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Understanding Emotions
and Moods
LE A R N ING
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Affect is the range of feelings

in the forms of emotions and
moods that people
experience.

THE NATURE OF EMOTIONS EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

TYPES OF EMOTIONS THE NATURE OF MOODS

How do you feel when . . . You are driving a car and are halted by a police officer? You are
in class and receive a poor grade on an exam? A favorite pet passes away? You check
e-mail and discover that you are being offered a job interview? A good friend walks right
by without speaking? A parent or sibling or child loses his job? You get this SMS from a
new acquaintance: Ur gr8!?
These are examples of things that draw out feelings of many forms, such as happy
or sad, angry or pleased, anxious or elated. Such feelings constitute what scholars call
affect, the range of emotions and moods that people experience in their life context.1 Our
affects have important implications not only for our lives in general but also our work
experiences and careers.2

The Nature of Emotions

Emotions are strong positive
or negative feelings directed
toward someone or
something.

Anger, excitement, apprehension, attraction, sadness, elation, grief are all emotions that
appear as strong positive or negative feelings directed toward someone or something.3
Emotions are usually intense and not long-lasting. They are always associated with a
source. That is, someone or something makes us feel the way we do. You might feel the
positive emotion of elation when an instructor congratulates you on a fine class presentation; you might feel the negative emotion of anger when an instructor criticizes you in
front of the class. In both situations the object of your emotion is the instructor, but the
impact of the instructors behavior on your feelings is quite different in each case. And
your response to the aroused emotions is likely to differ as wellperhaps breaking into a
wide smile after the compliment, or making a nasty side comment or withdrawing from
further participation after the criticism.

Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is
an ability to understand
emotions and manage
relationships effectively.

All of us are familiar with the notions of cognitive ability and intelligence, or IQ, which
have been measured for many years. A related concept is emotional intelligence, or EI
as it is often called. It is defined by scholar Daniel Goleman as an ability to understand
emotions in ourselves and others and to use that understanding to manage relationships
effectively.4 EI is demonstrated in the ways in which we deal with affectfor example, by
knowing when a negative emotion is about to cause problems and being able to control
that emotion so that it doesnt become disruptive.
Golemans point about emotional intelligence is that we perform better when we
are good at recognizing and dealing with emotions in ourselves and others. When
high in EI, we are more likely to behave in ways that avoid having our emotions get
the better of us. Knowing that an instructors criticism causes us to feel anger, for
example, EI might help us control that anger, maintain a positive face, and perhaps
earn the instructors praise when we make future class contributions. If the unchecked
anger caused us to act in a verbally aggressive waycreating a negative impression
in the instructors eyesor to withdraw from all class participationcausing the
instructor to believe we have no interest in the course, our course experience would
likely suffer.
If you are good at knowing and managing your emotions and are good at reading
others emotions, you may perform better while interacting with other people. This
applies to life in general, as well as to work leadership situations.5 Figure 4.1 identifies

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Emotions, Attitudes, and Job Satisfaction

emotions such as pity, envy, and jealousy derive from external cues and information.
An example is feeling envious or jealous upon learning that a co-worker received a promotion or job assignment that you were hoping to get.

The Nature of Moods

Moods are generalized
positive and negative feelings
or states of mind.

Whereas emotions tend to be short term and clearly targeted at someone or something, moods are more generalized positive and negative feelings or states of mind
that may persist for some time. Everyone seems to have occasional moods, and we
each know the full range of possibilities they represent. How often do you wake up
in the morning and feel excited and refreshed and just happy, or wake up feeling
grouchy and depressed and generally unhappy? And what are the consequences of
these different moods for your behavior with friends and family, and at work or
school?
The field of OB is especially interested in how moods influence someones likeability
and relationships at work. When it comes to CEOs, for example, it often pays to be viewed
as in a positive mood, one that makes them seem more personable and caring in the eyes
of others. If a CEO goes to a meeting in a good mood and gets described as cheerful,

CHECKING ETHICS IN OB

The Downside of
Facebook Follies
Facebook is fun, but if youre having a bad day or are in
a bad or snarky mood and post the wrong things on it
inappropriate photo, snide comment, complaint about
your boss, and such, you might get hurt. Some Facebook
follies have caused users to change their online status to
Just got red!
Bed Surng BankerAfter a Swiss bank employee
called in sick with the excuse that she needed to
lie in the dark, company ofcials observed her surfing Facebook. She was red, and the banks statement said it had lost trust in the employee.
Angry MascotThe Pittsburgh Pirates red their
mascot after he posted criticisms of team management on his Facebook page. A Twitter campaign by
supporters helped him get hired back.

