Chapter Four

Emotions and Moods

Maslah Ali Warsame

Public Administration
Capital University
Course Name: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Thursday , 17 October 2019

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 What Are Emotions and Moods?
In our analysis, we’ll need three terms that are closely
intertwined: affect, emotions, and moods. Affect is a
generic term that covers a broad range of feelings,
including both emotions and moods. Emotions are
intense feelings directed at someone or something.
Moods are less intense feelings than emotions and often
arise without a specific event acting as a stimulus.
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 The Basic emotions

How many emotions are there? There are dozens,

including anger, contempt, enthusiasm, envy, fear,
frustration, disappointment, embarrassment, disgust,
happiness, hate, hope, jealousy, joy, love, pride,
surprise, and sadness. Numerous researchers have
tried to limit them to a fundamental set.

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Exhibit 4-1 Affect, Emotions, And Moods

Affect
Defined as a broad range of feelings that people experience.
Affect can be experienced in the form of emotions or moods.

Emotions Moods
• Caused by specific event • Cause is often general and unclear
• Very brief in duration (seconds • Last longer than emotions (hours
or days)
or minutes)
• More general (two main dimensions
• Specific and numerous in nature —
(many specific emotions such as positive affect and negative affect—
anger, fear, sadness, happiness, that are composed of multiple specific
disgust, surprise) emotions)
• Usually accompanied by distinct • Generally not indicated by distinct
facial expressions expressions
• Action-oriented in nature • Cognitive in nature 4
 Moral Emotions
We may tend to think our internal emotions are innate. For instance, if
someone jumped out at you from behind a door, wouldn’t you feel
surprised? Maybe you would, but you may also feel any of the other
five universal emotions— anger, fear, sadness, happiness, or disgust—
depending on the circumstance. Our experiences of emotions are closely
tied to our interpretations of events.

Interestingly, research indicates that our responses to moral emotions

differ from our responses to other emotions.11 When we feel moral
anger, for instance, we may be more likely to confront the situation that
causes it than when we just feel angry. 5
The Basic moods: Positive and negative affect

As a first step toward studying the effect of moods and

emotions in the workplace, we will classify emotions into
two categories: positive and negative. Positive emotions—
such as joy and gratitude—express a favorable evaluation or
feeling. Negative emotions—such as anger and guilt—
express the opposite. Keep in mind that emotions can’t be
neutral. When we group emotions into positive and negative
categories, they become mood states because we are now
looking at them more generally instead of isolating one
particular emotion.
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Exhibit 4-2 The structure of mood
Tense Alert High Positive
High Negative Excited Affect
Affect Nervous

Stressed Elated

Upset Happy

Sad
Content
Depressed
Serene

Bored Relaxed

Low positive Low Negative

Fatigued Calm
Affect Affect
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 Continue…
So, we can think of positive affect as a mood dimension consisting of

positive emotions such as excitement, enthusiasm, and elation at the

high end (high positive affect). Negative affect is a mood dimension

consisting of nervousness, stress, and anxiety at the high end (high

negative affect). positive affect A mood dimension that consists of

specific positive emotions such as excitement, enthusiasm, and elation

at the high end. negative affect A mood dimension that consists of

emotions such as nervousness, stress, and anxiety at the high end.

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 Experiencing Moods and Emotions
As if it weren’t complex enough to consider the many distinct
emotions and moods a person might identify, the reality is that we
all experience moods and emotions differently. For most people,
positive moods are somewhat more common than negative moods.
Indeed, research finds a positivity offset, meaning that at zero
input (when nothing in particular is going on), most individuals
experience a mildly positive mood. The reason is not that people
of different cultures are inherently different: People in most
cultures appear to experience certain positive and negative
emotions, and people interpret them in much the same way
worldwide. We all view negative emotions such as hate, terror, and
rage as dangerous and destructive, and we desire positive emotions
such as joy, love, and happiness. However, an individual’s
experience of emotions appears to be culturally shaped.
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 The function of emotions
In some ways, emotions are a mystery. What
function do they serve? As we discussed,
organizational behaviorists have been finding
that emotions can be critical to an effectively
functioning workplace. For example, happy
employees demonstrate higher performance and
organizational citizenship behavior (OCB),
fewer CWBs, and less turnover, particularly
when they feel supported by their organizations
in their effort to do well in their jobs.
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 Sources of Emotions and Moods

Have you ever said, “I got up on the wrong side

of the bed today?” Have you ever snapped at a
coworker or family member for no reason? If you
have, you probably wonder where those emotions
and moods originated. Here we discuss
some of the primary influences.
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 Personality

Moods and emotions have a personality trait component,

meaning that some people have built-in tendencies to experience

certain moods and emotions more frequently than others do.

People also experience the same emotions with different

intensities; the degree to which they experience them is called

their affect intensity. Affectively intense people experience both

positive and negative emotions more deeply: when they’re sad,

they’re really sad, and when they’re happy, they’re really happy.
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 Time of Day
Moods vary by the time of day. However, research
suggests most of us actually follow the same pattern.
Levels of positive affect tend to peak in the late morning
(10 a.m.–noon) and then remain at that level until early
evening (around 7 p.m.).32 Starting about 12 hours after
waking, positive affect begins to drop until midnight, and
then, for those who remain awake, the drop accelerates
until positive mood picks up again after sunrise. As for
negative affect, most research suggests it fluctuates less
than positive affect, but the general trend is for it to
increase over the course of a day, so that it is lowest early
in the morning and highest late in the evening.
 Day of the Week & Weather

•Are people in their best moods on the weekends?

