Emotions are the overt reactions that express feelings about events. In an organization, emotions were traditionally seen as irrational which should be avoided to maximise overall performances. However, recent studies have shown that with the right trigger, interpretation and use, emotions can be a mechanism to improve job performances. In this essay, I am going to discuss the causes of emotions in the work place by using the affective events theory, the effects of it for the organization and factors that determine the extent to which performances are affected by emotions.
The affective events theory is a model that describes the relationship between employees' internal influences e.g. emotions and the reactions to performances and satisfactions. The triggers of emotions includes work environment, characteristics of jobs and requirement of emotional labour. These factors cause the different work events to happen, together with the dispositions, their levels of emotional intelligence and regulations, different emotional reactions arise which lead to worker's job satisfactions and performances.
If the work environment is pleasant for example the atmosphere between the coworkers, managers are supportive and joyful. The work events are likely to be daily uplifts. One example is that if workers often need to team up with another for projects, good relationships will lead to a more cooperative and less stressful experience. This causes positive emotion to arise, increasing job satisfactions.
Characteristics of the job also a factor that causes emotions. If the job nature is very inflexible, requires long hours of repetitive tasks, everyday work is likely to be a daily hassle. For example a textile factory worker who sits in front of a machine from 8 a.m to 8 p.m everyday is likely to find it hard to avoid negative emotions. This reduces job satisfactions and might lead to decrease in