Whos Right and Wrong?

Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images, Inc.

Shortchanged ServerA former server at a pizza

parlor in North Carolina used Facebook to call her
customers cheap for not giving good tips. After
nding out about the posting, her bosses red her
for breaking company policy.

You may know of similar cases where employees ended up being penalized
for things they posted on their Facebook pages. But where do you draw the line? Isnt a persons Facebook page
separate from ones work? Shouldnt people be able to speak freely about their jobs, co-workers, and even bosses
when outside the workplace? Or is there an ethical boundary that travels from work into ones public communications that we must respect? What are the ethics hereon the employee and the employer sides?

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OB IN POPULAR CULTURE

Moods and Crash

None of us is immune to feelings and the inuence they
have on our lives, and it doesnt matter whether we are
at work, at home, or at play. We are generally expected
to be in charge of our feelings, particularly when we
interact with others. This requires a good deal of
self-control, and that can be difcult when moods take
over our feelings. Moods are positive or negative states
that persist, perhaps for quite a long time.
In the lm Crash, Jean Cabot (Sandra Bullock) is talking on the telephone with her best friend, Carol. When
she begins to complain about her housekeeper, Carols
response is skeptical and a bit critical. Jean starts to justify
her reaction but then admits she is angry at practically
everyone with whom she interacts. Her nal admission is
quite tellingJean informs Carol that she wakes up
angry every day. When Carol ends the conversation
prematurely, Jean loses focus and ends up falling down
the stairs in her home.

Bulls Eye Entertainment/Lions GateFilms//Photofest

This scene from the movie illustrates how moods can

be all consumingaffecting not only our outlook but
also our relationships and even behaviors. When emotions and moods get the best of us, we may say or do
things that are not in our best interests and that we may
regret later. Emotional intelligence involves understanding moods, recognizing how they affect behavior, and
learning to control emotions.

Get to Know Yourself Better

Take Assessment 3, The Turbulence Tolerance Test, in the OB Skills

Workbook. Remember to respond as if you were the manager. What is your tolerance level for turbulence? What role
might moods and emotions play in how you react to these and other situations? How can better self-awareness and
emotional intelligence help you prepare to handle such things more effectively?

contagion is positive, followers report being more attracted to their leaders and rate the
leaders more highly.13 In teams, one study found, team members shared good and bad
moods within two hours of being together. Interestingly, the contagion of bad moods
traveled person to person in teams faster than good moods did.14

Emotional Labor
Emotional labor is a
situation in which a person
displays organizationally
desired emotions in a job.

The concept of emotional labor relates to the need to show certain emotions in order to
perform a job well.15 Good examples come from service settings such as airline check-in
personnel or flight attendants. Persons in such jobs are supposed to appear approachable, receptive, and friendly while taking care of the things you require as a customer.
Some airlines, such as Southwest, go even further in asking service employees to be
funny and caring and cheerful while doing their jobs.
Emotional labor isnt always easy; it can be hard to be consistently on in displaying
the desired emotions in ones work. If youre having a bad mood day or have just experienced an emotional run-in with a neighbor, for example, being happy and helpful with

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How Emotions and Moods Influence Behavior

a demanding customer might seem a little much to ask. Such situations can cause
emotional dissonance in which the emotions we actually feel are inconsistent with the
emotions we try to project.16 That is, we are expected to act with one emotion while we
actually feel quite another.
It often requires a lot of self-regulation to display organizationally desired emotions in ones job. Imagine, for example, how often service workers struggling with
personal emotions and moods experience dissonance when having to act positive
toward customers.17 Deep acting occurs when someone tries to modify his or her feelings to better fit the situationsuch as putting yourself in the position of the air travelers whose luggage went missing and feeling the same sense of loss. Surface acting
occurs when someone hides true feelings while displaying very different onessuch
as smiling at a customer even though the words they used to express a complaint just
offended you.

Emotional dissonance is
inconsistency between
emotions we feel and those
we try to project.

