environment. When the people around you are frequently and openly expressing negative emotions, it can have a damaging effect on employee engagement.

Employee engagement and negative emotions

Experiencing negative emotions expressed by others may decrease feelings of connection. As employee engagement decreases, employees may become more sensitive to negative emotions.

To help decrease the expression of negative emotions at work, you need to understand what happened before those emotions boiled over. Each type of emotion is unique and requires a unique approach to handling it.

Employee engagement and emotional outcomes

In theory, highly engaged employees are more open-minded when it comes to potential outcomes of negative emotions. Yet, they are more close-minded when it comes to potential outcomes of positive emotions.

On one hand, engagement is a negativity filter. At the same time, it promotes positivity bias. Bottom line— highly engaged employees are more positive than less engaged employees.

But it’s also possible that disengaged employees have a harder time coping with emotions in healthy ways. Consider evolving your approach to disengaged employees by viewing them through the lens of reconnection. Help them strengthen their coping mechanisms to handle stress at work.

When left unchecked, employee emotions can have a serious impact on the workplace. Make sure you understand each of these unique emotions and strive to find the right balance of supporting and preventing them at work.

Building a culture of trust and practicing emotional intelligence skills can allow employees to acknowledge, feel, and express more positive emotions in the workplace. Here are some ways to manage emotions in the workplace.

Coping mechanisms for employee emotions

Coping mechanisms are the tools and strategies we use to deal with stress in our lives. Our various ways of coping eventually create a coping strategy.

You can cope with stress in positive or negative ways. A negative coping strategy might be to ignore your problems and emotions, hoping they work themselves out. But that can be bad for your health . Positive coping strategies allow you to deal with stress in healthy ways.

Managing your own emotions

The best thing you can do to combat negative moral emotions and their repercussions is understand how to deal with emotions. Take the Recognize, Understand, Manage approach when dealing with emotions at work.

When emotions start to bubble up, don't panic. Take a deep breath and recognize the emotion for what it is. Don't react immediately. Instead try to put a label on what it is you're feeling. Determine when you became aware of the feeling and what triggered it. Don't judge yourself for how you feel.

After you've named your emotions, focus on the "why" behind them. Dig deep and try to discover their origin. Follow them down the pathway to where you are now with questions like these:

• If you feel upset, what is causing you to feel that way?
• Are your emotions coming from something within you, or something external?

If it's a familiar emotion, think about other times you've felt this emotion and how you previously responded.

• What went well?
• What didn't?
• How do you want to respond differently in this moment?

Once you've taken time to cool down and reflect, the third and final step is managing the situation. You need to figure out how you are going to respond, if at all. There are no hard and fast rules for how to respond, but here a few things to consider:

• Do you still feel the need to address the situation?
• Is it possible you overreacted?
• Are there things that need to be resolved before you can move forward?
• What will you say when you do address the situation? What might others involved say?
• What did you learn from this situation that you can apply to future situations like it?

Dealing with employee emotions: 4 tips for leaders

Regardless of how well you handle your own emotions, you can’t control the emotions of others. But it is important to learn how to acknowledge them and respond appropriately. Unresolved issues can lead to decreased productivity, damaged relationships, and lowered engagement.

Follow these tips for dealing with your employees’ emotions and start building a stronger emotional culture at work:

1. Allow for mistakes.

No one is perfect—plain and simple. Mistakes are inevitable and, although they don’t need to be simply accepted, they also aren’t grounds for a scolding. Berating or punishing employees can cause humiliation and hostility.

Calmly correcting or excusing the rare mistake is a great way to build trust. In fact, helping reduce negative emotions with transparency, open communication, and authenticity will lead to better relationships with your employees. But if mistakes continue to pile up, you should schedule time with your employees to create a performance improvement plan . This plan will help make sure both parties are on the same page and set clear expectations for success.

2. Build a culture of trust.

Sharing emotions, especially uncomfortable ones, is one way to show vulnerability. But we can’t be vulnerable if we don’t trust the people that we’re sharing our stories with. Everyone in your organization should feel comfortable being themselves and expressing their emotions.

It’s not enough just to let employees know they can share their feelings—you must be willing to be the example too. When employees can witness a culture of honesty and compassion, they’ll be able to understand and adapt to others’ emotions.

3. Be present.

When managers and leaders are unavailable, employees may feel anxious and undervalued. Make time to connect with your team to instill confidence in your employees, their work, and their performance. Empowering your team members to stay connected in this way helps build positive relationships .

Set uninterrupted time apart for each employee at least once a month. And if you're really committed to the cause, we recommend meeting once a week—even for a quick check-in . These meetings offer employees an opportunity to ask questions, provide updates, raise concerns, and provide feedback. These are perfect times to celebrate successes to increase positive emotions in the workplace.

4. Listen more than you talk.

Most times, employees who experience negative emotions aren’t searching for solutions. They want to express themselves and release their pent-up emotions. Listening to your employees allows them to get it all out there and makes them feel cared for and heard. It also establishes you as a trusted resource who can be depended on.

When dealing with someone else's emotions, strive to understand what they are feeling and why. Ask them how they are feeling and if they are okay. If they don't want to talk or say everything is fine, respect their wishes and don't pressure them any further. If they do want to talk it out, find a quiet space and listen.

Your employees are only human, and humans are emotional creatures. Addressing emotions is important for recognizing your employees for who they are and improving your emotional culture.

Understanding and managing the emotions of your employees at work is only the first step. Use these tips to guide your engagement efforts and bring humanity back to the workplace. Get your copy of our ebook, Emotions in the Workplace , for more data and insights.

Published January 21, 2021 | Written By Jocelyn Stange

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Knowledge at Wharton Podcast

Managing emotions in the workplace: do positive and negative attitudes drive performance, april 18, 2007 • 9 min listen.

"We engage in emotional contagion. Emotions travel from person to person like a virus," says Wharton management professor Sigal Barsade, who is the co-author of a new paper that looks at the impact of employees' moods, emotions, and overall dispositions on job performance.

• Human Resources

You know the type: coworkers who never have anything positive to say, whether at the weekly staff meeting or in the cafeteria line. They can suck the energy from a brainstorming session with a few choice comments. Their bad mood frequently puts others in one, too. Their negativity can contaminate even good news. “We engage in emotional contagion,” says Sigal Barsade, a Wharton management professor who studies the influence of emotions on the workplace. “Emotions travel from person to person like a virus.”

Barsade is the co-author of a new paper titled, “ Why Does Affect Matter in Organizations? ” (“Affect” is another word for “emotion” in organizational behavior studies.) The answer: Employees’ moods, emotions, and overall dispositions have an impact on job performance, decision making, creativity, turnover, teamwork, negotiations and leadership.

“The state of the literature shows that affect matters because people are not isolated ’emotional islands.’ Rather, they bring all of themselves to work, including their traits, moods and emotions, and their affective experiences and expressions influence others,” according to the paper, co-authored by Donald Gibson of Fairfield University’s Dolan School of Business.

An “affective revolution” has occurred over the last 30 years as academics and managers alike have come to realize that employees’ emotions are integral to what happens in an organization, says Barsade, who has been doing research in the area of emotions and work dynamics for 15 years. “Everybody brings their emotions to work. You bring your brain to work. You bring your emotions to work. Feelings drive performance. They drive behavior and other feelings. Think of people as emotion conductors.”

In the paper, Barsade and Gibson consider three different types of feelings:

• Discrete, short-lived emotions, such as joy, anger, fear and disgust.
• Moods, which are longer-lasting feelings and not necessarily tied to a particular cause. A person is in a cheerful mood, for instance, or feeling down.
• Dispositional, or personality, traits, which define a person’s overall approach to life. “She’s always so cheerful,” or “He’s always looking at the negative.”

All three types of feelings can be contagious, and emotions don’t have to be grand and obvious to have an impact. Subtle displays of emotion, such as a quick frown, can have an effect as well, Barsade says. She offers this example: “Say your boss is generally in very good humor, but you see him one day at a meeting and his eyes flash at you. Even if they don’t glare at you for the rest of the meeting, his eyes have enunciated some valuable information that is going to have you concerned and worried and off center for the rest of the meeting.”

Barsade suggests that while some people are better than others at controlling their emotions, that doesn’t mean their coworkers aren’t picking up on their moods. “You may not think you are showing emotion, but there’s a good chance you are in your facial expression or body language. Emotions we don’t even realize we are feeling can influence our thoughts and behaviors.”

The researchers’ paper discusses a concept known as “emotional labor,” in which employees regulate their public displays of emotion to comply with certain expectations. Part of this is “surface acting,” in which, for instance, the tired and stressed airline customer service agent forces himself to smile and be friendly with angry customers who have lost their luggage. That compares to “deep acting,” in which employees exhibit emotions they have worked on feeling. In that scenario, the stressed-out airline worker sympathizes with the customer and shows emotions that suggest empathy. The second approach may be healthier, Barsade says, because it causes less stress and burnout, particularly emotional exhaustion from having to regulate one’s emotions and “play a role.”

But is there a downside to being too authentic? If the company is losing money and experiencing the effects of downsizing, should the manager, feeling stressed and overwhelmed, convey his despair to his workers? Or should the manager try to appear cheerful and act as if nothing is wrong? Barsade says it’s possible for the manager to convey emotions that are both authentic and positive, saying something like, “I know you’re worried. Things aren’t looking good, but you know, we have a way out of this and we can work [on it] together.” The employees will appreciate the honesty and take comfort in the optimism, she says.

Emotions as Valuable Data

Emotional intelligence — buzz words already familiar in psychology and education — is now talked about in business circles as well, Barsade says. Business schools are teaching executives how to be emotionally intelligent, and how to manage the emotions of their employees.