In most cultures that is true—for example, U.S.
adults tend to experience their highest positive
affect on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and their
lowest on Monday.
•Weather When do you think you would be in a
better mood—when it’s 70 degrees and sunny, or
on a gloomy, cold, rainy day? Many people
believe their mood is tied to the weather.
 Stress and Social Activities
•As you might imagine, stressful events at work (a nasty e-mail,
impending deadline, loss of a big sale, reprimand from the boss,
etc.) negatively affect moods.
•Do you tend to be happiest when out with friends? For most
people, social a ctivities increase a positive mood and have little
effect on a negative mood. But do people in positive moods seek
out social interactions, or do social i nteractions cause people to
be in good moods? It seems both are true,44 though the type of
social activity does matter. Activities that are physical ( skiing or
hiking with friends), informal (going to a party), or epicurean
(eating with others) are more strongly associated with increases
in positive mood than events that are formal (attending a
meeting) or sedentary (watching TV with friends).
 Sleep , Exercise and Age
• Sleep quality affects moods and decision making, and increased
fatigue puts workers at risk of disease, injury, and depression.
Poor or reduced sleep also makes it difficult to control emotions.
•You often hear people should exercise to improve their mood.
Does “sweat therapy” really work? It appears so. Research
consistently shows exercise enhances peoples’ positive moods.
•Do young people experience more extreme positive emotions
(so-called youthful exuberance) than older people? Surprisingly,
no. One study of people ages 18 to 94 revealed that negative
emotions occur less as people get older. Periods of highly
positive moods lasted longer for the study’s older participants,
and bad moods faded more quickly.
 Sex
•Many believe women are more emotional than men. Is
there any truth to this? Evidence does confirm women
experience emotions more intensely, tend to “hold onto”
emotions longer than men, and display more frequent
expressions of both positive and negative emotions, except
anger.
•Evidence from a study of participants from 37 different
countries found that men consistently reported higher
levels of powerful emotions like anger, whereas women
reported more powerless emotions like sadness and fear.
Thus, there are some sex differences in the experience and
expression of emotions
 Emotional Labor
If you’ve ever had a job in retail, sales, or waited on
tables in a restaurant, you know the importance of
projecting a friendly demeanor and smiling. Even though
there were days when you didn’t feel cheerful, you knew
management expected you to be upbeat when dealing
with customers, so you faked it.
Every employee expends physical and mental labor by
putting body and mind, respectively, into the job. But
jobs also require emotional labor, A situation in which an
employee expresses organizationally desired emotions
during interpersonal transactions at work.
 Affective Events Theory
We’ve seen that emotions and moods are an
important part of our personal and work lives. But
how do they influence our job performance and
satisfaction? Affective events theory (AET),
affective events theory (AET) A model that
suggests that workplace events cause emotional
reactions on the part of employees, which then
influence workplace attitudes and behaviors.
 Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence (EI) is a person’s ability to (1)
perceive emotions in the self and others, (2)
understand the meaning of these emotions, and
(3) regulate his or her own emotions accordingly, as
shown in Exhibit 4-5. People who know their own
emotions and are good at reading emotional cues—
for instance, knowing why they’re angry and how to
express themselves without violating norms—are
most likely to be effective.
Emotional intelligence (EI) The ability to detect and
to manage emotional cues and information.
 Emotion Regulation
• Have you ever tried to cheer yourself up when you’re feeling
down, or calm yourself when you’re feeling angry? If so, you
have engaged in emotion regulation. The central idea behind
emotion regulation is to identify and modify the emotions you
feel.
• Emotion regulation influences and outcomes: As you might
suspect, not everyone is equally good at regulating emotions. I
ndividuals who are higher in the personality trait of neuroticism
have more trouble doing so and often find their moods are
beyond their ability to control. Individuals who have lower
levels of self-esteem are also less likely to try to improve their
sad moods, perhaps because they are less likely than others to
feel they deserve to be in a good mood.
 Continue…
•Emotion regulation Techniques: Researchers of
emotion regulation often study the strategies
people employ to change their emotions. One
technique we have discussed in this chapter is
surface acting, or literally “putting on a face” of
appropriate response to a given situation. Surface
acting doesn’t change the emotions, though, so the
regulation effect is minimal, and the result of daily
surface acting leads to exhaustion and fewer OCB.
 Ethics of emotion regulation
Emotion regulation has important ethical implications. On one end of the

continuum, some people might argue that controlling your emotions is

unethical because it requires a degree of acting. On the other end, other

people might argue that all emotions should be controlled so you can take

a dispassionate perspective.

Are you regulating your emotions so you don’t react inappropriately, or

are you regulating your emotions so no one knows what you are thinking?

Finally, consider this: you may be able to “fake it ‘til you make it.
OB Applications of Emotions and Moods

Our
understanding •Decision Making,
of emotions •Creativity,
and moods can •Motivation,
affect many •Leadership,
aspects of •Negotiation,
organizational •Customer Service,
behavior •Job Attitudes,
including the •Deviant Workplace Behavior,
•And Safety.
selection
process,
 Summary
Emotions and moods are similar in that both are affective in nature.

But they’re also different—moods are more general and less contextual

than emotions. The time of day, stressful events, and sleep patterns are

some of the factors that influence emotions and moods. OB research on

emotional labor, affective events theory, emotional intelligence, and

emotion regulation helps us understand how people deal with

emotions. Emotions and moods have proven relevant for virtually

every OB topic we study, with implications for managerial practices.

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