Emotional Empathy
It was noted previously that empathy is an important component of emotional
intelligence. Although empathy itself can be thought of as a generalized sensitivity
to other persons and their states of mind, it can be further considered at both the
cognitive and emotional levels.18 Daniel Goleman differentiates between cognitive
empathyan ability to know how others are viewing thingsand emotional
empathyan ability to feel what the other person is experiencing in a particular
situation.19
Emotional empathy is considered important in how relationships play out, be they
relationships between spouses and family members, friends, or co-workers. Simply the
perception that a partner is putting forth the effort to seek emotional empathy has been
linked to relationship satisfaction among spouses.20 In the work context, emotional
empathy and management affect trust and collaboration in interpersonal relationships.21
And when it comes to the distribution of empathic emotional skills, Goleman cites
research showing that women score better than men.22

Cognitive empathy is the

ability to know how others are
viewing things.
Emotional empathy is the
ability to feel what the other
person is experiencing in a
particular situation.

Cultural Aspects of Emotions and Moods

Issues of emotional intelligence, emotion and mood contagion, and emotional labor
can be complicated in cross-cultural situations. General interpretations of emotions
and moods appear similar across cultures, with the major emotions of happiness, joy,
and love all valued positively.23 However, the frequency and intensity of emotions are
known to vary somewhat. In China, for example, research suggests that people report
fewer positive and negative emotions as well as less intense emotions than in other
cultures.24 Norms for emotional expression also vary across cultures. In collectivist
cultures that emphasize group relationships such as Japan, individual emotional
displays are less likely to occur and less likely to be accepted than in individualistic
cultures.25
Informal cultural standards called display rules govern the degree to which it
is appropriate to show emotions. The display rules of British culture, for example,
tend to encourage downplaying emotions. Those of Mexican culture tend to allow
emotions to be more publicly demonstrative. Overall, the lesson is that the way
emotions are displayed in one culture may not be the same in another culture.
When Walmart first went to Germany, its executives found that an emphasis on
friendliness embedded in its U.S. roots didnt work as well in the local culture. The
more serious German shoppers did not respond well to Walmarts friendly greeters
and helpful personnel.26

Display rules govern the

degree to which it is
appropriate to display
emotions.

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The affective component of an attitude is a specific feeling regarding the personal

impact of the antecedent conditions evidenced in the cognitive component. In essence
this becomes the actual attitude, such as the feeling I dont like my job. Notice that the
affect in this statement displays a negative attitude; I dont like my job is a very different
condition than I do like my job.
The behavioral component is an intention to behave in a certain way based on the
affect in ones attitude. It is a predisposition to act, but may or may not be implemented. The example in the figure shows behavioral intent expressed as Im going to
quit my job. Yet even with such intent, it remains to be seen whether or not the person
really quits.
As just pointed out, the link between attitudes and behavior is tentative. An attitude
expresses an intended behavior that may or may not be carried out. In general, the more
specific attitudes are, the stronger the relationship with eventual behavior. A person who
feels I dont like my job may be less likely to actually quit than someone who feels I cant
stand another day with Alex harassing me at work. For an attitude to actually influence
behavior, its also necessary to have the opportunity or freedom to behave in the intended
way. There are lots of people who stick with their jobs while still holding negative job
attitudes, perhaps you know some. The fact is they may not have any other choice.31

Attitudes and Cognitive Consistency

Cognitive dissonance is
experienced inconsistency
between ones attitudes and/
or between attitudes and
behavior.

Social psychologist Leon Festinger used the term cognitive dissonance to describe a
state of inconsistency between an individuals attitudes and/or between attitudes and
behavior.32 This is an important issue. Perhaps you have the attitude that recycling is
good for the economy. You also realize you arent always recycling everything you can.
Festinger points out that such cognitive inconsistency between attitude and behavior is
uncomfortable. We tend to deal with the discomfort by trying to do things to reduce or
eliminate the dissonance: (1) changing the underlying attitude, (2) changing future
behavior, or (3) developing new ways of explaining or rationalizing the inconsistency.
The way we respond to cognitive dissonance is influenced by the degree of control we
seem to have over the situation and the rewards involved. In the case of recycling dissonance, for example, the lack of convenient recycling containers would make rationalizing
easier and changing the positive attitude less likely. A reaffirmation of intention to recycle
in the future might also reduce the dissonance.

