CHAPTER 4
Moods, Emotions and Organizational Behavior
Until recently, the protocol of the work world kept a damper on emotions.
Affect: the generic term that covers a broad range of feelings people
experience, including both emotions and moods.
Emotions: intense feelings directed at someone or something.
Moods: less intense feelings than emotions and often (though not always)
arise without a specific event acting as a stimulus.
Most experts believe emotions are more fleeting than moods.
Emotions are reactions to a person or an event. Moods, in contrast, aren’t
usually directed at a person or an event. But emotions can turn into moods
when you lose focus on the event or object that started the feeling. And, by
the same token, good or bad moods can make you more emotional in
response to an event.
Emotions tend to be more clearly revealed by facial expressions. Also, some
emotions may be more action-oriented, while moods may be more cognitive,
meaning they may cause us to think or brood.
Finally, emotions and moods are closely related and can influence each
other.
Affect, emotions, and moods are separable in theory; in practice the
distinction isn’t always crystal-clear.
Many researchers agree on six essentially universal emotions: anger, fear,
sadness, happiness, disgust, and surprise. Some even plot them along a
continuum: happiness-surprise-fear-sadness-anger-disgust. The close
together, the more likely people will confuse them.
One way to classify emotions is by whether they are positive or negative.
Positive emotions express a favorable evaluation or feeling. Negative
emotions express the opposite. 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.
Positive affect: a mood dimension consisting of positive emotions such as
excitement and cheerfulness at the high end, and boredom and tiredness at
the low end.
, Negative affect: a mood dimension consisting of nervousness, stress, and
anxiety at the high end, and relaxation and poise at the low end.
We should expect people to recall negative experiences more readily than
positive ones.
Positivity offset: meaning that at zero input (when nothing in particular is
going on) most individuals experience a mildly positive mood.
We all view negative emotions as dangerous and destructive, and we desire
positive emotions such as love and happiness. However, some cultures value
certain emotions more than others.
Carl Sagan once indicated that when people have powerful emotions they
tend to be less honest with themselves. However, research is increasingly
showing that emotions are actually critical to rational thinking.
We must have the ability to experience emotions to be rational. Why?
Because our emotions provide important information about how we
understand the world around us.
People who are behaving ethically are at least partially making decisions
based on their emotions and feelings, and this emotional reaction will often
be a good thing.
Affect intensity: how strongly you experience your emotions.
Moods and emotions have a trait component: most 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.
People tend to be in their worst moods (highest negative affect and lowest
positive affect) early in the week, and in their best moods (highest positive
affect and lowest negative affect) late in the week.
Levels of positive affect tend to peak around the halfway point between
waking and sleeping. Negative affect, however, shows little fluctuation
throughout the day.
Illusory correlation: occurs when people associate two events that in
reality have no connection.
Weather has little effect on mood.
Stressful daily events at work negatively affect moods.
