1

Impact of
Emotions
on Work
Performan
ce
(A Study Report)

Sanjog Devrukhkar, MFM

SEM – III
Roll Number: 011.
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Submitted To: Prof. Ganga S.

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ACKNOWLEDEGEMENT
I would first of all like to thanks the Almighty God – Lord Krishna,
for giving me the knowledge and inspiration to complete the Project
Report. This report could never have been completed without his grace in
just 2 days.

I would also like to express my sincere gratitude towards our Prof.

Ganga S. who was the guiding light for this report & also provided us
with the best knowledge which has definitely helped me in the
completion.

Finally, I would like to thank our family members, friends and

classmates for their valuable guidance. I would also like to thanks many
names which made this project possible.

INDEX
SR. NO TOPIC PAGE NO.
1 INTRODUCTION 3
2 MEANING AND FEATURES OF EMOTIONS 4
3 ASPECTS OF EMOTIONS AND EXTERNAL 5
CONSTRAINTS
4 SOURCES OF EMOTIONS 6
5 TYPES OF EMOTIONS 7-8
6 IMPACT OF EMOTIONS ON WORK 9 - 11
PERFORMANCE
7 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE 12 - 13
8 APPLICATIONS ON EMOTIONS 14
9 IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGERS AND 15
CONCLUSION

DECLARATION

I, the student of Thakur Institute of Management Studies and Research

MFM (SEM-III) year 2008-11 hereby declare that I have completed this
project report on ‘Impact of Emotions on Work Performance’ in the
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academic year 2009-10. The information submitted here is true and

authentic to the best of my knowledge.

SANJOG ASHOK DEVRUKHKAR (ROLL NO. 11: MFM

2008-11)

INTRODUCTION

Over the past decade, increasing attention has been given to

how workers express emotions in a variety of work settings. An
under researched, yet critical, aspect of the literature on
emotions in organizational life concerns employers' attempts to
control and direct how employees display emotions to
customers. Emotions are a double-edged sword at work.
Emotions are ancient mechanisms that mobilize us to deal
quickly with important interpersonal encounters. They have
both a primal aspect and a motivational aspect. Emotions act
as primal beacons, guiding us along the path of survival.

There was a time when emotions in the workplace were

considered important in relation to employee well being and job
satisfaction only. In recent years, the organizations have
realized that employee emotions are pervasive in the
workplace. The emotions are not only a deep-seated part of
work life but have an important role to play in one's job
performance. An employee's emotions and overall
temperament have a significant impact on his job performance,
decision making skills, team spirit, leadership and turnover. It is
believed that employees bring their feelings of anger, fear, love
and respect with them when they come to work. An employee's
emotions are essential to what happens in an organization.
Emotions matter because they drive one's performance
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WHAT ARE EMOTIONS?

 Emotions – intense feelings that are directed at someone
or something

 Myth of rationality – emotions were the antithesis of

rationality and should not be seen in the workplace

 Belief that emotions of any kind are disruptive in the

workplace

MEANING AND DEFINITION

The English word 'emotion' is derived from the French émotion

and émouvoir. This is based on the Latin emovere, where e-
(variant of ex-) means 'out' and movere means 'move'. The
related term "motivation" is also derived from movere.

An emotion is a mental and physiological state associated with

a wide variety of feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. It is a
prime determinant of the sense of subjective well-being and
appears to play a central role in many human activities.

As a result of this generality, the subject has been explored in

many, if not all of the human sciences and art forms. There is
much controversy concerning how emotions are defined and
classified
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FEATURES OF EMOTIONS
 Caused by Specific Event

 Very brief in duration (seconds or minutes)

 Specific and numerous in nature

 Usually accompanied by distinct facial expression

 Action oriented in nature

ASPECTS OF EMOTIONS

 Biology of Emotions – Emotions originate in the brain’s

limbic system, which is different for each person

 Intensity – Different people give different responses to

identical emotion-provoking stimuli

 Frequency and Duration – Some emotions occur more

frequently and emotions differ in how long they last

 Emotions and Rationality – Our emotions provide

important information about how we understand the world
around us.

 Evolutionary Psychology – States that we must

experience emotions because they serve a purpose; hard
to know if this is valid all the time

EXTERNAL CONSTRAINTS ON EMOTIONS

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 Organizational Influences – Most organizations strive to

be emotion-free

 Cultural Influences – Cultures vary in:

 Degree to which people experience emotions

 Interpretation of emotions

 Norms for the expression of emotions

SOURCES OF EMOTIONS

 Personality – Predisposes people to experience certain

moods and Emotions. Affect intensity affects the strength
of the emotion

 Day of week and Time of day – More positive

interactions will likely occur from mid-morning onwards
and also later in the week

 Weather – Not an impact according to research

 Stress – Increased stress worsens moods

 Social Activities – Usually increase positive mood and

have little effect on negative mood
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 Sleep – Less sleep or poor quality sleep increases

negative emotions

 Exercise – Enhances positive mood

 Age – Older people experience negative emotions less

frequently

 Gender – Women show greater emotional expression,

experience emotions more intensely and display more
frequent expressions of emotions