Attitudes and the Workplace

Even though attitudes do not always predict behavior, the link between attitudes and
potential or intended behavior is an important workplace issue. Think about your daily
experiences or conversations with other people about their work. It isnt uncommon to
hear concerns expressed about a co-workers bad attitude or anothers good attitude.
Such feelings get reflected in things like job satisfaction, job involvement, organizational
commitment, organizational identification, and employee engagement.

Job satisfaction is the degree

to which an individual feels
positive or negative about a
job.

Job Satisfaction You often hear the term morale used to describe how people feel
about their jobs and employers. It relates to the more specific notion of job satisfaction, an attitude reflecting a persons positive and negative feelings toward a job,
co-workers, and the work environment. Indeed, you should remember that helping
others realize job satisfaction is considered one hallmark of effective team leaders and
managersthose who create work environments in which people achieve high performance and experience high job satisfaction.

85

How Attitudes Influence Behavior

WORTH CONSIDERING

...OR BEST AVOIDED?

Got a Yoga Mat? Meditation

Can Be Good for You and Your Job

one are the days when the only investment employers

make in training is on hard skills. Its a whole new
world out there. Take a peek at the new normal at global
giant General Mills.
4 pmlarge room on premises50 or more smiling faces
topping off loose tting clothes lots of meditation cushions. Tibetan prayer bells are rung three times and the session leader says to everyone: Take a posture that for you
in this moment embodies dignity and strength. Allow the
body to rest, to step out of busyness, bringing attention to
the sensation of each breath. A collective sigh rises from
the room and stress moves out as mindfulness settles in.

This is a glimpse into General Millss Mindful Leadership Program, one supported by senior management to the point
where meditation and yoga are becoming part of the corporate culture. And the evaluations back up the investment:
over 80 percent of participants say it helps them be productive, improves their decision making, and makes them better
listeners.
General Mills isnt alone in turning toward meditation and
yoga as pathways to stress release and work engagement.
Google, Aetna, and Target are among those committing to
similar approaches. William George, former CEO of Medtronic,
has written an article in the Harvard Business Review extolling
the virtues of meditation. He claims that in his busy life
meditation helps keep him focused and if youre fully present
on the job, you will be more effective as a leader, you will make
better decisions, and you will work better with other people.

Hero Images/Corbis

Do the Analysis
Is corporate attention to meditation and yoga just a passing
fad? Is General Mills onto something that other employers,
large and small alike, should be copying? Or is this just a
luxury item that few employers can afford and few employees really want to bother with? Just how far should organizations go in trying to encourage people to join in these
types of activities?

Job Involvement In addition to job satisfaction, OB scholars and researchers are

interested in job involvement. This is the extent to which an individual feels dedicated
to a job. Someone with high job involvement psychologically identifies with her or his job
and, for example, shows willingness to work beyond expectations to complete a special
project. A high level of job involvement is generally linked with lower tendencies to withdraw from work, either physically by quitting or psychologically by reducing ones work
efforts.

Job involvement is the

extent to which an individual
is dedicated to a job.

Organizational Commitment and Organizational Identication

Another work attitude is organizational commitment, or the degree of loyalty an
individual feels toward the organization. Individuals with a high organizational commitment want to maintain their membership in the organization. Just as persons with
a high sense of job involvement, their inclination is to stay and contribute rather than
withdraw either physically or psychologically.

Organizational
commitment is the sense of
loyalty an individual has to
the organization.

86

Organizational
identification is the extent to
which a person identifies with
his or her membership
organization.

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Emotions, Attitudes, and Job Satisfaction

Two types of organizational commitment are often discussed. Rational commitment

reflects feelings that the job serves ones financial, and career development, interests
in other words, I am committed because I need what the organization offers in return
for my labor. Emotional commitment reflects feelings that what one does is important,
valuable, and of real benefit to othersin other words, I am committed because of the
self-satisfaction I experience from my membership in the organization. Research
shows that strong emotional commitments to the organization are more powerful
than rational commitments in positively influencing performance.33
The concept of emotional commitment is linked in OB research to something
called organizational identification, or OID. It is the extent to which one feels personally identified with ones membership organization to the point that it becomes
part of the self-concept. This notion derives from social identity theory and the
premise that the memberships individuals maintain contribute to their feelings of
self-esteem.34
When organizational identification is positive for ones esteem, the expectation is that
the individual will strive to be a good team player, a responsible organizational citizen,
and generally a positive work contributor and performer.35 Its also recognized that positive identification can work to the negative if it causes someone to commit unethical acts
perceived as necessary to maintain organizational membership.36 But, organizational
identification can be negative as well as positive. Think of a person saying I belong to this
organization, and I dont feel good about myself because of it. In such cases individuals
may struggle to psychologically balance their self-concept with the reality of the organizational membership.37

Employee Engagement A survey of 55,000 American workers by the Gallup,

Employee engagement is a
strong sense of connection
with the organization and
passion for ones job.