“The idea behind emotional intelligence in the workplace is that it is a skill through which employees treat emotions as valuable data in navigating a situation,” according to the authors. “Let’s say a sales manager has come up with an amazing idea that will increase corporate revenues by up to 200%, but knows his boss tends to be irritable and short-tempered in the morning. Having emotional intelligence means that the manager will first recognize and consider this emotional fact about his boss. Despite the stunning nature of his idea — and his own excitement — he will regulate his own emotions, curb his enthusiasm and wait until the afternoon to approach his boss.”

Barsade says research suggests that positive people tend to do better in the workplace, and it isn’t just because people like them more than naysayers. “Positive people cognitively process more efficiently and more appropriately. If you’re in a negative mood, a fair amount of processing is going to that mood. When you’re in a positive mood, you’re more open to taking in information and handling it effectively.”

While you can’t necessarily change your coworkers, people can take steps to avoid catching a negative mood, according to Barsade. They can tell themselves before attending a staff meeting that they are not going to be bothered by the person who shoots down everyone’s ideas, or that they are not going to let that person become the focus of their attention at the meeting (reducing the possibility for contagion). Or they can change their office routine. Barsade gave the example of a manager who was dragged down at the start of every day when passing by the desk of an employee who either grunted or gave no acknowledgement. The manager took control and simply started following a different route through the office.

Barsade’s research has taken her into a variety of workplaces, most recently long-term care facilities. Her research found that in facilities where the employees report having a positive workplace culture — she calls it a “culture of love” — the residents end up faring better than residents in facilities with a less compassionate and caring work culture. The residents reported experiencing less pain, made fewer trips to the emergency room, and were more likely to report being satisfied and in a positive mood.

Overconfidence Online

E-mail, instant messaging and video conferencing have introduced new challenges to the workplace, Barsade adds. E-mails and instant messages can be misunderstood because they are devoid of facial expressions, intonation and body language — cues that help convey emotions. Some people, she says, work hard at making their emails neutral, with the downside of sometimes sounding curt. On the other hand, while some writers may add a smattering of exclamation points, question marks and capital letters in an attempt to convey more emotion, this can also be a dangerous route, particularly when attempting humor or sarcasm to drive home a point.

“How can emotions be best conveyed via these media?” the paper asks. “What is the effect of conveying emotionally charged messages via text, when these messages are more likely to be misconstrued? How must we re-think emotional contagion and other social processes in an organizational world in which many meetings take place online?”

The paper cites a study showing that people tend to be overconfident about their ability to convey the emotion they wish in an e-mail, particularly when they are trying to be funny or sarcastic. “Video conferencing, also increasing in its use, has more cues, but it is also not yet the same as interacting face to face, particularly in group situations. Given that these technologies continue to grow as a primary means of communication within the business world, it is crucial that we understand how the interpretation and communication of affect occurs in these contexts,” the paper says.

Workplaces need to get smart about the best use of e-mail, Barsade states. Her advice is that “if something is important, and you know that the emotional context is going to be an issue, then pick up the phone; don’t just rely on e-mails.” And even the phone may not be good enough. “Sometimes, if it is really important, you just have to fly to where they are and meet them face-to-face to get the message across.”

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How To Harness The Power Of Emotions In The Workplace

Meghan Keane

Emotions at work don't just happen with hidden tears in the bathroom or an outburst during a meeting. Emotions happen when a deadline gets moved or when we don't get invited to a meeting. They happen when your boss sends a cryptic email saying "see me ASAP" or when a co-worker gets credit for a project they barely contributed to (again).

Anger. Excitement. Frustration. Pride. Hurt. Emotions are everywhere in an office, so why do we pretend they don't exist?

Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy believe the future of work is emotional. In their book, No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power Of Embracing Emotions At Work , the co-authors argue that effectively embracing emotions is essential for a better workplace. They aren't extending an invitation to be a "feelings firehose" as Fosslien puts it, but they do want to move away from the idea that professionalism means suppressing any emotion by acknowledging we're all emotional creatures — both in and out of the office.

Life Kit managing producer Meghan Keane interviewed Fosslien and Duffy about how we can be more in touch with our emotions at work.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

When you refer to emotions in the workplace, what are you referring to?

Liz Fosslien : What we're really talking about is what to do when you have a strong feeling — sitting down, acknowledging it, not suppressing it, trying to understand the valuable data within it, and then sometimes acting on it. It's more about admitting that we are emotional creatures and we're going to feel feelings, whether we're at work [or] at home and figuring out the need behind those emotions, what we should do next.

Being "emotional" is often associated with women. Is understanding how to harness emotions at work something women are always going to be tasked with thinking about?

Liz Fosslien : We all have emotions and some of us have just been taught to express them more and some of us haven't. It's really figuring out how can you harness the power of the emotions within you. It's not that everyone should immediately start talking about their feelings in the workplace. It's [for] really men, women, whoever — this is valuable.

Mollie West Duffy : We have this idea that women are more emotionally in tune and there is some biological evidence. This is all changing because gender is more fluid now. But the research does show that women do tend to pick up a little bit more on the emotions of others around them, whereas men are more sort of task focused. But I think it's a very small difference.

There can be lots of emotions in decision making at work. What's a good way to use an emotion to help make a decision?

Mollie West Duffy : The idea that we make rational decisions without any feelings is wrong. But not all feelings should be weighed equally. We divided it up into two different types of emotions. One is relevant emotions and the other one is irrelevant emotion. Relevant emotions are directly tied to the choice that you're facing. If you're [thinking]: should I or should I not ask for a promotion? If the idea of not asking fills you with dread, that is a relevant emotion. Irrelevant emotions are unrelated. For instance, if you're sitting in traffic and you're really irritated — that irritation is irrelevant. It has nothing to do with the decision that you may need to make it work. Our rule of thumb is to keep relevant emotions and toss irrelevant emotions.

Let's say I see a male colleague who's the same age as me, same qualifications get a promotion over me. I feel envious. How would I dissect that emotion?

Mollie West Duffy : Envy is something that we feel like is a negative emotion. But it actually can be really helpful for us.

We interviewed Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project , and she told us about how she used to be a lawyer before she was a writer. She was reading through her alumni magazine and all of the people who were lawyers who were really successful lawyers, she [thought], "I'm mildly interested, but I don't really care." Then when she read about people who had really great writing career, she became really envious. Envy can reveal to us something that we wish we had. Oftentimes we perform all these mental gymnastics not to think about it. But if you're honest with yourself and just let yourself feel it, it might be a sign that you need to make a change in what you're doing.

What advice do you have for supervisors about giving feedback?

Liz Fosslien : There was a study that looked at performance reviews at a tech company over six years. They found that women, and especially women of color, were much more likely to receive super vague feedback that was not actionable. [So you start to feel like] it's impossible to figure out what to do next, and I don't know how to move forward. Therefore, I'm a bad person and it really spirals.

Whoever you're giving feedback to, make it specific, make it actionable. That shows you care about helping someone evolve and helping them level up.

What about dealing with a frustrating colleague? What's a more productive way to deal with those emotions rather than just venting to another co-worker?

Liz Fosslien : Venting is useful for a small period of time, if you're doing it to someone you trust. We always say don't just do something, stand there. If you're feeling a really strong emotion, you sometimes just need to calm down because you're not in a rational state [to] figure out what you want to do next. [Venting] becomes negative and actually detrimental to your own success when it turns into rumination, which is just venting to vent. You have not switched yet to a problem solving state. I think a nice rule of thumb is a few minutes of venting and then once you're a little more calm, really ask yourself, "what one thing can I do differently or do I need to have a conversation with this person?"

What other ways do you recommend working with a coworker that kind of just rubs you the wrong way?

Mollie West Duffy: One of them is to remember that they might have something going on you don't know about. Remember, this person is a human just like me. This person has feelings just like me. This person has needs just like me. And just to say, "can I take a step back from this?" The other [strategy comes from] TV writer Elizabeth Craft. She has this line, "don't ingest." As much as you can, limit exposure to this person. Put a bubble around yourself.

Liz Fosslien: We describe that as an emotional flak jacket. I think often [there is] this directive to be passionate about work. The danger of that is that work life balance disappears. When you're so invested in your job, that's when a co-worker that maybe drives you a little batty becomes this huge problem because work is everything to you. Just taking the time to invest in non-work things can be a really valuable way to come back to the office the next day with a little more distance.

See more from Liz and Mollie on Instagram .

The podcast portion of this episode was produced by Audrey Nguyen .

We'd love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at [email protected] .

For more Life Kit, subscribe to our newsletter .

Correction Dec. 10, 2019

In an earlier version of this story, TV writer Elizabeth Craft's last name was misspelled as Kraft.

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Article • 12 min read

Managing Your Emotions at Work

Controlling your feelings... before they control you.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

Everything can be taken from a man but the last of human freedoms – the ability to choose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances, to choose one's way. – Viktor Frankl, "Man's Search for Meaning."

We've all been in one of "those" situations before. You know... when your favorite project is canceled after weeks of hard work; when a customer snaps at you unfairly; when your best friend (and co-worker) is laid off suddenly; or your boss assigns you more work when you're already overloaded.

In your personal life, your reaction to stressful situations like these might be to start shouting, or to go hide in a corner and feel sorry for yourself for a while. But at work, these types of behavior could seriously harm your professional reputation, as well as your productivity.

Stressful situations are all too common in a workplace that's facing budget cuts, staff layoffs, and department changes. It may become harder and harder to manage your emotions under these circumstances, but it's even more important for you to do so.

After all, if management is forced into making more layoffs, they may choose to keep those who can handle their emotions, and work well under pressure. No matter what the situation is, you're always free to choose how you react to it.

So, how can you become better at handling your emotions, and "choosing" your reactions to bad situations? In this article, we look at the most common negative emotions experienced in the workplace – and how you can manage them productively.

Why are we focusing only on negative emotions? Well, most people don't need strategies for managing their positive emotions. After all, feelings of joy, excitement, compassion, or optimism usually don't affect others in a negative way. As long as you share positive emotions constructively and professionally, they're great to have in the workplace!

