How Business Affects Emotions - Research Paper Example

How Business Affects Emotions The impact of emotions in the business setting is an area that have been under researched in the sense that, people in the business world have found little meaning in significance of emotions in decision making by managers. For that reason, it is vital to understand that consumers, as well as, service providers have different reactions to different situations. However, it has been established that all persons who are involved in the business transactions leave their emotions out forgetting that they play a vital role in creating good business relationships. According to research conducted by Winkelman & Berridge (2004), it was argued that emotions in case they are genuinely unconscious might end up driving reactions and behaviors. In this essay, I will look at a research conducted to establish the role of emotions in organizations and other business relationships. Emotions in the business context are defined as situational emotions that refer emotions that are linked to a particular situation and context. Therefore, an emotional process is triggered by an important event or change, which is later appraised although the significance to that particular individual is interpreted. “The involvement and influence of emotions in problematic business relationships” (Tähtinen & Blois, 2011) is an article that that discusses about emotions as mediators in business-to-business relationships. The issue of emotions and business has been studied to establish how they affect each other. Therefore, the study was conducted in order to fill the gap first by establishing the significance of emotions in business relationships that are troubled. Secondly, in order to establish how emotions are a major component in establishing the outcomes of the business relationships that are troubled. Consequently, in order to achieve the objectives of the study interview data was analyzed in the form of narratives at the same time describing problematic relationships in order to acknowledge and establish the types of emotions experienced by participants, as well as, their role in business relationships. The research indicated that managers in some cases might feel emotional while conducting business with each other such emotions influence the way they behave, and their behavior towards other people in the relationship. The research uses empirical study from Finnish suppliers and customer narrative of problematic relationships with their partner in Finland and other parts of the country. Therefore, the research looked at both the service providers and the customers. However, the data provided in the research was not dyadic in nature (Tähtinen & Blois, 2011). The research was further based on the notion that bad is stronger than good; hence, focusing on problematic relationships caused by emotions. For example, negative events in a business transaction are likely to trigger stronger emotions than positive ones because of conflict, which is in most cases termed as the triggering event. Consequently, understanding this troubled relationship play a vital role in benefiting business relationship. Therefore, troubled relationship can be expected to generate stronger emotions and for that reason, their influence is easily detected; thus, helping in the development of the case study. Emotions are held not only to be features of the individual managers but they also act as the features of a business relationship. Yet, to understand the business relationship in form of a social phenomenon or as an interaction or a micro level analysis interaction is required. This is because interaction can be said to be a substantive process that affects, and is in turn influences all participants of business transactions. It has further being argued that the business actors or the interpersonal links made between individual through their interaction is the basis for understanding business relationships as a social phenomenon. The business actor layer bares elements that are relational to the infrastructure of the business, and they determine whether the business grows or diminishes and they include trust, attraction and commitment. Additionally, apart from managers they are key players in the organization such as employees or the micro level that influences the emotions of the upper level management. Therefore, the company level, network level and relationship level matter a lot in determining emotions in the organization. This is because the forces at the organizational and institutional levels influence the manner in which the managers behave although they do not determine such emotions. It has further been established that emotional experience comprises of three basic components that include cognitive, physiological, behavioral, and communicative. The physiological element refers to the physical expression of emotions such as the hands of an individual sweating because they are nervous. Secondly, the cognitive element refers to the assessment of the situation against the goals and expectation of the individual. Where in case the goals and objectives are acquired they express positive emotions, but when the goals are not fulfilled they get negative emotions (Tähtinen & Blois, 2011). Lastly, the behavioral and communicative component relates to how emotions are expressed in non-verbal and verbal behavior, as well as, un-intentional and intentional behavior. Apart from focusing on the subjective emotions, it is vital to understand that emotions communicate implications to those other actors who play a part in the chain of management. This is because the business actors form part of the culture. Additionally, through emotional communication, the emotions help individuals understand each other’s intentions and emotions while at the same time evoking reciprocal and contemporary emotions in other people. Therefore, in business relationship it is the emotions of the individual actors and the boundary spanners involved in the relationship that make them see, feel, hear and read emotions that are of interest to them. The empirical data indicates that individual managers without being pushed into responses describe emotions that they experience in business-to-business relationships. The data further confirmed that both negative and positive socio-moral/ social and basic emotions are produced in and by the interaction happening within relationships. Additionally, emotions have a role in the development of the relationship (Tähtinen & Blois, 2011). This is because important business events develop emotive reactions by managers making the emotions to be remembered and relived although while talking about the events. In conclusion, the relevance of studying emotions in business transactions has been established in the research study as it helps the individual actors and other players in the business transaction to understand how to handle their emotions to get better results. Therefore, understanding emotions help the organization in understanding and interpreting the events and actions that lead and follow the emotions. The research further indicated that the positive emotions occurred during the onset of the non-problematic establishment stages in business relationships or after an interview session. Therefore, with that conclusion, it is clear that negative emotions can be established at which time they will occur in the business relationship. This is important because the individual actors and other micro- level management can know how to handle the situation. Reference Tähtinen, J., & Blois, K. (2011). The involvement and influence of emotions in problematic business relationships. Industrial Marketing Management, 40(6), 907-918. doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2011.06.030 Read More