Inc., suggests that profits for employers rise when workers attitudes reflect high
levels of job involvement, organizational commitment, and organizational identification. This combination creates a high sense of employee engagementdefined
by Gallup as feeling a profound connection with the organization and a passion
for ones job.38 Scholar Jeffrey Pfeffer describes it as a conceptual cousin of job
satisfaction.39
A highly engaged individual tends to have an enthusiastic attitude toward work as
well as being willing to help others, to always try to do something extra to improve performance, and to speak positively about the organization. Individuals with high employee
engagement also report more positive moods and better handling of workplace stress.40

When Students Share

Assignments, Is It
Collaborating . . . Or Cheating?
When a Harvard professor finished reading take-home
final examinations from more than a hundred students in
a government class, the conclusion was that too many
answers said close to the same things. When the faculty
member reported the incident to the university administration, Harvard had a cheating scandal on its hands. Or
did it? From the perspective of some students, collaborating is a better choice of words. Thats the view of a
generation that grew up using the Internet and all sorts of

collaborative
media, and for
whom online
courses or class
activities are a way
of life. So, whose
perspective is
Lighthaunter.iStockphoto
correct? Are the
professors out of
date? Do test-taking rules need better clarification? Are
students taking advantage of new situations and
technologies?

87

Job Satisfaction Trends and Issues

The drivers of high engagement in the Gallup research held the beliefs that one has the
opportunity to do ones best every day, ones opinions count, fellow workers are committed to quality, and a direct connection exists between ones work and the organizations
mission.41
Given all this, do you have a sense of how engaged most people are in their work?
The fact is that recent Gallup research shows that 52 percent of American workers are
not engagedthink mentally checked outand another 18 percent are actively
disengagedthink undermining and disrupting. Even though high employee engagement is good for organizations and probably for the individual, only about 30 percent of
American workers on the average report experiencing it.42

Job Satisfaction Trends

and Issues
LE A R N ING
ROA DM A P

COMPONENTS OF JOB SATISFACTION JOB SATISFACTION TRENDS

HOW JOB SATISFACTION INFLUENCES WORK BEHAVIOR
LINKING JOB SATISFACTION AND JOB PERFORMANCE

There is no doubt that job satisfactiona persons feelings toward his or her job or
job setting at a particular point in timeis one of the most talked about of all job
attitudes.43 And when it comes to job satisfaction, several good questions can be asked.
What are the major components of job satisfaction? What are the main job satisfaction findings and trends? What is the relationship between job satisfaction and job
performance?

Components of Job Satisfaction

It is possible to infer the job satisfaction of others by careful observation and interpretation of what they say and do while going about their jobs. Interviews and questionnaires can also be used to more formally assess levels of job satisfaction on a team or
in an organization.44 Two of the more popular job satisfaction questionnaires used over
the years are the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) and the Job Descriptive
Index ( JDI).45 The MSQ measures satisfaction with working conditions, chances for
advancement, freedom to use ones own judgment, praise for doing a good job, and
feelings of accomplishment, among others. The JDI measures these five job satisfaction
facets:

The work itselfresponsibility, interest, and growth

Quality of supervisiontechnical help and social support
Relationships with co-workerssocial harmony and respect
Promotion opportunitieschances for further advancement
Payadequacy of pay and perceived equity vis- -vis others

Job Satisfaction Trends

If you watch or read the news, youll regularly find reports on the job satisfaction of workers. Youll also find lots of job satisfaction studies in the academic literature. The results
dont always agree, but they usually fall within a common range. Until recently, we generally concluded that the majority of U.S. workers are at least somewhat satisfied with their
jobs. Now, the trend has turned down.46

 Common facets of job

satisfaction

Job Satisfaction Trends and Issues

89

Both men and women in the Accenture survey generally agreed on the least
satisfying things about their jobs: being underpaid, lacking career advancement
opportunities, and feeling trapped in their jobs. Gender differences were also evident. Women are less likely than men to ask for pay raises (44 percent vs. 48 percent)
and for promotions (28 percent vs. 39 percent). Women are more likely to believe
their careers are not fast tracked (63 percent vs. 55 percent) and more likely to report
that getting ahead in careers is due to hard work and long hours (68 percent
vs. 55 percent). In respect to generational differences, Gen Y workers ranked pay
higher as a source of motivation (73 percent) than either Gen Xers (67 percent) or
Baby Boomers (58 percent).