Common Negative Emotions at Work

In 1997, Bond University professor of management Cynthia Fisher conducted a study called " Emotions at Work: What Do People Feel, and How Should We Measure It? "

According to Fisher's research, the most common negative emotions experienced in the workplace are as follows:

• Frustration/irritation.
• Worry/nervousness.
• Anger/aggravation.
• Disappointment/unhappiness.

From " Emotions at Work: What Do People Feel and How Should we Measure it? " by Cynthia D. Fisher. School of Business Discussion Paper; No. 63, February 1997. © Copyright Cynthia D. Fisher and the School of Business, Bond University.

How to Manage Emotions at Work

Below are different strategies you can use to help you deal with each of these negative emotions.

Frustration/Irritation

Frustration usually occurs when you feel stuck or trapped, or unable to move forward in some way. It could be caused by a colleague blocking your favorite project, a boss who is too disorganized to get to your meeting on time, or simply being on hold on the phone for a long time.

Whatever the reason, it's important to deal with feelings of frustration quickly, because they can easily lead to more negative emotions, such as anger.

Here are some suggestions for dealing with frustration:

• Stop and evaluate – One of the best things you can do is mentally stop yourself, and look at the situation. Ask yourself why you feel frustrated. Write it down, and be specific. Then think of one positive thing about your current situation. For instance, if your boss is late for your meeting, then you have more time to prepare. Or, you could use this time to relax a little.
• Find something positive about the situation – Thinking about a positive aspect of your situation often makes you look at things in a different way. This small change in your thinking can improve your mood. When it's people who are causing your frustration, they're probably not doing it deliberately to annoy you. And if it's a thing that's bothering you – well, it's certainly not personal! Don't get mad, just move on.
• Remember the last time you felt frustrated – The last time you were frustrated about something, the situation probably worked out just fine after a while, right? Your feelings of frustration or irritation probably didn't do much to solve the problem then, which means they're not doing anything for you right now.

Worry/Nervousness

With all the fear and anxiety that comes with increasing numbers of layoffs, it's no wonder that many people worry about their jobs. But this worry can easily get out of control, if you allow it, and this can impact not only your mental health, but also your productivity, and your willingness to take risks at work.

Try these tips to deal with worrying:

• Don't surround yourself with worry and anxiety – For example, if co-workers gather in the break room to gossip and talk about job cuts, then don't go there and worry with everyone else. Worrying tends to lead to more worrying, and that isn't good for anyone.
• Try deep-breathing exercises – This helps slow your breathing and your heart rate. Breathe in slowly for five seconds, then breathe out slowly for five seconds. Focus on your breathing, and nothing else. Do this at least five times. For more on this, read our article on Physical Relaxation Techniques .
• Focus on how to improve the situation – If you fear being laid off, and you sit there and worry, that probably won't help you keep your job. Instead, why not brainstorm ways to bring in more business, and show how valuable you are to the company?
• Write down your worries in a worry log – If you find that worries are churning around inside your mind, write them down in a notebook or "worry log," and then schedule a time to deal with them. Before that time, you can forget about these worries, knowing that you'll deal with them. When it comes to the time you've scheduled, conduct a proper risk analysis around these things, and take whatever actions are necessary to mitigate any risks.

When you're worried and nervous about something, it can dent your self-confidence. Read our article on Building Self-Confidence to make sure this doesn't happen. Also, don't let your worries get in the way of being appropriately assertive .

Anger Management at Work

Out-of-control anger is perhaps the most destructive emotion that people experience in the workplace. It's also the emotion that most of us don't handle very well. If you have trouble managing your temper at work, then learning to control it is one of the best things you can do if you want to keep your job.

Try these suggestions to control your anger:

• Watch for early signs of anger – Only you know the danger signs when anger is building, so learn to recognize them when they begin. Stopping your anger early is key. Remember, you can choose how you react in a situation. Just because your first instinct is to become angry doesn't mean it's the correct response.
• If you start to get angry, stop what you're doing – Close your eyes, and practice the deep-breathing exercise we described earlier. This interrupts your angry thoughts, and it helps put you back on a more positive path.
• Picture yourself when you're angry – If you imagine how you look and behave while you're angry, it gives you some perspective on the situation. For instance, if you're about to shout at your co-worker, imagine how you would look. Is your face red? Are you waving your arms around? Would you want to work with someone like that? Probably not.

To find out more about managing your anger at work, take our self-test How Good Is Your Anger Management? Also, read Dealing with Unfair Criticism and Anger Management .

We've probably all had to work with someone we don't like. But it's important to be professional, no matter what.

Here are some ideas for working with people you dislike:

• Be respectful – If you have to work with someone you don't get along with, then it's time to set aside your pride and ego. Treat the person with courtesy and respect, as you would treat anyone else. Just because this person behaves in an unprofessional manner, that doesn't mean you should as well.
• Be assertive – If the other person is rude and unprofessional, then firmly explain that you refuse to be treated that way, and calmly leave the situation. Remember, set the example.

To learn more about handling dislike in the workplace, please see our articles on Working With People You Don't Like , Dealing With Difficult People and Egos at Work .

Disappointment/Unhappiness

Dealing with disappointment or unhappiness at work can be difficult. Of all the emotions you might feel at work, these are the most likely to impact your productivity. If you've just suffered a major disappointment, your energy will probably be low, you might be afraid to take another risk, and all of that may hold you back from achieving.

Here are some proactive steps you can take to cope with disappointment and unhappiness:

• Look at your mindset – Take a moment to realize that things won't always go your way. If they did, life would be a straight road instead of one with hills and valleys, ups and downs, right? And it's the hills and valleys that often make life so interesting.
• Adjust your goal – If you're disappointed that you didn't reach a goal, that doesn't mean the goal is no longer reachable. Keep the goal, but make a small change – for example, delay the deadline. Our Back On Track article provides practical steps for recovering from a major career setback.
• Record your thoughts – Write down exactly what is making you unhappy. Is it a co-worker? Is it your job? Do you have too much to do? Once you identify the problem, start brainstorming ways to solve it or work around it. Remember, you always have the power to change your situation.
• Smile! – Strange as it may sound, forcing a smile – or even a grimace – onto your face can often make you feel happy (this is one of the strange ways in which we humans are "wired.") Try it – you may be surprised!

We all have to deal with negative emotions at work sometimes, and learning how to cope with these feelings is now more important than ever. After all, negative emotions can spread, and no one wants to be around a person who adds negativity to a group.

Know what causes your negative emotions, and which types of feelings you face most often. When those emotions begin to appear, immediately start your strategy to interrupt the cycle. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to pull yourself away from negative thinking.

Fisher, Cynthia D. (1997). Emotions at Work: What Do People Feel and How Should We Measure it? [online]. School of Business Discussion Paper, Bond University. (Available here .)

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Dr. Ken Martz

Great key points for managing emotions at work. You can find more great tips from my bestselling book Manage My Emotions at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08GZV98NX or at my website https://drkenmartz.com/

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Utilizing Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Amy Morin, LCSW, is a psychotherapist and international bestselling author. Her books, including "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do," have been translated into more than 40 languages. Her TEDx talk,  "The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong," is one of the most viewed talks of all time.

Mikolette / Getty Images 

• In the Workplace

How to Become More Emotionally Intelligent

Emotional intelligence , sometimes referred to as emotional quotient (EQ), refers to a person's ability to recognize, understand, and manage emotions . The term was coined by psychologists in the 1990s and spread quickly among psychologists and beyond.

Emotional intelligence is critical for interpersonal communication, not only in personal relationships but also in the business world. This article delves into what emotional intelligence is and how you can harness its power in the workplace.

Emotional Intelligence, Defined

According to psychologists Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer, leading researchers on the topic, emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and understand emotions in oneself and others. In turn, this emotional understanding helps us make decisions , solve problems, and communicate with others.

Psychologists used to view emotions and intelligence as being in opposition to one another. In recent decades, however, researchers exploring emotion psychology have become increasingly interested in cognition and affect.

Try Our EQ Test

Our fast and free EQ test can help you determine whether or not your responses to certain situations in life indicate a high level of emotional intelligence:

Why EQ Is Important for Success

Emotion psychology and the concept of emotional intelligence gained interest with the 1995 publication of Daniel Goleman's "Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ." Goleman argues that emotional intelligence is a critical predictor of success in life. Emotional competencies, he argued, play a particularly important role in the workplace.

The concept quickly attracted the attention of human resource managers and business leaders. Researchers have suggested that emotional intelligence influences how well employees interact with their colleagues, manage stress, and navigate conflict. It also affects overall performance on the job. Other studies have linked emotional intelligence with job satisfaction.

Employees with higher scores on measures of EQ also tend to be rated higher on measures of interpersonal functioning, leadership abilities, and stress management.

Goleman suggested that, although traditional intelligence was associated with leadership success, it alone was not enough. People who are successful at work aren't just smart; they also have a high EQ.

But emotional intelligence is not just for CEOs and senior managers. It's important at every level of a person's career, from college students looking for internships to seasoned employees hoping to take on leadership roles. If you want to succeed in the workplace and move up the career ladder, emotional intelligence is critical.

Why EQ Matters in the Workplace

Why is emotional intelligence such a valued workplace skill? In a survey of hiring managers, almost 75% of respondents suggested that they valued an employee's EQ more than their IQ.

Emotional intelligence is widely recognized as a valuable skill that helps improve communication, management, problem-solving, and relationships within the workplace. It is also a skill that researchers believe can be improved with training and practice.

Make better decisions and solve problems

Keep cool under pressure

Resolve conflicts

Have greater empathy

Listen, reflect, and respond to constructive criticism

Play the role of the victim or avoid taking responsibility for errors

Have passive or aggressive communication styles

Refuse to work as a team  

Are overly critical of others or dismiss others' opinions

Although emotional skills come naturally to some people, anyone can improve their ability to understand and reason. This can be particularly helpful in the workplace, where relationships and business decisions often on interpersonal understanding, teamwork, and communication.

