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Table of contents
1. The role of affective experience in work motivation...................................................................................... 1

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Document 1 of 1

The role of affective experience in work motivation

Author: Seo, Myeong-Gu
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Abstract: In spite of the recently growing interest in emotion among management scholars, emotion is still
largely neglected in existing theories of work motivation that provide foundational explanations about why and
how people behave in particular ways in their workplace. In this research, I expand existing understandings of
work motivation by investigating the role of core affective experience (defined as the most elementary feelings
of pleasure or displeasure, activation or deactivation) in work motivation.
I developed and ran an Internet-based stock investment simulation combined with an experience sampling
method, in which more than 100 investors participated daily for twenty consecutive business days. The results
mostly supported my prediction that core affective feelings of pleasantness and activation would affect three
major behavioral outcomes associated with work motivation: (1) its direction (what a person does/choice of
behavior), (2) intensity (how hard a person works/amount of effort) and (3) persistence (the degree to which a
person maintains the initially chosen behaviors/duration of behavioral choice).
First, core affective feelings influenced the direction aspect of work motivation, especially its generativedefensive dimension. I found that people experiencing more pleasant affective feelings expected higher
performance outcomes (expectancy judgments ) and perceived obtaining those outcomes more attractive (utility
judgments ), and as a result, they behaved more generatively, focusing more on achieving positive outcomes
(gain) than avoiding negative outcomes (loss) (generative-defensiveness in action ). On the other hand, when
people felt more activated, whether those feelings were pleasant or unpleasant, they behaved defensively.
Second, core affective experience influenced the amount of effort, the intensity aspect of work motivation. More
pleasant feelings led to higher expectancy judgments and higher utility judgments , which in turn, promoted
higher performance goals (goal level ) and ultimately more effort on the tasks (the amount of effort ).
Third, core affective experience influenced the duration of action, the persistence aspect of work motivation.
More pleasant feelings led to more favorable progress judgments , which in turn led to greater degrees of
duration in action (e.g., people tended to maintain their existing investment portfolios). In addition, the activation
dimension of core affect significantly and negatively affected the duration of action, which indicates that people
are more likely to change their initial choice of actions, instead of maintaining them, when they are emotionally
activated.
These effects mostly remained unchanged even after controlling for group influence (investment clubs), daily
market movement, and daily performance feedback. Moreover, I found that age, an individual-level
demographic variable, moderated the relationships between pleasantness in core affect and several other
variables. In particular, the effects of pleasantness on expectancy judgment, progress judgment, and
generative-defensive orientation were greater for older participants, whereas the effect of pleasantness on the
amount of effort was greater for younger participants.
These findings indicate that the role of affective experience in work motivation is both essential and extensive; it
influences work behaviors both directly and indirectly through affecting several key judgment components and
goal properties. This study provides a number of implications for work motivation theory and also for
organizational behavior and behavioral finance.
Subject: Management; Social psychology; Roles; Emotions; Motivation; Work environment;
Classification: 0454: Management; 0451: Social psychology

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Identifier / keyword: Social sciences, Psychology, Affective experience, Work motivation, Financial decisionmaking
Publication title: ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
Pages: 158 p.
Number of pages: 158
Publication year: 2003
Publication date: 2003
Year: 2003
Section: 0016
Publisher: ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing
Place of publication: Ann Arbor
Country of publication: United States
Advisor: Bartunek, Jean M
School: Boston College
School location: United States -- Massachusetts
Degree: Ph.D.
Source type: Dissertations & Theses
Language of publication: English; EN
Document type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication / order number: 3103271
ProQuest document ID: 305342489
Document URL: http://search.proquest.com/docview/305342489?accountid=15859
Copyright: Copyright UMI - Dissertations Publishing 2003
Last updated: 2014-01-23
Database: ProQuest Central

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