How Job Satisfaction Influences Work Behavior

Would you agree that people deserve to have satisfying work experiences? You probably do. But, is job satisfaction important in other than a feel good sense? How does
it impact work behaviors and job performance? In commenting on the Conference
Board data just summarized, for example, Lynn Franco, the director of the organizations Consumer Research Center, said, The downward trend in job satisfaction
could spell trouble for the engagement of U.S. employees and ultimately employee
productivity.49

Physical Withdrawal There is a strong relationship between job satisfaction and

physical withdrawal behaviors of absenteeism and turnover. Workers who are more satisfied with their jobs are absent less often than those who are dissatisfied. Satisfied workers are also more likely to remain with their present employers, and dissatisfied workers
are more likely to quit or at least be on the lookout for other jobs.50 Withdrawal through
absenteeism and turnover can be very costly in terms of lost experience and the expenses
for recruiting and training of replacements.51
A survey by Salary.com showed that employers tend not only to overestimate the job
satisfaction of their employees; they also underestimate the amount of job seeking they
are doing.52 Whereas employers estimated that 37 percent of employees were on the lookout for new jobs, 65 percent of the employees said they were job seeking by networking,
Web surfing, posting rsums, or checking new job possibilities. Millennials in their
twenties and early thirties were most likely to engage in these just-in-case job searches.
The report concluded that most employers have not placed enough emphasis on important retention strategies.

Psychological Withdrawal There is also a relationship between job satisfaction

and psychological withdrawal behaviors. Think of the employee engagement concept
introduced previously and discussed in the positive sense. Now we are talking about
work disengagement as the negative side of things. It shows up in such forms as daydreaming, cyber-loafing via Internet surfing or personal electronic communications,
excessive socializing, and even just giving the appearance of being busy when one is not.
These disengagement behaviors are something that Gallup researchers say as many as
71 percent of workers report feeling at times.53
Organizational Citizenship Job satisfaction is also linked with organizational
citizenship behaviors.54 These are discretionary behaviors, sometimes called OCBs, that
represent a willingness to go beyond the call of duty or go the extra mile in ones work.55 A
person who is a good organizational citizen does extra things that help othersinterpersonal
OCBsor advance the performance of the organization as a wholeorganizational OCBs.56
You might observe interpersonal OCBs in a service worker who is extraordinarily courteous

Organizational citizenship
behaviors are the extras
people do to go the extra mile
in their work.

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Job Satisfaction Trends and Issues

Work-Home Spillover OB
Spotting Counterproductive or Deviant
scholars are very aware that what
happens to us at home can affect
Workplace Behaviors
our attitudes and behaviors at
work. They also recognize that job
Whereas organizational citizenship behaviors help make the organization
satisfaction can spill over to influa better and more pleasant place, counterproductive or deviant behaviors do just
ence at-home affect, basically
the opposite. To varying degrees of severity, they harm the work, the people, and
how we feel at home as reprethe organizational culture. Here are some things to look for:
sented by emotions and moods.
Personal aggressionsexual harassment, verbal abuse, physical abuse, intimiResearch finds that people with
dation, humiliation
higher daily job satisfaction show

Production deviancewasting resources, avoiding work, disrupting work flow,

more positive affect after work.60
making deliberate work errors
In a study that measured spouse
Political deviancespreading harmful rumors, gossiping, using bad language,
or significant-other evaluations,
lacking civility in relationships
more positive at-home affect

Property deviancedestroying or sabotaging facilities and equipment, stealing

scores were reported on days
money and other resources
when workers experienced higher
61
job satisfaction. This issue of the
job satisfaction and at-home
affect link is proving especially significant as workers in todays high-tech and At-home affect is how we
feel at home as reflected by
always-connected world struggle with worklife balance.
our emotions and moods.

