Taking the temperature of your Workplace (original) (raw)

The present paper presents a critical and analytical discussion on emotional intelligence in the workplace. The paper chronicles major scholastic attempts that have propagated academic consciousness on the study and intricacies of emotions at the workplace. It identifies emotional intelligence as central to workplace harmony and proposes emotional capital theorising to develop both individual and organisational emotional assets. The paper views workplace emotions as occurring in the abstract or in the soul state of man therefore, requiring dominantly life occurring data for its research. Thus, the ideographic research methodology deriving its justification from subjectivism as a suitable research philosophical assumption is deemed appropriate for inquiry into the universe of human emotions. The paper also contends that the foregoing being dominant may be supported by primed nomothetic research instrument to produce data triangulation for evidences that may be closer to the truth.

The study of emotions in the workplace is a vibrant area of research that has grown considerably over the last 25 years. This research has traveled far, but it has not run its course. This article maps the different paths that have been explored, beginning with Hochschild's classic work on emotional labor in the form of surface and deep acting, and charts new directions for future research. We start by reviewing the literature on emotional labor and emotion management in the workplace. Next, we discuss new theoretical developments in the sociology of emotions – interaction ritual chain theory, theories of identity and affect control, and theories about power, status, and exchange – and their potential utility for understanding emotions at work. Finally, we discuss new methodological directions that can be pursued in future research on emotions in work and organizational settings.

Emotions in workplaces are hot topics in management today. Leading business journals such as Fortune and Harvard Business Review have featured articles on emotional intelligence. But there is more to emotions in the workplace than just emotional intelligence. The aim of this journal is to acquaint managers with intriguing new research that examines both emotional intelligence and the broader issue of emotion, which has been shown to play a powerful role in workplace settings. Trying to show that this research has a strong potential for practical application in organizations within many broad human-resource functions such as selection, performance management, and training, as well as implications for more narrow domains like customer service. Although the experience of work is saturated with emotion, research has generally neglected the impact of everyday emotions on organizational life. Further, organizational scholars and practitioners frequently appear to assume that emotionality is the antithesis of rationality and frequently hold a pejorative view of emotion. This has led to four institutionalized mechanisms for regulating the experience and expression of emotion in the workplace: (1) neutralizing, (2) buffering, (3) prescribing, and (4) normalizing emotion. In contrast to this perspective, we argue that emotionality and rationality are interpenetrated, emotions are an integral and inseparable part of organizational life, and emotions are often functional for the organization. This argument is illustrated by applications to motivation, leadership, and group dynamics.

While the expression of emotions at work is generally frowned on, the literature on emotional labour reveals widespread expectations of the display of 'appropriate' emotions and the suppression of 'inappropriate' emotional displays. This article identifies the wide-ranging factors that determine how acceptable emotional expression is at work at multiple levels – societal, industry, professional, organisational, group, gender and individual – and presents a set of propositions that can be empirically tested.

Summary Research into the role that emotions play in organizational settings has only recently been revived, following publication in 1983 of Hochschild's The Managed Heart. Since then, and especially over the last five years, the tempo of research in this field has stepped up, with various initiatives such as conferences and e-mail discussion lists playing significant roles. This Special Issue is another initiative in this genre.

Abstract Emotions in workplace settings and emotional intelligence are hot topics in management today. Leading business journals such as Fortune and Harvard Business Review have featured articles on emotional intelligence. But there is more to emotions in the workplace than just emotional intelligence. The aim of this article is to acquaint managers with intriguing new research that examines both emotional intelligence and the broader issue of emotion, which has been shown to play a powerful role in workplace settings.