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Emotions and Moods

4-1 What is the difference between emotion and moods? What are the basic emotions and
moods?
Ans. Emotions- are the intense feelings directed at someone or something. According to experts
emotions are more fleeting than moods.
2. Emotions are reactions to a person or an event.
3. Usually accompanied by distinct facial expressions
4. Emotions are specific and numerous in nature.
5. Action oriented in nature.
1. Moods- are less intense feelings than emotions and often arise without a specific event
acting as stimulus.
2. Moods in contrast, arent usually directed at a person or an event.
3. Generally not indicated by distinct expressions.
4. Moods are more general
5. Cognitive in nature
The basic emotions are:
Anger, contempt, enthusiasm, envy, fear, frustration,
disappointment,
embarrassment, disgust, happiness, hate, hope, jealousy, joy, love, pride,
surprise, and sadness.
The basic moods has been classified in to two sub categories, positive moods, negative
moods.
Positive moods- joy or gratitude
Negative moods-anger or guilt.
4-2 Are emotions rational? What functions do they serve?
Ans. According to me emotions are bound to be irrational.
Expressing emotions publicly may cause a damage to social status. Decision making becomes
critically rational when it comes to emotions. Emotion helps us in understanding the world
around us.
Functions that are served by emotions are as follows:
It helps in solving survival problems according to Darwin;s argument.
Evolutionary psychology: people must experience emotions as there is a purpose behind
them (this information is cited from pearson publication)
All researchers and scientist doesnt agree with the above stated points.
4-3 What are the sources of emotions and moods?
Ans. Personality is one of the sources from where emotions and moods are generated. Moods
and emotions have a trait component: most people have built in tendencies to experience certain
moods an emotions more frequently than others do. People also experience the same emotions
with different intensities.
For example if one is easily moved to anger then other at the same reacts differently to
the same situation, distant and unemotional. Affectively intense people experience both positive
and negative emotions more deeply.
Other sources of Moods and emotions are weather, stress, social activities, sleep.

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4-4 What impact does emotional labor have on employees?

Ans. Implications of emotional labor on employees :
When you engage in emotional labor, you control your feelings to fulfill the goals and
expectations of your organization. From a practical standpoint, this means that you either :
(a) Express only your positive feelings, or
(b) Hide or manage your negative feelings. To deal with negative emotions, people tend to do
one of the following:

Show emotion they don't really feel.

Hide emotion they really do feel.
Create an appropriate emotion for the situation.

You can do this using two emotional labor techniques:

Surface acting You fake, or pretend to have, an emotion by using unnatural and
artificial body language and verbal communication. Smiling and using a soft tone of
voice help you show emotion that you don't feel, or hide emotion that you do feel.
Deep acting You control your internal emotions, directing them to believe that you
actually are happy, and enjoying the interaction with the other person. Rather than feel
like you're pretending, you convince yourself you're not experiencing a negative
reaction.

When you continually need to show only those emotions that are appropriate for the job, despite
how you really feel, this can often lead to emotional conflict between your real emotions and
those you show to others.
4-5 What are affective events theory? What are its applications?
Ans. Understanding emotions at work has been helped by a model called affective events
theory (AET).
o Employees react emotionally to things that happen to them at work and this influences
job performance and satisfaction.
o Work events trigger positive or negative emotional reactions.
o Events-reaction relationship is moderated by the employees personality and mood.
o Because moods and emotions fluctuate over time, their effect on performance also
fluctuates.
o Emotion-driven behaviors are typically short in duration and of high variability.
o Because emotions, even positive ones, tend to be incompatible with behaviors required
to do a job, they typically have a negative influence on job performance.
o AET offers two important messages:
First, emotions provide valuable insights into how workplace hassles and uplifting events
influence employee performance and satisfaction.
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Second, employees and managers shouldnt ignore emotions or the events that cause them,
even when they appear minor, because they accumulate.
Implications:
An emotional episode is actually the result of a series of emotional experiences triggered
by a single event
Current and past emotions affect job satisfaction
Emotional fluctuations over time create variations in job performance
Emotion-driven behaviors are typically brief and variable
Both negative and positive emotions can distract workers and reduce job performance
Emotions provide valuable insights about behavior
Emotions, and the minor events that cause them, should not be ignored at work: they
accumulate