Factors such as upbringing and personality tend to play a large role in the development of emotional intelligence, but you can improve yours with effort and practice.

One 2011 study found that participants who trained in key emotional competencies showed lasting improvements in emotional intelligence. They also experienced improvements in physical and mental well-being, better social relationships, and lower cortisol (stress hormone) levels.  

If you are interested in improving your emotional intelligence skills to benefit your workplace performance, take steps to improve your skills in the five categories of emotional intelligence: Self-awareness, self-regulation, social skills, empathy, and motivation.

Become More Self-Aware

One of the first steps toward using emotional intelligence skills in the workplace is to practice recognizing your own emotions. Self-awareness involves being aware of different aspects of yourself, including your emotions and feelings. It is one of the foundational components of emotional intelligence . To recognize your emotions and understand their causes, you need to first be self-aware .

• Pay attention to how you are feeling . How do these emotions influence how you respond? Do the things you are feeling have an impact on the decisions you make or how you interact with others? As you reflect on these questions, you may find that you become much more aware of your own emotions and the role that they play in your daily life.
• Take stock of emotional strengths and weaknesses . How well do you communicate with others? Do you find yourself experiencing impatience, anger, or annoyance often? What are some ways you can deal with these feelings effectively? Recognizing weaknesses allows you to look for ways to deal with them.
• Remember that emotions are fleeting . A co-worker might irritate you or your boss might give you a frustrating task to complete. Before you react, remember that these things are temporary. Making rash decisions based on intense emotions can be detrimental to your long-term goals and success.

Practice Self-Regulation

Goleman identified self-regulation as a critical part of emotional intelligence. Being aware of your emotions is an important first step, but you also need to be able to manage your feelings.

People who possess good self-regulation are able to adapt well to changing situations. They don't bottle things up; they wait for appropriate ways to express their emotions rather than reacting impulsively.

To improve your self-regulation skills in the workplace:

• Find techniques to release workplace stress . Having hobbies outside of work is a great place to start. Physical exercise is also a healthy way to release stress.
• Keep your cool . Accept the fact that you cannot control everything. Look for helpful ways to respond that don't add fuel to the fire.
• Think before making decisions . Emotions can overwhelm you in the heat of the moment. You can make a calmer, more rational choice if you give yourself time to consider all of the possibilities.

Improve Social Skills

Research on emotion psychology suggests that people with high EQs also have strong social skills. Because they are adept at recognizing other people's emotions, they are able to respond appropriately to the situation. Social skills are also highly valued in the workplace because they lead to better communication and a more positive company culture.

Employees and leaders with great social skills are able to build rapport with colleagues and communicate their ideas effectively. People with good social skills are not only great team players, but they are also able to take on leadership roles when needed. To boost your social skills:

• Listen to what others have to say . This doesn't mean just passively listening to other people talk. Active listening involves showing attention, asking questions, and providing feedback. Whether you are a manager or a team member, active listening can show that you are passionate about work projects and willing to work with others to help the group reach its goals.
• Pay attention to nonverbal communication . The signals that people send through their body language can convey a lot about what they really think.
• Hone your persuasion skills . Being able to carry influence in the workplace and convince team members and supervisors to listen to your ideas can go a long way in advancing your career.
• Avoid office drama . Do your best to stay out of the petty office politics that sometimes take over the workplace, but be aware that conflicts are not always avoidable. Focus on listening to what others have to say and look for ways to solve problems and minimize tensions.

Become More Empathetic

Emotionally intelligent people are good at stepping into another person's shoes and understanding how they feel. Empathy is more than just recognizing how others are feeling. It also involves how you respond to these emotions.

In the workplace, empathy allows you to understand the different dynamics between colleagues and supervisors. It also allows you to recognize who holds power and how it influences the behaviors, feelings, and interactions that flow from such relationships.

• See things from the other person's point of view . It can be challenging at times, especially if you feel like the other person is wrong. But rather than let disagreements build up into major conflicts, spend time looking at the situation from another's perspective. It can be a great first step toward finding a middle ground between two opposing points of view.
• Pay attention to how you respond to others . Do you let them have a chance to share their ideas? Do you acknowledge their input, even if you disagree? Letting others know that their efforts have merit often helps everyone feel more willing to compromise.

Work on Your Motivation

Another key component of emotional intelligence is intrinsic motivation. People who have strong EQ tend to be more motivated to achieve goals for their own sake. Rather than seeking external rewards, they want to do things because they find them fulfilling and they are passionate about what they do.

Money, status, and acclaim are great, but people who are highly successful in the workplace are usually motivated by something more than that. They are passionate about what they do. They have a commitment to their work, they love taking on new challenges, and their enthusiasm can seem contagious. They don't give up in the face of obstacles and they are able to inspire others to work hard and persist in order to achieve goals.

• Focus on what you love about your work . There are probably things about your job that you love and things that you hate.Try focusing on the aspects of your job that you enjoy , such as the feeling of accomplishment you get when you complete a big project, or helping your clients progress toward their own goals. Identify those components of your job and take inspiration from them.
• Try to maintain a positive attitude . Notice how optimistic people in the workplace tend to inspire and motivate others. Adopting this kind of attitude can help you feel more positively about your work.

A Word From Verywell

Emotional intelligence plays an important role not only in well-being but also in your success in the workplace. Fortunately, there are a number of lessons you can take from emotion psychology that will allow you to improve your EQ and foster greater emotional competencies to improve your work performance and career success.

Extremera N, Mérida-López S, Sánchez-Álvarez N, Quintana-Orts C. How does emotional intelligence make one feel better at work? The mediational role of work engagement . International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health . 2018;15(9):1909. doi:10.3390/ijerph15091909

Beenen G, Pichler S, Livingston B, Riggio R. The good manager: development and validation of the managerial interpersonal skills scale . Front Psychol . 2021;12. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.631390

Career Builder. " Seventy-One Percent of Employers Say They Value Emotional Intelligence Over IQ ."

Kotsou I, Nelis D, Grégoire J, Mikolajczak M. Emotional plasticity: Conditions and effects of improving emotional competence in adulthood . J Appl Psychol. 2011;96(4):827-39. doi:10.1037/a0023047

Brackett MA, Rivers SE, Salovey P. Emotional intelligence: Implications for personal, social, academic, and workplace success . Soc Personal Psychol Compass. 2011;5(1):880103. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00334.x

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By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Emotions in the Workplace

• First Online: 17 May 2023

Cite this chapter

• Christer Sandahl 4 &
• Mia von Knorring 4  

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In this chapter, we briefly review how emotions at work have been treated in the research literature. We also describe the power of emotions and address the importance of emotions when making reasoned and wise decisions. We emphasize that managers can improve their understanding and handling of emotions in the workplace.

Without attention to our emotions, we may act thoughtlessly.

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7.5 Emotions at Work

Learning objectives.

• Understand Affective Events Theory.
• Understand the influence of emotions on attitudes and behaviors at work.
• Learn what emotional labor is and how it affects individuals.
• Learn what emotional intelligence is.

Emotions Affect Attitudes and Behaviors at Work

Emotions shape an individual’s belief about the value of a job, a company, or a team. Emotions also affect behaviors at work. Research shows that individuals within your own inner circle are better able to recognize and understand your emotions (Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002).

So, what is the connection between emotions, attitudes, and behaviors at work? This connection may be explained using a theory named Affective Events Theory (AET) . Researchers Howard Weiss and Russell Cropanzano studied the effect of six major kinds of emotions in the workplace: anger, fear, joy, love, sadness, and surprise (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). Their theory argues that specific events on the job cause different kinds of people to feel different emotions. These emotions, in turn, inspire actions that can benefit or impede others at work (Fisher, 2002).

Figure 7.11

According to Affective Events Theory, six emotions are affected by events at work.

For example, imagine that a coworker unexpectedly delivers your morning coffee to your desk. As a result of this pleasant, if unexpected experience, you may feel happy and surprised. If that coworker is your boss, you might feel proud as well. Studies have found that the positive feelings resulting from work experience may inspire you to do something you hadn’t planned to do before. For instance, you might volunteer to help a colleague on a project you weren’t planning to work on before. Your action would be an affect-driven behavior (Fisher, 2002). Alternatively, if you were unfairly reprimanded by your manager, the negative emotions you experience may cause you to withdraw from work or to act mean toward a coworker. Over time, these tiny moments of emotion on the job can influence a person’s job satisfaction. Although company perks and promotions can contribute to a person’s happiness at work, satisfaction is not simply a result of this kind of “outside-in” reward system. Job satisfaction in the AET model comes from the inside-in—from the combination of an individual’s personality, small emotional experiences at work over time, beliefs, and affect-driven behaviors.

Jobs that are high in negative emotion can lead to frustration and burnout —an ongoing negative emotional state resulting from dissatisfaction (Lee & Ashforth, 1996; Maslach, 1982; Maslach & Jackson, 1981). Depression, anxiety, anger, physical illness, increased drug and alcohol use, and insomnia can result from frustration and burnout, with frustration being somewhat more active and burnout more passive. The effects of both conditions can impact coworkers, customers, and clients as anger boils over and is expressed in one’s interactions with others (Lewandowski, 2003).

Emotional Labor

Negative emotions are common among workers in service industries. Individuals who work in manufacturing rarely meet their customers face-to-face. If they’re in a bad mood, the customer would not know. Service jobs are just the opposite. Part of a service employee’s job is appearing a certain way in the eyes of the public. Individuals in service industries are professional helpers. As such, they are expected to be upbeat, friendly, and polite at all times, which can be exhausting to accomplish in the long run.