Linking Job Satisfaction and Job Performance

We might say that people make two key decisions about their employment and organizational membershipsthe decision to belong and the decision to perform. But, we also
know that not everyone who belongs to an organizationwhether its a classroom or
workplace or sports team or voluntary groupperforms up to expectations. So, just how
does the relationship between job satisfaction and performance enter into this puzzle?62
Three different positions have been advanced about causality in the satisfaction
performance relationship. The first is that job satisfaction causes performance; in other
words, a happy worker is a productive worker. The second is that performance causes
job satisfaction. The third is that job satisfaction and performance influence one
another, and they are mutually affected by other factors such as the availability of
rewards. Perhaps you can make a case for one or more of these positions based on
your work experiences.

Satisfaction Causes Performance If job satisfaction causes high levels of performance, the message is clear. To increase someones work performance, make them
happy. But, research hasnt found a simple and direct link between individual job satisfaction at one point in time and later work performance. A sign once posted in a tavern near
one of Fords Michigan plants helps tell the story: I spend 40 hours a week here. Am I
supposed to work, too? Even though some evidence exists for the satisfactioncauses-performance relationship among professional or higher-level employees, the best
conclusion is that job satisfaction alone is not a consistent predictor of individual work
performance.

Performance Causes Satisfaction If high levels of performance cause job

satisfaction, the message is quite different. Instead of focusing on job satisfaction as the
precursor to performance, try to create high performance as a pathway to job satisfaction. It generally makes sense that people should feel good about their jobs when they

Study Guide
Perceived
Equity
of Rewards

Performance

Valued
Rewards

Valued Rewards

= Intervening variable

Satisfaction

Perceived
= Moderating variable
Equity
of Rewards

FIGURE 4.5 Simplied Porter-Lawler model of the performance satisfaction relationship.

allocated in the right ways will positively influence both performance and satisfaction.
A key issue here is performance contingency in the allocation of rewards. This means
that the size of the reward varies in proportion to the level of performance.
Research generally finds that rewards in general influence satisfaction, while
performance-contingent rewards influence performance.64 The prevailing advice is to
make good use of performance contingency when giving out rewards. A high performer
receiving a large reward is likely to strive for more of the same in the future. And although
giving a low performer a small reward may lead to dissatisfaction at first, the expectation
is that he or she will make efforts to improve performance in order to obtain higher
rewards in the future.65

Study Guide

Key Questions and Answers

What are emotions and moods?

Affect is a generic term that covers a broad range of feelings that individuals experience
as emotions and moods.

Emotions are strong feelings directed at someone or something and that influence
behavior, often with intensity and for short periods of time.
Moods are generalized positive or negative states of mind that can be persistent influences on ones behavior.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to detect and manage emotional cues and information. Four emotional intelligence skills or competencies are self-awareness, selfmanagement, social awareness, and relationship management.

How do emotions and moods influence behavior in organizations?

Emotional contagion involves the spillover effects onto others of ones emotions and
moods; in other words, emotions and moods can spread from person to person.

Emotional labor is a situation in which a person displays organizationally desired emotions while performing a job.

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Emotional dissonance is a

discrepancy between true feelings and organizationally

desired emotions; it is linked with deep acting to try to modify true inner feelings and
with surface acting to hide ones true inner feelings.
Affective events theory relates characteristics of the work environment, work events,
and personal predispositions to positive or negative emotional reactions and job
satisfaction.

What are attitudes, and how do they influence behavior

in organizations?

An attitude is a predisposition to respond in a certain way to people and things.

Attitudes have affective, cognitive, and behavioral components.
Although attitudes predispose individuals toward certain behaviors, they do not guarantee that such behaviors will take place.

Individuals desire consistency between their attitudes and their behaviors, and cognitive dissonance occurs when a persons attitude and behavior are inconsistent.
Job satisfaction is an attitude toward ones job, co-workers, and workplace.
Job involvement is a positive attitude that shows up in the extent to which an individual
is dedicated to a job.
Organizational commitment is a positive attitude that shows up in the loyalty of an
individual to the organization.

What is job satisfaction, and why is it important?

