Question

Case Incident:

As this chapter has shown, emotions are an inevitable part of people’s behavior at work. At the same time, it’s not entirely clear that we’ve reached a point where people feel comfortable expressing all emotions at work. The reason might be that business culture and etiquette remain poorly suited to handling overt emotional displays. The question is, can organizations become more intelligent about emotional management? Is it ever appropriate to yell, laugh, or cry at work?

Some people are skeptical about the virtues of more emotional displays in the workplace. As the chapter notes, emotions are automatic physiological responses to the environment, and as such, they can be difficult to control appropriately. One 22-year-old customer service representative named Laura, who was the subject of a case study, noted that fear and anger were routinely used as methods to control employees, and employees deeply resented this use of emotions to manipulate them. In another case, the chairman of a major television network made a practice of screaming at employees whenever anything went wrong, leading to badly hurt feelings and a lack of loyalty to the organization. Like Laura, workers at this organization were hesitant to show their true reactions to these emotional outbursts for fear of being branded as “weak” or “ineffectual.” Research indicated that while employees who could regulate their emotions would refrain from acting on their anger, employees who were low in self-regulation and didn’t think the boss would do anything were likely to retaliate.

It might seem like these individuals worked in heavily emotional workplaces, but in fact, only a narrow range of emotions was deemed acceptable. Anger appears to be more acceptable then sadness in many organizations, and anger can have serious maladaptive consequences. Many people find their negative reaction to hearing an angry outburst lasts, making it difficult for them to concentrate at work.

Others believe organizations that recognize and work with emotions effectively are more creative, satisfying, and productive. For example, Laura noted that if she could express her hurt feelings without fear, she would be much more satisfied with her work. In other words, the problem with Laura’s organization is not that emotions are displayed, but that emotional displays are handled poorly. Others note that the use of emotional knowledge, like being able to read and understand the reactions of others, is crucial for workers ranging from salespeople and customer service agents all the way to managers and executives. One survey even found that 88% of workers feel being sensitive to the emotions of others is an asset. Management consultant Erika Anderson notes, “Crying at work is transformative and can open the door to change.” The question then is, “Can organizations take specific steps to become better at allowing emotional displays without opening a Pandora’s box of outbursts?”

Questions

Do you think the strategic use and display of emotions serve to protect employees, or does covering your true emotions at work lead to more problems than it solves?

Have you ever worked where the free expression of emotion was part of the management style? Describe the advantages and disadvantages of this approach from your experience.

Research shows that acts of coworkers (37 percent) and management (22 percent) cause more negative emotions for employees than do acts of customers (7 percent). What can Laura’s company do to change its emotional climate?

Answer 1

Yes I agree with the belief that covering and hiding emotions at work lead to even more problems. As per the human nature, when an individual will be forced to control his emotions, it becomes even difficult to manage them and leads to extreme stress or even become depressing for employees to handle their emotions. Similarly letting emotions out and sharing issues with other people through socialising helps a person to feel better and less burdened and gives him or her the strength to bear all this. Therefore it is very important to provide emotion freedom, assistance and support to employees so that they are able to decrease their stress and concerns by finding that people care about him or her and are ready to listen.

Yes I have worked at the workplace where free expression of emotion was part of management style and emotional expression was not considered against the professional ethics or work culture. The major advantage of such environment is that employees can share their personal life problems with their supervisors who would try to help to solve their problems and convey their requests to top management for holidays, advance payments etc. Moreover freedom of emotional expression helped me to share feelings with others through socialising which made me person feel better at times and helped me cope up with the blues and greys of life with emotional strength.

The major disadvantage of this approach is that my supervisor and co- workers came to know about my emotional vulnerabilities and weaknesses which could act as a hurdle jn my professional growth. It revealed my lack of ability to manage stress and hence affected my ability to get recommendations from mu supervisor for promotions.

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Laura can approach her co -workers and management and communicate to them about the importance of freedom of emotional expression and how depriving employees off their emotions will make them more negative, distracted and demotivated towards their job. Laura can try to incorporate a sensitive approach towards her co workers and superiors so that she gets same emotional assistance from them and helps them understand the importance of opening up emotionally. Laura can suggest and enroll herself in emotional intelligence training program at work place to make employees and top management more emotionally strong and share feelings with others to get solutions and suggestions.

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