Humans are emotional creatures by nature. In the course of a day, we experience many emotions. Think about your day thus far. Can you identify times when you were happy to deal with other people and times that you wanted to be left alone? Now imagine trying to hide all the emotions you’ve felt today for 8 hours or more at work. That’s what cashiers, school teachers, massage therapists, fire fighters, and librarians, among other professionals, are asked to do. As individuals, they may be feeling sad, angry, or fearful, but at work, their job title trumps their individual identity. The result is a persona —a professional role that involves acting out feelings that may not be real as part of their job.

Emotional labor refers to the regulation of feelings and expressions for organizational purposes (Grandey, 2000). Three major levels of emotional labor have been identified (Hochschild, 1983).

• Surface acting requires an individual to exhibit physical signs, such as smiling, that reflect emotions customers want to experience. A children’s hairdresser cutting the hair of a crying toddler may smile and act sympathetic without actually feeling so. In this case, the person is engaged in surface acting.
• Deep acting takes surface acting one step further. This time, instead of faking an emotion that a customer may want to see, an employee will actively try to experience the emotion they are displaying. This genuine attempt at empathy helps align the emotions one is experiencing with the emotions one is displaying. The children’s hairdresser may empathize with the toddler by imagining how stressful it must be for one so little to be constrained in a chair and be in an unfamiliar environment, and the hairdresser may genuinely begin to feel sad for the child.
• Genuine acting occurs when individuals are asked to display emotions that are aligned with their own. If a job requires genuine acting, less emotional labor is required because the actions are consistent with true feelings.

Figure 7.12

When it comes to acting, the closer to the middle of the circle that your actions are, the less emotional labor your job demands. The further away, the more emotional labor the job demands.

Research shows that surface acting is related to higher levels of stress and fewer felt positive emotions, while deep acting may lead to less stress (Beal et al., 2006; Grandey, 2003). Emotional labor is particularly common in service industries that are also characterized by relatively low pay, which creates the added potentials for stress and feelings of being treated unfairly (Glomb, Kammeyer-Mueller, & Rotundo, 2004; Rupp & Sharmin, 2006). In a study of 285 hotel employees, researchers found that emotional labor was vital because so many employee-customer interactions involve individuals dealing with emotionally charged issues (Chu, 2002). Emotional laborers are required to display specific emotions as part of their jobs. Sometimes, these are emotions that the worker already feels. In that case, the strain of the emotional labor is minimal. For example, a funeral director is generally expected to display sympathy for a family’s loss, and in the case of a family member suffering an untimely death, this emotion may be genuine. But for people whose jobs require them to be professionally polite and cheerful, such as flight attendants, or to be serious and authoritative, such as police officers, the work of wearing one’s “game face” can have effects that outlast the working day. To combat this, taking breaks can help surface actors to cope more effectively (Beal, Green, & Weiss, 2008). In addition, researchers have found that greater autonomy is related to less strain for service workers in the United States as well as France (Grandey, Fisk, & Steiner, 2005).

Cognitive dissonance is a term that refers to a mismatch among emotions, attitudes, beliefs, and behavior, for example, believing that you should always be polite to a customer regardless of personal feelings, yet having just been rude to one. You’ll experience discomfort or stress unless you find a way to alleviate the dissonance. You can reduce the personal conflict by changing your behavior (trying harder to act polite), changing your belief (maybe it’s OK to be a little less polite sometimes), or by adding a new fact that changes the importance of the previous facts (such as you will otherwise be laid off the next day). Although acting positive can make a person feel positive, emotional labor that involves a large degree of emotional or cognitive dissonance can be grueling, sometimes leading to negative health effects (Zapf, 2006).

Emotional Intelligence

One way to manage the effects of emotional labor is by increasing your awareness of the gaps between real emotions and emotions that are required by your professional persona. “What am I feeling? And what do others feel?” These questions form the heart of emotional intelligence . The term was coined by psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer and was popularized by psychologist Daniel Goleman in a book of the same name. Emotional intelligence looks at how people can understand each other more completely by developing an increased awareness of their own and others’ emotions (Carmeli, 2003).

There are four building blocks involved in developing a high level of emotional intelligence. Self-awareness exists when you are able to accurately perceive, evaluate, and display appropriate emotions. Self-management exists when you are able to direct your emotions in a positive way when needed. Social awareness exists when you are able to understand how others feel. Relationship management exists when you are able to help others manage their own emotions and truly establish supportive relationships with others (Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002; Weisinger, 1998).

Figure 7.13

The four steps of emotional intelligence build upon one another.

In the workplace, emotional intelligence can be used to form harmonious teams by taking advantage of the talents of every member. To accomplish this, colleagues well versed in emotional intelligence can look for opportunities to motivate themselves and inspire others to work together (Goleman, 1995). Chief among the emotions that helped create a successful team, Goleman learned, was empathy—the ability to put oneself in another’s shoes, whether that individual has achieved a major triumph or fallen short of personal goals (Goleman, 1998). Those high in emotional intelligence have been found to have higher self-efficacy in coping with adversity, perceive situations as challenges rather than threats, and have higher life satisfaction, which can all help lower stress levels (Law, Wong, & Song, 2004; Mikolajczak & Luminet, 2008).

Key Takeaway

Emotions affect attitudes and behaviors at work. Affective Events Theory can help explain these relationships. Emotional labor is higher when one is asked to act in a way that is inconsistent with personal feelings. Surface acting requires a high level of emotional labor. Emotional intelligence refers to understanding how others are reacting to our emotions.

• What is the worst job you have ever had (or class project if you haven’t worked)? Did the job require emotional labor? If so, how did you deal with it?
• Research shows that acting “happy” when you are not can be exhausting. Why do you think that is? Have you ever felt that way? What can you do to lessen these feelings?
• How important do you think emotional intelligence is at work? Why?

Beal, D. J., Green, S. G., & Weiss, H. (2008). Making the break count: An episodic examination of recovery activities, emotional experiences, and positive affective displays. Academy of Management Journal , 51 , 131–146.

Beal, D. J., Trougakos, J. P., Weiss, H. M., & Green, S. G. (2006). Episodic processes in emotional labor: Perceptions of affective delivery and regulation strategies. Journal of Applied Psychology , 91 , 1053–1065.

Carmeli, A. (2003). The relationship between emotional intelligence and work attitudes, behavior and outcomes: An examination among senior managers. Journal of Managerial Psychology , 18 , 788–813.

Chu, K. (2002). The effects of emotional labor on employee work outcomes . Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Elfenbein, H. A., & Ambady, N. (2002). Is there an in-group advantage in emotion recognition? Psychological Bulletin , 128 , 243–249.

Elfenbein, H. A., & Ambady, N. (2002). Predicting workplace outcomes from the ability to eavesdrop on feelings. Journal of Applied Psychology , 87 , 963–971.

Fisher, C. D. (2002). Real-time affect at work: A neglected phenomenon in organizational behaviour. Australian Journal of Management , 27 , 1–10.

Glomb, T. M., Kammeyer-Mueller, J. D., & Rotundo, M. (2004). Emotional labor demands and compensating wage differentials. Journal of Applied Psychology , 89 , 700–714.

Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence . New York: Bantam Books.

Goleman, D. (1998). Working with emotional intelligence . New York: Bantam Books.

Grandey, A. (2000). Emotional regulations in the workplace: A new way to conceptualize emotional labor. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology , 5 , 95–110.

Grandey, A. A. (2003). When “the show must go on”: Surface acting and deep acting as determinants of emotional exhaustion and peer-rated service delivery. Academy of Management Journal , 46 , 86–96.

Grandey, A. A., Fisk, G. M., & Steiner, D. D. (2005). Must “service with a smile” be stressful? The moderating role of personal control for American and French employees. Journal of Applied Psychology , 90 , 893–904.

Hochschild, A. (1983). The managed heart . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Law, K. S., Wong, C., & Song, L. J. (2004). The construct and criterion validity of emotional intelligence and its potential utility for management studies. Journal of Applied Psychology , 89 , 483–496.

Lee, R. T., & Ashforth, B. E. (1996). A meta-analytic examination of the correlates of three dimensions of job burnout. Journal of Applied Psychology , 81 , 123–133.

Lewandowski, C. A. (2003, December 1). Organizational factors contributing to worker frustration: The precursor to burnout. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare , 30, 175–185.

Maslach, C. (1982). Burnout: The cost of caring . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Maslach, C., & Jackson, S. E. (1981). The measurement of experienced burnout. Journal of Occupational Behavior , 2 , 99–113.

Mikolajczak, M., & Luminet, O. (2008). Trait emotional intelligence and the cognitive appraisal of stressful events: An exploratory study. Personality and Individual Differences , 44 , 1445–1453.

Rupp, D. E., & Sharmin, S. (2006). When customers lash out: The effects of customer interactional injustice on emotional labor and the mediating role of discrete emotions. Journal of Applied Psychology , 91 , 971–978.

Weisinger, H. (1998). Emotional intelligence at work . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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Organizational Behavior Copyright © 2017 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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The true impact of workplace wellbeing: two case studies

Embedded Expertise, Published: January 29, 2020 - Updated: August 22, 2022

Mental health concerns are a leading cause of workplace absence , and as we see increasing incidents of mental health-related sick days, workplace wellbeing is paramount for both organisational and individual success.

Below I’ve written two real-life stories where bettering the wellbeing of a workplace can have dramatic effects on the individuals and business profitability itself. Hopefully this will inspire you to incorporate a wellness approach into your organisation or team, or take more notice of your own mental health.

Case study one: Michael thought he was fine

Michael* realised he was arguing a lot with his family at home and was becoming increasingly more reactive to situations that probably didn’t warrant it. He wasn’t terribly great at conducting conversations or maintaining relationships with coworkers and this spilled outside of work. Body aches and excessive headaches had also started to culminate: all obvious signs of deep stress that Michael was ignoring.

The thing is, he thought he was actually doing really well and managing his stress levels appropriately and that his behaviour and experiences were quite normal.

But in fact, he was suffering extreme levels of stress . Something he didn’t even comprehend until he connected with a workplace wellbeing expert and he had the opportunity to observe his behaviours.