Five components of job satisfaction are the work itself, quality of supervision, relationships with co-workers, promotion opportunities, and pay.
Job satisfaction influences physical withdrawal behaviors of absenteeism; turnover;
and psychological withdrawal behaviors such as daydreaming and cyber-loafing.
Job satisfaction is linked with organizational citizenship behaviors that are both interpersonalsuch as doing extra work for a sick teammateand organizationalsuch as
always speaking positively about the organization.
A lack of job satisfaction may be reflected in counterproductive work behaviors such as
purposely performing poorly, avoiding work, acting violently at work, or even engaging
in workplace theft.
Three possibilities in the job satisfaction and performance relationship are that satisfaction causes performance, performance causes satisfaction, and rewards cause both
performance and satisfaction.

Terms to Know
Affect (p. 76)
At-home affect (p. 91)
Attitude (p. 83)
Cognitive dissonance
(p. 84)
Cognitive empathy (p. 81)
Counterproductive work
behaviors (p. 90)
Display rules (p. 81)
Emotion and mood contagion
(p. 79)
Emotional dissonance (p. 81)

Emotional intelligence (p. 76)

Emotional empathy (p. 81)
Emotional labor (p. 80)
Emotions (p. 76)
Employee engagement (p. 86)
Job involvement (p. 85)
Job satisfaction (p. 84)
Moods (p. 78)
Organizational citizenship
behaviors (p. 89)
Organizational commitment
(p. 85)

Organizational identification
(p. 86)
Relationship management
(p. 77)
Self-awareness (p. 77)
Self-conscious emotions
(p. 77)
Self-management (p. 77)
Social awareness (p. 77)
Social emotions (p. 77)
Workplace bullying (p. 90)

Self-Test 4

Self-Test 4
Multiple Choice
1. A/an ____________ is a rather intense but short-lived feeling about a person or a
situation, whereas a/an ____________ is a more generalized positive or negative
state of mind.
(a) stressor, satisfier
(b) affect, attitude
(c) spillover, moderator
(d) emotion, mood
2. When someone is feeling anger about something a co-worker did, she is experiencing
a/an ____________, but when just having a bad day overall she is experiencing
a/an ____________.
(a) mood, emotion
(b) emotion, mood
(c) affect, effect
(d) dissonance, consonance
3. Emotions and moods as personal affects are known to influence ____________.
(a) attitudes
(b) ability
(c) aptitude
(d) intelligence
4. If a person shows empathy and understanding of the emotions of others and uses
this to better relate to them, she is displaying the emotional intelligence competency
of ____________.
(a) self-awareness
(b) emotional contagion
(c) relationship management
(d) social awareness
5. The ____________ component of an attitude indicates a persons belief about something, whereas the ____________ component indicates positive or negative feeling
about it.
(a) cognitive, affective
(b) emotional, affective
(c) cognitive, mood
(d) behavioral, mood
6. ____________ describes the discomfort someone feels when his or her behavior is
inconsistent with an expressed attitude.
(a) Alienation
(b) Cognitive dissonance
(c) Job dissatisfaction
(d) Personjob imbalance

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7. Affective events theory shows how ones emotional reactions to work events, environment, and personal predispositions can influence ____________.
(a) job satisfaction and performance
(b) emotional labor
(c) emotional intelligence
(d) emotional contagion
8. The tendency of people at work to display feelings consistent with the moods of their
co-workers and bosses is known as ____________.
(a) emotional dissonance
(b) emotional labor
(c) mood contagion
(d) mood stability
9. When an airline flight attendant displays organizationally desired emotions when
interacting with passengers, this is an example of ____________.
(a) emotional labor
(b) emotional contagion
(c) job commitment
(d) negative affect
10. A person who always volunteers for extra work or helps someone else with their
work is said to be high in ____________.
(a) emotional labor
(b) affect
(c) emotional intelligence
(d) organizational commitment
11. The main difference between job involvement and ____________ is that the former
shows a positive attitude toward the job and the latter shows a positive attitude
toward the organization.
(a) organizational commitment
(b) employee engagement
(c) job satisfaction
(d) cognitive dissonance
12. Job satisfaction is known to be a good predictor of ____________.
(a) deep acting
(b) emotional intelligence
(c) cognitive dissonance
(d) absenteeism
13. The best conclusion about job satisfaction in todays workforce is probably that
____________.
(a) it isnt an important issue
(b) the only real concern is pay
(c) most people are not satisfied with their jobs most of the time
(d) trends show declining job satisfaction