TYPES OF EMOTIONS
In the 1960s, researcher Paul Ekman set out to determine if
facial expressions and the emotions they conveyed were
culturally specific or universal. To his surprise he found seven
basic emotions were the same in all the cultures studied. These
seven emotions are represented by the facial expressions
shown below:

Surpris Contem
Disgust Fear Joy Sadness Anger
e pt
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S
R. TYPE
OF
N EMOTI IMPAC
o. ON T EXAMPLE SIGNS
Sunil was rewarded with a
medal and monetary
benefits in a surprise
Employee Recognition • Dropped jaw with
Function in his office. It Mouth open
Surpris Positiv affected positively on his • Lifted and curved
1 e e work performance making eye brows
him feel proud and happy • Eyes, open wide
Continuous dissatisfaction
at workplace may create a • Wrinkled Nose,
Negati feeling of Disgust resulting • Lowered brows
2 Disgust ve negative approach towards • Narrowed eyes,
work and organization. • a protruded tongue
3 Fear Negati Fear towards Job Security, • Feeling
ve Interpersonal relationships, overwhelmed,
appraisal, etc. may reduce • Feeling
the productivity of an immobilized,
employee. However, healthy • Unable to make
fear may help an employee decisions.
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to perform to achieve
individual targets. • Sweat and panic
A feeling of joy creates
an enthusiasm and • Changes breathing
willingness • Wrinkles from their
Positiv to work and creates a bond nose to the corner of
4 Joy e among an employee, work, lips.
workplace, colleagues, etc. • Showing teeth
Personal life problems
making
an individual to feel Sad
affects badly on work
performance. This results • The corners of the
into dissatisfactions towards lips droop
job as well. • Bottom lip may
Sadnes Negati E.g. Mr. Jadhav was sad due tremble
s ve to sudden death of his uncle • The inner corners
5 restricting him to of the eye brows are
concentrate on his work. drawn upwards
Anger towards bosses,
company • The brows become
policies, peers or even drawn together and
personal life lower
issues create a strong • Lips will become
feeling of set in square shape
annoyance and displeasure. and pressed together
E.g. Mrs. Joshi was angry as firmly
Negati her husband failed to attend • Eyes becomes
Anger ve an important family bulgy
function. The embarrassing • Nostrils will flare
6 feeling kept her upset • Upper and lower
throughout the day eyelids will tense

IMPACT OF EMOTIONS ON WORK PERFORMANCE

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The impact of emotions, whether positive or negative, is well

researched on. Studies suggest that negative feelings have
adverse effects on job performances. Anger often leads to
aggressions towards colleagues while sadness leads to
dissatisfaction with the job. Envy or conflict with peers also
leads to frequent fights and in turn results absenteeism. It is
not always that only bad emotions lead to bad results. Office
romance, despite being a positive feeling, can have negative
effect on others. However, emotions can have positive effects
as well. Positive emotions increase creativity, encourage
helping behavior and cooperation and reduce aggression both
against the organization and against people. Research suggests
that positive people have better cognitive abilities and tend to
do better
in the workplace and with accuracy.

Emotions influence the task on which an employee is working,

the efforts he puts and how he influences other employees
around him. In other words, what employees feel and how they
express their emotions affects their performance.

 Effect on decision making: Studies have shown that

positive mood leads to better and efficient decision
making. However, this doesn't mean that decisions taken
in a bad mood are disruptive. Studies have also found that
negative emotions can lead to more effective decision
making. Negative emotions, sometimes, may lead to more
concentrated, detailed, and analytic processing of the
facts
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 Emotions and absenteeism: Positive mood is

associated with reduced absence and intention to quit the
job while negative mood increase absenteeism, intention
to turnover, and actual turnover.

 Effects on creativity: Positive emotions influence

creativity positively as it creates a content state of mind
which is open to all ideas. It also leads to a more complex
and flexible thinking

 Interpersonal relations: Positive feelings induce helping

behaviors while feelings of jealousy of hatred lead to poor
relations with colleagues.

Emotions directly influence behavior, so one has to manage

emotions while at work. Some jobs simply cannot be done, if
emotions are not dealt with first
Imagine how employees whose jobs ask compulsion towards
specific emotions, like the front desk people or customer care
executives, manage their emotions. This is where the concept
of emotional labor comes in to play. Emotional labor or emotion
work is the effort, planning and control needed to express
desired level of emotions while on work. Emotional labor is a
form of regulation in which workers are expected to display
certain emotions as part of their job and to promote
organizational goals. When interacting with coworkers,
customers, suppliers, and others, employees are expected to
abide by such rules
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Here are two main ways of managing emotions at work -

surface acting and deep acting. In surface acting, employees
are required to show emotions that they actually might not
feel. For example an employee may fake a smile for his client
even if in actual he is unhappy because of some personal

EMOTIONAL LABOR

 An employee’s expression of
organizationally desired emotions during
interpersonal transactions at work