After one week of dedicated and concentrated awareness on how he was reacting and experiencing situations and noticing stress levels, triggers and emotions as they arose, he started to really notice a difference.

‘After one week of dedicated and concentrated awareness… he started to really notice a difference.’

To mitigate his stress levels and improve his workplace wellbeing and relations, Michael also engaged in visualisations (similar to what athletes do ), particularly with conversations, which creates different pathways in the brain . From here he started acting differently, having better discussions and decisions and was significantly calmer everywhere throughout his life, not just in the workplace.

Case study two: bad behaviour, great worker

Company owner, Rajiv, was experiencing some staff problems that he’d tried to handle but wasn’t seeing any changes. One of his contract managers, Tom, was displaying bad behaviour whenever things would go wrong.

The thing was, it was abundantly clear that what Tom was saying and the problems that he identified were absolutely correct. And the company valued his hard work and how exceptional he was at his job, so there was no desire to terminate his contract early. Which can often be a case for difficult situations in the workplace— many people are too eager to throw the ‘baby out with the bathwater’ so to speak, rather than experiment with some alternative ways of reaching conflict resolution. Or even taking the time to discover what is really going on, stepping away from the ego and its primal behaviour of flight or fight mode.

After supportive discussions with Tom, the wellness team discovered that actually he felt isolated , alone and that he didn’t belong. And, because the mind seeks to confirm our beliefs (through confirmation bias), would create situations and replicate behaviour to further consolidate that belief. He was very caught up in his story that he was an outsider.

A sense of belonging

To further compound this position, Tom was contracted as part of a large project and he felt like he didn’t fit in with the permanent employees, who had established themselves in the internal culture.

Forbes states that, ‘Employees who do not naturally fit into established corporate norms will often times try to assimilate to those norms – or put themselves “on guard” – in order to avoid potential biases or discrimination.’ This can take considerable effort and energy, which could be better spent on a person’s core duties.

A sense of belonging in the workplace contributes greatly to retention and attraction of high-quality candidates, which leads to better productivity, outcomes, creative solutions and more profit. It can also result in 75 per cent fewer sick days and avoid millions of dollars’ worth of lost productivity.

‘A sense of belonging in the workplace contributes greatly to retention and attraction of high quality candidates…’

Fostering this sense of belonging ‘in the workplace makes employees engaged and produce work that is elevated above the ordinary…’.

Once identified, the workplace wellbeing team worked with Tom and Rajiv with proven techniques that involved awareness, cultural changes and compassion and saw rapid improvement within weeks, thanks in part to the commitment of the people involved.

The change was so significant that Rajiv was enthusiastic and hungry to find more ways in which he could change the dynamics to bring out better and better results within his company. The company also extended Tom’s contract when the opportunity became available.

Welcome contract workers too

It can be really easy to forget that contract staff are an integral part of your team, even if they are only on staff for a limited time. And it shouldn’t be a last minute or token effort.

‘… there needs to be a culture and allowance for people to connect as human beings. We shouldn’t need bonding or team leadership days to actually connect with our colleagues and make meaningful relationships ,’ says Dr Michelle Lim, a loneliness researcher and senior lecturer in clinical psychology at Swinburne University.

Incorporating contract workers as genuinely part of the team and treating them as well as you treat all employees will only promote excellent benefits for the business and wider society as a whole and help contribute to preventing distressing issues such as high suicide rates in the engineering industry.

Can you relate in full or in part to these stories? Improve your wellbeing in your workplace today. Discover more about our for our contracting professionals.

*We’ve changed these names to provide privacy and protect the identity of these people.

Nukon is joint venture between the world of optimisation and automation. our parent company, SAGE Automation, is a leader in the operations market, while NUKON has fast established an outstanding reputation in the manufacturing data, intelligence andimprovement area.

This meeting of minds means we can now bridge the gaps between the different silos within our client businesses, bringing visibility, unity and breakthrough improvements right across our clients' businesses.

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Venting Your Emotions at Work: Helpful or Harmful?

Venting at work comes with potential benefits and costs..

Posted May 21, 2024 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

• What Is a Career
• Find a career counselor near me
• Venting negative emotions to coworkers is a common experience.
• There are benefits (e.g. validation and support) and potential costs (e.g. later regret) to venting at work.
• Journaling eliminates many of the risks but lacks the benefit of in-person support.

Disappointment, frustration, anger — these are just some of the negative emotions you are liable to feel at some point at work. When you experience an intense undesirable emotion , you might choose to express it to a coworker. People talk about the need to “vent” the emotion, meaning taking the time to express it with the goal of lessening its intensity. “Blowing off steam” is a phrase sometimes used.

Venting is a common practice, but does it result in more harm or good? Like many questions in psychology, the most accurate answer is probably, “It depends.” In this case, it’s important to consider such factors as how, who, when, where, and with what goal.

How and With What Goal

Emotions are physiological experiences that are caused by perceptions or thoughts. If you somehow immediately shut off the thoughts, the physiological emotion, or bodily experience, would subside in a matter of seconds to minutes. What keeps an emotional experience alive is continued thinking about it. So one risk of venting is continually reliving the undesirable emotion. This is particularly likely if venting consists of simply repeating the events, focusing on the “wrongness” of what happened, and so forth.

If this kind of thinking perpetuates the negative emotional experience, why do we do it? We all like to be right, and having a prime example to feel self-righteous can be tempting bait. If we’ve been wronged, being the victim has its privileges, such as sympathy, and focusing attention on the negatives of others rather than ourselves.

What might more productive venting look like? It might be helpful to share with coworkers what happened, and how you feel about it, with the aim of examining your perspective. Often when we vent to coworkers we are seeking validation of our perspective; that we’re right for feeling this way. Supportive coworkers may oblige, either out of sincere empathy or a sense of pressure to agree. Instead, look for alternative interpretations, and ask your coworkers for the same. It’s not that you need to agree with alternative views, but even considering them helps break the grip of the belief that your interpretation or experience is necessarily 100% right, that the wrongdoers are 100% evil, and so forth.

When and to Whom

Typically the need to vent is when the emotion is hottest. That makes sense. The risk is that in the heat of the moment you may say things that you later regret, or that at least might be taken out of context if shared later by your coworkers. Taking any amount of time to calm yourself, even just a few minutes, may be beneficial in giving you more conscious control over what you share and how it comes across.

In the heat of the moment, there may be a temptation to vent to the first available ear. However, can that particular coworker be trusted? Do you expect confidentiality? What is their relationship to the person, people, or situation about which you’re venting? Might your sharing your negative emotions about these affect your relationship with this particular coworker?

Your workplace is familiar territory. You spend so much time there it feels like your space, and you naturally have grown desensitized to many aspects of the environment . A risk is that you may act more like you would at home than you would in a strange public or semi-public place. When venting, you might be relatively oblivious to who else may be within earshot. That might include coworkers, supervisors, customers, clients, or patients. Of course the ripple effects of the lack of privacy vary and are impossible to predict, but they seem almost guaranteed to be more negative than positive. As difficult as it may be in the moment, it’s worth the effort to gauge the level of privacy, especially when your voice is liable to be a bit louder due to the emotional charge behind the venting.

To Vent or Not: That Is the Question

There is no right or wrong answer. Hopefully, by considering the issues raised above, you can make decisions that increase the likelihood of beneficial venting while minimizing the risks. One entirely different option is to write or journal as a means of venting. Doing so eliminates many of the risks noted above, but lacks some of the benefits of venting in person with a supportive coworker. In the end, being self-aware and intentional in your choices is the ultimate goal.

Michael Wiederman, Ph.D., is a former clinical psychology professor who now works full-time applying psychology to the workplace.

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So, You Cried at Work

• Melody Wilding

Five tips to help you bounce back with grace.

If you have ever cried at work, then you know it can feel embarrassing. You may worry about what your colleagues think of you or become concerned about how your outburst may jeopardize your professional standing. To minimize the impact of crying at work and ensure it doesn’t hurt your reputation, the author offers advice to help you bounce back with strength and professionalism: 1) reframe the impact, 2) give yourself space, 3) focus on follow up, 4) have a plan for next time, and 5) seek more help if you need it.

“Are you okay?” a stranger asked as she tapped me on the shoulder outside my company’s offices in Manhattan. I looked up at her with wet, red cheeks and wiped tears from my eyes.

• Melody Wilding , LMSW is an  executive coach  and author of  Trust Yourself: Stop Overthinking and Channel Your Emotions for Success at Work . Get a free copy of Chapter One here .

