Emotions in the Workplace: Detrimental or Instrumental

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Answer & experience.

Having worked in the customer service industry for most of my career, I can attest to the fact that co-workers and management cause more negative emotions than customers. In fact, this was one of the major contributing factors that led to my resignation from my last employer. I found the majority of my interactions with my customers to be quite enjoyable, yet those with my manager and co-workers were often strained due to the negative emotional environment. Most of my co-workers vehemently expressed negative emotions and participated in deviant behaviors, while my manager seemed to rarely express any emotion at all. In fact I can’t recall a time when a specific emotion was used as part of his management style, but I suppose apathy was his way of managing our emotions. With my situation as with Laura’s, emotional intelligence may have been the component needed to initiate a change. The implantation of effective emotion regulation techniques like constructive venting and simply acknowledging emotions can help to create a positive emotional climate. Managers can provide positive feedback. Employees and co-workers can exercise due diligence in making sure that the emotions of others are not ignored. Collectively both manager and employees can do their part to change things.

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Conclusion.

It’s impossible to separate people from their emotions and therefore, impossible to separate emotions from the workplace. Acknowledging the inevitable presence emotions and using emotional intelligence to perceive, understand and regulate those emotions can put managers and employees of any organization in a position to create and manage a positive work environment that isn’t void of the emotional elements that can make them stronger and more successful. According to Robbins & Judge (2015), despite all the promise offered by emotion regulation techniques, the best route to a positive workplace begins with the recruiting of positive-minded individuals and training leaders to manage their moods, job attitudes, and performance. Emotions, whether perceived detrimental or instrumental, are without a doubt a part of the work environment and certainly deserve attention as we continue to study elements of organizational behavior.

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References

Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2015). Organizational behavior (16th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

Muchinsky, P. M. (2000). Emotions in the workplace: The neglect of organizational behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior,21(7), 801-805. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/224880441?accountid=3783