 Emotional dissonance is when an employee

has to project one emotion while feeling
another one
reasons. This method of managing emotions may lead to
discrepancy between what employee expresses and what he
actually feels and result in job dissatisfaction. This leads to
emotional dissonance, which refers to a state of disagreement
between internal expression of emotions and publicly displayed
emotions. Emotional dissonance is often accompanied by high
emotional exhaustion, low organizational commitment, and low
job satisfaction
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In deep acting, instead of expressing fake emotions, employees

try to experience the emotions that they are supposed to
express. This method of requires more effort but leads to
greater job satisfaction. Thus, the containment of unpleasant
emotions decreases job satisfaction and increases intentions of
quitting the job.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (EI)

FELT VS. DISPLAYED EMOTIONS

 Felt emotions are the individual’s actual

emotions
 Displayed emotions are those that the
organization requires workers to show
 Surface acting is hiding our true emotions
 Deep acting is trying to change one’s
feelings based on display rules
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Emotional intelligence is one’s ability to detect and manage

emotional cues and information. It is a much talked about
buzzword in business circles today. Because knowledge of
emotions can be a valuable data in navigating critical and non-
critical situations in the workplace on a day-to-day basis,
businesses can greatly benefit by training employees in
emotional management skills and techniques. People who are
cued in to the emotions, moods and dispositions of those
around them will find it extremely easy to manage situations
and people to achieve desired outcomes.

Five dimensions:

Self- Self- Self- Empat Social

awareness management motivation hy skills
The case for EI:

 Intuitive appeal – it makes sense

 Evidence suggests that a high level of EI predicts high job
performance
 Study suggests that EI is neurologically based

The case against EI:

 EI is too vague a concept

 EI can’t be measured
 EI is so closely related to intelligence and personality that
it is not unique when those factors are controlled
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There are some ways in which we can dull the impact of

negativity that sometimes runs rampant in the workplace, and
infuse a positive sheen to your day. The mood you bring with
you to work has a stronger effect on the day’s mood - and on
work performance - than mood changes caused by events in
the workplace. When people experience positive mood swings
at the start of the day, they tend to remain happy and efficient
throughout the day. So be sure to come to work with a smile on
your face and nice word for every one you meet. Your smile
and good mood will soon catch up with those around you.
Make eye contact with people, be it coworkers or customers,
when you talk with them. Make your interaction a positive one.
Watch out for body language and negative expression. Subtle
displays of emotion, such as a quick frown, can have an effect
as well, even if you don’t think it was noticeable. Nine out of 10
people say they are more productive when they’re around
positive people. Do not allow yourself to dip from the negative
emotions of people around you. Increase your own awareness
the frequency of your own negative comments. Shine a light on
what’s right, and try reinforcing positive attitudes and behavior
of your peers, rather than focusing on mistakes and failures.
If you must make one negative comment, then reaffirm your
statement with at least five positive comments. This is thought
to be the magic ratio to infuse the right balance between
positivism and productivity.
A word of caution, though…. don’t overdo it, for it may well
reverse the effects. Studies indicate that more than 13 positive
comments per negative comment could actually have a
damaging effect on productivity and performance, as people
may tend to get smug and complacent amidst all that
positivism.

APPLICATIONS OF EMOTIONS
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 Selection – employers should consider EI a factor in

hiring for jobs that demand a high degree of social
interaction

 Decision Making – Positive emotions can increase

problem-solving skills and help us understand and analyze
new information

 Creativity – Positive moods increase creativity

 Motivation – Organizations that promote positive moods

are likely to have a more motivated workforce

 Leadership – Emotions help convey messages more

effectively

 Interpersonal Conflict – it is critical to identify and work

through the emotional elements in any conflict

 Negotiation – emotions may impair negotiator

performance

 Customer Service – customers “catch” emotions from

employees, called emotional contagion

 Job Attitudes – emotions at work get carried home but

rarely carry over to the next day

 Deviant Workplace Behaviors – those who feel

negative emotions are more likely to engage in deviant
behavior at work
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IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGERS

 Understand the role of emotions and moods to explain and

predict behavior
 Emotions and moods can increase motivation
 Emotional labor recognizes that certain feelings can be
part of a job’s requirements
 Intense emotions can interfere with performance of
complex jobs

CONCLUSION

Emotions are as much a part of the

workplace as the air we breathe.
Happiness, surprise, frustration, anger—
they are all there and more. Emotions
play a role in the choices we make and
actions we take. Directed emotions can
motivate, inspire, and add positive
intensity to our work. When strong
emotions leave our control, or “run
away,” our personal productivity and the
productivity of others suffers. Key
relationships in our network are
damaged, making it even harder to
maintain necessary focus. Individuals
who take the initiative to stay on top of
their own emotional reactions and help
others to do the same have a positive
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BIBLIOGRAPHY

SOURCES FROM BOOK

Organizational Behaviour
– Stephen Robbins

SOURCES FROM WEBS

http://www.naukrihub.com
www.google.com
www.google/images.com
www.hinduonnet.com