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Emotions Quiz Questions and Answers

### Personality Question Formats

1. How do you feel about experiencing emotions in your everyday life?

A. Love it! Emotions make life colorful.

B. It’s fine, I guess. Just part of being human.

C. Eh, could do without some emotions.

D. I find it overwhelming.

2. What’s your favorite positive emotion to experience during the day?

C. Satisfaction

D. Amusement

3. What makes you most nervous about the fluctuation of emotions throughout the day?

A. The unpredictability of it

B. How it might affect my interactions

C. The intense emotions like anxiety or anger

D. Emotional lows like sadness

4. What aspect of daily emotional life makes you the happiest?

A. Feeling joy and love frequently

B. Interacting positively with others

C. Finding moments of satisfaction and pride

D. Experiencing a variety of emotions

5. What do you dream about when it comes to emotional stability?

A. Consistently feeling positive emotions

B. Handling negative emotions better

C. A mix of emotions without the extremes

D. Being more aware and in control of my feelings

6. What happened in the past when you experienced mixed emotions?

A. It was confusing but memorable

B. It helped me understand myself better

C. It was overwhelming

D. It felt nuanced and real

7. How comfortable are you with expressing your emotions to others?

A. Very comfortable

B. Somewhat comfortable

C. Not very comfortable

D. Not comfortable at all

8. You have a choice of feeling joyful or satisfied, which do you choose?

B. Satisfied

9. A specific situation arises where your emotions conflict, how do you react?

A. Try to sort out my feelings first

B. Talk to someone about it

C. Feel overwhelmed but handle it

D. Ignore the conflict until it passes

10. What keeps you up at night about your emotional well-being?

A. Constant worry and anxiety

B. Feeling misunderstood

C. The intensity of certain emotions

D. Emotional unpredictability

11. Which of these activities would you enjoy the most to lift your mood?

A. Watching a comedy

B. Spending time with loved ones

C. Engaging in a hobby

D. Reflecting on positive experiences

12. What aspect of feeling emotions makes you most anxious?

A. Sudden changes in emotions

B. How others perceive your emotions

C. Dealing with negative emotions

D. The impact on your health

13. What is most likely to make you feel down about your emotional state?

A. Prolonged sadness or depression

B. Frequent anger or frustration

C. Constant anxiety or worry

D. A lack of positive emotions

14. If you could waive a magic wand, what would the perfect emotional day look like for you?

A. Full of joy and satisfaction

B. Balanced mix of emotions

C. Plenty of positive interactions

D. Calm and stress-free

15. How often do you find yourself experiencing mixed emotions?

A. Frequently

B. Occasionally

D. Almost never

16. How would your friends and family describe your emotional tendencies?

A. Very expressive and emotional

B. Generally positive and upbeat

C. Reserved but deep-feeling

D. Mood swings frequently

17. Tell us a little about what joy means to you.

A. Pure happiness and excitement

B. Being content and at peace

C. Shared laughter and fun

D. Achieving something special

18. You are at a party where emotions run high, what do you do?

A. Join in and enjoy the emotions

B. Stick with a few close friends

C. Observe but stay calm

D. Feel overwhelmed and look for an escape

19. Which member of your social group are you when it comes to emotions?

A. The positive one

B. The balanced one

C. The deep thinker

D. The quiet observer

20. What’s your go-to way of managing your emotions when they become too intense?

A. Talking it out with someone

B. Taking a walk or exercising

C. Journaling or reflecting

D. Distracting myself with activities

21. How do you handle emotional conflicts in relationships?

A. Address them directly and calmly

B. Try to see the other person’s perspective

C. Avoid confrontation if possible

D. Get quite emotional and defensive

22. What’s your favorite emotion to ride out when it comes to personal victories?

B. Satisfaction

23. What place do you most want to explore emotionally?

A. Inner peace

B. High levels of joy

C. Deep connections with others

D. Emotional resilience

24. When thinking about your future, which emotion stands out most for you?

B. Excitement

D. Gratitude

25. Which of these emotional scenarios is most likely to be a struggle for you?

A. Dealing with unexpected bad news

B. Handling intense criticism

C. Managing sudden changes in plans

D. Feeling misunderstood

26. When you were a kid, how did you deal with feeling angry?

A. Threw tantrums or cried

B. Talked to someone

C. Kept it inside

D. Engaged in activities to calm down

27. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you feel anxious?

A. I need to calm down

B. I should talk to someone

C. This will pass

D. I feel overwhelmed

28. What memory involving emotions do you cherish the most?

A. A moment of pure joy

B. A deep, heartfelt conversation

C. A time of overcoming fear or anxiety

D. A day filled with laughter

29. How do you generally react to unexpected positive emotions?

A. Embrace them fully

B. Share the joy with others

C. Enjoy them quietly

D. Feel confused but pleased

30. When you think about your emotions, what are you most concerned about?

A. Lack of control

B. Impact on relationships

C. Variability and unpredictability

D. Balancing positive and negative emotions

### Assessment Question Formats

31. How prepared are you for handling unexpected negative emotions during your day?

A. Very prepared

B. Somewhat prepared

C. Not very prepared

D. Not prepared at all

32. What happens if you experience a sudden burst of joy in the middle of a stressful day?

A. I embrace it and let it brighten my day

B. I share it with someone close

C. I try to moderate my emotions

D. I feel conflicted

33. What do you think you need to reach a greater emotional balance throughout your day?

A. Better emotional awareness

B. More supportive relationships

C. Coping strategies for stress

D. Regular moments of joy

34. How often do you find yourself needing to manage anxiety in the daytime?

B. Sometimes

35. How confident are you in your ability to process emotions constructively?

A. Very confident

B. Confident enough

C. Not very confident

D. Not confident at all

36. How do you handle feelings of guilt when they arise?

A. Reflect on the cause and learn from it

B. Talk to the person involved

C. Distract myself with other activities

D. Struggle to shake the feeling

37. Do you find that you experience mixed emotions frequently during the day?

A. Yes, very frequently

38. How connected do you feel to your emotional experiences?

A. Very connected

B. Moderately connected

C. Not very connected

D. Disconnected

39. Which of the following best describes your approach to handling emotional highs and lows?

A. Take them as they come and learn from them

B. Try to balance them with other activities

C. Seek support when necessary

D. Ignore them until they pass

40. How do you handle mixed emotions when they arise?

A. Try to identify and separate each emotion

B. Talk it out with someone

C. Allow them to pass naturally

D. Feel overwhelmed and struggle to manage

41. What would you say are your top struggles with emotions right now?

A. Managing anxiety

B. Dealing with sadness

C. Coping with anger

D. Handling emotional unpredictability

42. What is your emotional well-being goal?

A. Find balance and stability

B. Experience more positive emotions

C. Reduce the impact of negative emotions

D. Increase emotional awareness

43. What do you think is missing in your quest to handle emotions better?

A. Effective coping strategies

B. Support from others

C. Better self-awareness

D. Time to relax and reflect

44. What is your current level of expertise in emotional management?

B. Intermediate

C. Beginner

45. How do you respond when experiencing sudden emotional highs or lows?

A. Use techniques I’ve learned to manage them

B. Talk to someone close

C. Try to remain calm and collected

D. Get overwhelmed and uncertain

46. Which of these factors most affects your emotional health on a daily basis?

A. Stress levels

B. Interpersonal relationships

C. Workplace environment

D. Personal outlook and mindset

47. Which of the following do you notice yourself worrying about on a day-to-day basis?

A. Personal achievements

B. Relationships and social dynamics

C. Health and well-being

D. Future plans and goals

48. How do you manage unexpected emotional outbursts?

A. Address the situation that triggered them

B. Take a moment to breathe and calm down

C. Apologize and explain my feelings

D. Feel embarrassed and avoid confrontation

49. What is the trickiest part about balancing your emotions throughout the day?

A. Managing sudden mood changes

B. Handling different emotions simultaneously

C. Staying positive in challenging situations

D. Keeping emotions from affecting work

50. Which of these best describes your current emotional state on an average day?

A. Generally positive and upbeat

B. Mixed with highs and lows

C. Mostly neutral

D. Frequently stressed

51. What is your biggest challenge when it comes to emotional resilience?

A. Dealing with prolonged stress

B. Recovering from emotional setbacks

C. Feeling overwhelmed by negative emotions

D. Maintaining a balanced outlook

52. To what degree do you experience emotional variability?

A. Very high degree

B. Moderate degree

C. Low degree

D. Very low degree

53. How do you determine your emotional needs each day?

A. Based on how I feel in the morning

B. Reflecting on the previous day

C. Through journaling or reflection

D. As situations arise throughout the day

54. Are you consistently achieving your emotional well-being goals?

A. Yes, I’m on track

B. Most of the time

D. Not at all

55. How do you manage the process of emotional self-regulation?

A. Through regular reflection and mindfulness practices

B. By talking to friends or family

C. Using self-help techniques and books

D. Struggling to find effective methods

56. Do you have a strong support system for emotional well-being, such as friends, family, or professional help?

A. Yes, very strong

B. Moderately strong

C. Somewhat, but could be better

D. No, it’s lacking

57. How well do you stick to your emotional well-being practices?

A. Very well, it’s a routine part of my life

B. Fairly well, with some lapses

C. Not very well, it’s challenging

D. Not at all, it’s inconsistent

58. How confident are you in handling unexpected emotional conflicts?

B. Moderately confident

C. Slightly confident

59. How would you describe your relationship with your emotional experiences?

A. Embracing and understanding

B. Trying to improve and manage

C. Struggling but working on it

D. Difficult and overwhelming

60. How do you typically respond to learning new information about emotional health?

A. Excited to implement it

B. Curious but skeptical

C. Cautious and reserved

D. Indifferent or uninterested

Disclaimer: Please consult a physician before making any changes to your health regimen.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2723854/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1934613/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8228195/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4689475/

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Using Trauma-Informed Teaching to Handle Sensitive Topics in Online Teaching: A Case Study from Divinity

How can Christian faith influence the practice of mental health care? How do we define mental health and mental illness — and what are the limitations of these concepts? How can Christian theology provide us with tools to ethically engage with challenges related to mental health care? When developing their new graduate-level course, Christian Approaches to Mental Health Care , Professors Warren Kinghorn and John Swinton created a course where students could explore these questions.

“Theology provides us with a language, a worldview and a set of practices that are vital for mental health care,” Swinton said. “The intention of this course is to help people to think theologically and provide people with other ideas and tools to help them care more fully and more faithfully.”

A hybrid, nine-week course, Christian Approaches to Mental Health Care is part of a new mental health track in the Divinity School’s Certificate in Theology and Health Care . Students attended an immersive week on Duke’s campus where they were introduced to key concepts; they attended course sessions the following eight weeks via Zoom.

“In the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative, we invite students into deep engagement with the practices of health care in light of Christian theology and practice,” Kinghorn said. “This class is a natural extension of that aim, but now focused specifically on the practices of mental health care.” 

This Divinity course was aimed at both professionals who work in any context related to mental health care (e.g., counselors, social workers) and those who may have a personal interest in the material. First taught in Spring 2024 to over 30 students, the course covered a wide-range of topics that needed to be handled with care, including trauma, anxiety, and dementia. 

Challenges and Affordances of Teaching Online

How does one approach teaching sensitive topics online? Are there challenges unique to this environment? 