4-6 What is the evidence for and against the existence of emotional intelligence?
Ans. Emotional intelligence (EI) is a persons ability to:
a. Perceive emotions in the self and others.
b. Understand the meaning of these emotions.
c. Regulate ones emotions accordingly in a cascading model
Several studies suggest EI may play an important role in job performance.
EI has been a controversial concept in OB, with supporters and detractors.
Evidence for EI :

Intuitive appeal :
Intuition suggests people who can detect emotions in others, control their own emotions,
and handle social interactions well have a powerful leg up in the business world.

EI predicts criteria that matter :

Evidence suggests a high level of EI means a person will perform well on the job. One
study found EI predicted the performance of employees in a cigarette factory in China.

EI is biologically based :
In one study, people with damage to the brain area that governs emotional processing
(part of the prefrontal cortex) scored no lower on standard measures of intelligence than
people without similar damage.
Evidence Against EI :

EI researchers do not agree on definitions.

To many researchers, its not clear what EI is.

EI cant be measured :
Many critics have raised questions about measuring EI.
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The measures of EI are diverse, and researchers have not subjected them to as much
rigorous study as they have measures of personality and general intelligence.

EI is nothing but personality with a different label :

Some critics argue that because EI is so closely related to intelligence and personality,
once you control for these factors, it has nothing unique to offer. There is some
foundation to this argument.
EI appears to be highly correlated with measures of personality, especially emotional
stability.

4-7 What are some strategies for emotion regulations and their likely effects?
Ans. Emotion regulation involves identifying and modifying the emotions you feel.

Effective emotion regulation techniques include:

Acknowledging rather than suppressing emotional responses to situations.
Re-evaluating events after they occur.
Venting.
Changing your emotions takes effort, and this effort can be exhausting.

Effects of Emotion Regulations :

Selection
EI should be a hiring factor, especially for social jobs.

Decision Making
Positive emotions can lead to better decisions.

Creativity
Positive mood increases flexibility, openness, and creativity.

Motivation
Positive mood affects expectations of success.
Feedback amplifies this effect.

Leadership
Emotions are important to acceptance of messages from organizational leaders.

Negotiation
Emotions can affect negotiations.

Customer Service
Emotions influence customer service.
This influences repeat business and customer satisfaction.
Emotional contagion = catching emotions

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Job Attitudes
A good day at work tends to be followed by a good mood at home and vice versa.
This usually dissipates overnight.
Deviant Workplace Behaviors
Negative emotions lead to workplace deviant behaviors.
Actions that violate norms and threaten the organization.
Safety and Injury at Work
Dont do dangerous work when in a bad mood.

4-8 How do you apply concepts about emotions and moods to specific OB issues?
Ans. OB Applications of emotions and moods :

Selection Employers should consider EI a factor in hiring for jobs that demand a
high degree of social interaction
Decision Making Positive emotions can increase problem-solving skills and help
us understand and analyze new information
Creativity Positive moods and feedback may increase creativity
Motivation Promoting positive moods may give a more motivated workforce
Leadership Emotions help convey messages more effectively
Negotiation Emotions may impair negotiator performance
Customer Service Customers catch emotions from employees, called emotional
contagion
Job Attitudes Emotions at work get carried home but rarely carry over to the next
day
Deviant Workplace Behaviors Those who feel negative emotions are more likely
to engage in deviant behavior at work
Safety and Injury at Work Bad moods can contribute to injury at work in several
ways.
Individuals in negative moods tend to be more anxious, which can make them
less able to cope effectively with hazards.
A person who is always scared will be more pessimistic about the
effectiveness of safety precautions because she feels shell just get hurt
anyway, or she might panic or freeze up when confronted with a threatening
situation.
Negative moods also make people more distractible, and distractions can
obviously lead to careless behaviors.

How Managers Can Influence Moods :

Use humor and praise to increase employees positive moods.
Being in a good mood oneself can result in more positivity and better cooperation.
Selecting positive team members can have a contagion effect.

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