Swinton noted that the structure of a course using a web conferencing software like Zoom can present challenges.

“When you are in a standard class situation and difficult issues come up, people have the opportunity to find immediate support either from us as tutors or from classmates,” he said. “When you are doing a course online, that support is often not available. You switch off the camera and you are on your own.”

That being said, knowing this can be an issue without the buffer space at the beginning or end of the class session, Swinton and Kinghorn have worked to ensure their online sessions do offer support. Kinghorn noted that during his first foray into online teaching during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was concerned about engaging with sensitive topics in a virtual class setting.

“But I learned that if the class is structured in a way that leaves time and space for self-care, Zoom-based instruction has advantages,” he said. “Students generally join class from a space where they feel safe. They can titrate their own exposure in class, shifting position or even briefly turning off camera or microphone if necessary. If done well and in a trauma-informed way, I think that even the hardest topics can be addressed well through online pedagogy.”

Strategies to Teach a Trauma-Informed Course

What does it mean to be a trauma-informed instructor? How can Kinghorn and Swinton’s course act as an example for other courses?

“Adopting a trauma-informed approach is not accomplished through any single particular technique or checklist,” the CDC’s 6 Guiding Principles To A Trauma-Informed Approach reminds us, “It requires constant attention, caring awareness, sensitivity, and possibly a cultural change at an organizational level.”

Kinghorn and Swinton, however, do have specific strategies that worked for the specific context of their course. Given that this course covered topics such as depression, suicide, substance use issues, and more during the online weeks, the instructors informed students about upcoming content and encouraged them to approach these topics with care for themselves and for others. While there are different approaches to creating a trauma-informed environment, Kinghorn and Swinton focused on harm reduction in suggesting how instructors can think about this during a live course.

“My belief (as others have argued in the trauma-informed teaching literature) is that it should be a last resort for professors to invite students to opt out of a class due to difficult past experiences, as this kind of approach (if made systematic) can compound educational differences and marginalization— effectively giving educational access to those fortunate not to have particular trauma histories and excluding (even if student-driven) those who do,” Kinghorn said.  “I would much rather structure courses (as I think we did this semester) with the goal that every student, including those with recent loss or difficult trauma histories, feels a sense of welcome and belonging that enables them to participate in the good, hard work of the course.”

Swinton shared that choice is important to him in thinking about student participation.

“For example, if an online student has had someone close to them die by suicide either recently or historically and they feel that a class on this subject could be problematic for them, we would want to make sure that the person involved does not feel compelled to participate in the class if it is going to be harmful,” Swinton said of a hypothetical scenario. “It’s always going to be difficult with sensitive issues online, but we do the best we can to minimize the possibility of harm.”

Other strategies to help students feel like the course was a safe place for student learning included:

• Focusing on helping students create a connected community, which included putting them in consistent breakout room groups of 5-6 students for the semester
• Modelling honesty and humility as instructors  when receiving difficult questions during the immersive week
• Starting each class session with grounding practices (e.g., reading a psalm and pausing in silent reflection)
• Staying after class in Zoom to be available to students and ensuring presence and privacy by turning off recording features
• Providing clear guidelines about evaluations and deadlines, as well as sharing how students should communicate with faculty and teaching assistants
• Granting structured flexibility (e.g., offering a no-questions-asked 72-hour extension for one assignment over the semester)
• Respecting students’ privacy (e.g., not asking students to disclose why they need to turn in late work)

Teaching with Care

How might you begin to integrate trauma-informed practices into your own teaching? 

The first step, Swinton said, is to recognize that this is an issue instructors should take note of in all of their teaching.

Using Duke as an example, Kinghorn elaborated that while instructors should not be asking students to disclose their trauma, they can assume “that a majority or near-majority of every class of Duke students have survived trauma of some sort (recognizing the challenges of defining that term).”

“Assume that all students, including trauma survivors, are at Duke because they want to learn, want to engage difficult material well, and generally want to do good, hard work together,” he said. “Then ask: how specific to my subject matter can I invite students to do good, hard work in a way that respects their lived experience? That’s going to differ by class and by student but is the place to start.”

If you’d like to learn more about trauma-informed teaching, here are a few resources where you could start are:

• Trauma-Informed Teaching – University of Wisconsin, Lacrosse
• Trauma-Informed Pedagogy, Montclair State University
• Karen Costa’s Trauma Informed Pedagogy Course
• A feature of a recent Coursera course that integrated trauma-informed frameworks into its design
• SAMHSA, Trauma and Violence
• The Missouri Model: A Developmental Framework for Trauma-Informed Approaches
• CDC, 6 Guiding Principles to a Trauma-Informed Approach
• Potentially Perilous Pedagogies: Teaching Trauma Is Not the Same as Trauma-Informed Teaching

If you’d like to learn more about Warren Kinghorn and John Swinton’s work, here are a few places to start are:

• Finding Jesus in the Storm: The Spiritual Lives of Christians with Mental Health Challenges (2020)
• Wayfaring: A Christian Approach to Mental Health Care by Warren Kinghorn (July 2024)
• Developing Best Practices for Trauma-Informed Teaching and Learning

When Is A Strike Legal? And Who Gets To Decide? UC's 'Stand-Up' Strikes Offer A Case Study

T he union that represents the University of California’s academic workers launched the first in a series of strikes May 20 — a move that could deal a blow to campus operations just a few weeks ahead of finals.

UAW 4811 members work at all 10 of the system’s campuses. Last Monday, workers at UC Santa Cruz began the first “stand up” strike. This Tuesday, workers at UCLA and UC Davis are expected to join them, and workers at other campuses stand at the ready.

The union has filed multiple unfair labor practice charges against UC, arguing that the system violated workers’ rights when deploying police to dismantle encampments formed in protest of Israel's war effort in Gaza.

Meanwhile, UC also filed its own unfair labor practice charge and asked the state’s Public Employment Relations Board to put an end to the strike. Allowing it to continue, UC said in a press release, “will cause the University and its students irreparable harm.” Members of the union teach, research, and grade, meaning that work will be getting done at fewer and fewer campuses. The academic year ends in mid-June.

The system also asserts that the work stoppages are illegal, pointing to “no strike” clauses in the union contracts.

But some labor law experts say those “no strike” clauses are not so cut-and-dried.

When do employees have a right to strike?

That depends on where they live and where they work, said Jay Smith, a lecturer at USC’s law school and an attorney who’s represented labor unions throughout the country for nearly four decades.

If an employee works in the private sector, he said, their right to strike “is protected and governed by federal law exclusively, and any state attempts to govern that are preempted.”

In contrast, if someone works in the public sector — like the academic workers at the University of California — “all labor relations, including the right to strike, are governed by state law, and sometimes by local law,” Smith added.

“Some states prohibit all public sector employees from striking,” he said. In those states, public employees risk getting fined, fired, or jailed for walking off the job. In the past 10 years, for instance, bus drivers in Mississippi and teachers in West Virginia took these risks to demand higher wages.

What are 'no strike' clauses?

“No strike” clauses are worked into contracts to maintain uninterrupted operations. They also compel unions and employers to settle disputes through arbitration or mediation.

In the private sector, almost all contracts between unions and their employers have “no strike” clauses during the term of the collective bargaining agreement, Smith said.

Typically, unions go on strike “only when the contract has expired or [when it’s] been terminated, and they're usually striking in favor of getting a better contract from the employer. But they’re doing so at a time when there is no contract in effect,” he added.

How literal is a 'no strike' clause?

Not necessarily. In 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Mastro Plastics Corp. v. NLRB . In the court’s opinion:

“Petitioners argue that the words ‘any strike’ leave no room for interpretation and necessarily include all strikes, even those against unlawful practices destructive of the foundation on which collective bargaining must rest. We disagree. We believe that the contract, taken as a whole, deals solely with the economic relationship between the employers and their employees."

Basically, Smith said, the court “decided that, for employees in the private sector, if their strike is significantly motivated by an employer's commission of serious unfair labor practices, the ‘no strike’ clause doesn't apply — even if there is a contract in effect.”

What do protests have to do with working conditions?

The union says employees are demanding workplace-related changes, including the right to opt out of military-funded research.

The union therefore takes issue with the arrest, suspension, and disclipline of members who participated in demonstrations at UCLA, UC San Diego, and UC Irvine. The union alleges that UC retaliated against employees for engaging in actions related to working conditions.

Who determines whether the UC strikes are legal?

The California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) enforces collective bargaining laws for the state’s public sector employees. And “California laws and [PERB] typically borrow extensively from both the statute and the legal precedence that exist in the private sector under the federal law,” Smith said — for example, that Supreme Court case.

After reviewing the UC’s press statement, Smith said the system is “quoting the literal terms of the ‘no strike’ clause. And if you just look at the no strike clause, it certainly looks, on the face of it, like the University of California is correct and the UAW is wrong — but that's only if you don't understand this additional issue.”

What's been decided so far?

J. Felix De La Torre, general counsel for PERB, said the agency has offered mediation to UC and the union. On May 23, PERB announced it would not pursue the injunction to stop the strikes, saying UC "has not established that injunctive relief is 'just and proper’” under the standard set by state law.

However, the agency said it will leave UC's request open, "in the event it learns of evidence or facts" that support the system's request.

What happens to union members if the strikes are illegal?

“If PERB seeks an injunction and a judge issues the injunction,” Smith said, union members would be obligated to comply. If they defied it, “a whole cascade of bad things could happen to them,” including fines and being “put in handcuffs for contempt of court.”

In an email, De La Torre also told LAist that PERB hasn’t reached a decision on UAW 4811’s unfair labor practice charges.

“PERB must provide UC with an opportunity to file a position statement,” he said. UC must respond to these charges by May 28. Then, a regional attorney will issue a decision.

De La Torre also noted that “PERB has not determined that UAW’s strike is unlawful.” That’s still being determined, and the process could take months.