Emotions as an Environment-Behavior Interface - Essay Example

Management Emotions refer to the experiences which a person undergoes. It is linked with disposition, mood or personality of a person. Emotions in the workplace play a very significant role in the study of organizational behaviours. It is therefore very important to understand emotion in places of work because it influences the way an organization communicates with the external bodies and also among its departments. Emotions can either improve or reduce the performance of the employees depending on its nature. It is therefore necessary to understand emotions of the employees in their places of work so that it can be used as motivational factors. Managers should understand how emotions can work effectively so as to achieve organizational goals and improve the behavior of the organization. Emotion can affect or influence the behavior of employees in the organization in various ways (Riggio 2010, pp. 96-98). Emotions as an environment- behavior interface The major difference between the environmental input and behavioral output depends on the emotions of the employees. This shows that emotion has a strong connection with the motivational factors in an organization. In other words emotions should be managed well for an organization to achieve its objectives at the correct time frame. Emotions also facilitate easy interaction between the employees and the work environment (Gardner 2008, pp. 369). Employees’ flexibility depends heavily on their positive emotions though sometime negative emotions can work as well. Emotions act as stimuli which motivates the workers in any organization to do their work effectively, in some cases this emotional responses are not released immediately, giving more time for alternative responses to be considered. This means that in a situation of urgency, preprogrammed responses are relied on as opposed to those in a less critical situation. In such a situation where there is no agency, it allows for more evaluation and can also consider other thoughtful choices to improve the behaviours. The main advantage of this is that other feelings of the other members can be included in the system (Clore 2008, 189). Emotions and other related responses are never constant. It however depends on the intensity of the emotions. It is also believed that the time taken between triggering stimulus and the expected responses might take time giving room for participation of cognitive and social processes when responding to emotions. This influences the potential effectiveness and also behavioral reactions (Gardner 2008, pp. 369). Behavior in an organization is produced by the emotions, though this behavior might be reliable and rapid or more variable due to delay. For an organizational behavior to be reliable then the emotions should be intense. Less intense emotions might lead to a delayed behavior. This is an effective principle and it is very essential in analyzing how cognitive and organizational process influences the behavior of an organization. Cognitive processes are very useful because it is a way of relating or increasing the emotional responses. When an employee operates below a cognitive load, then emotional response may not be effective. The mortification and adjustment of emotions and the way to respond to behaviors by an organization is very essential though there is a danger of being ignored due to social communication concerning emotions, this is commonly understood. The modification and adjustment of emotions in response to a likely threatening situation in any organization is very important for the employees to understand. It very tricky to handle these emotions because they cannot be recognized easily, in other cases they are automatic and this can cause problems in an organization processes. Emotional response is volatile and is greatly affected by a reaction such as panic or fear of leaders. The leaders in an organization should be friendly with the employees so that they can develop a positive emotion which will improve the performances in the organization. According to Robbins, (2010) employees’ fear their bosses and they tend to be at ease whenever there are with them, this causes negative emotions which may not be good for them to work efficiently (Robbins 2010, 45-57). Emotional Behavior Linkages Most theories have appreciated the close connection between emotions and an organizational behavior. Emotions such as fear, anger, love or pity may cause a specific event in an organization making the employees in the organization to adopt certain behaviors. It is essential for the relevant authority or the management of an organization to analyze these emotions and appraise it so that the right behavior could be obtained and maintained. Effective linkage of emotions and behaviors may also depend on the nature of emotions. For example, positive emotions may improve the variable responses as compared with negative emotions. It is very important for any organization to analyze the emotions of its employees because negative emotions are often associated with particular behaviors. This is because they do not require any guidance and they occur vigorously to an extent that much processing may fail to occur (Robbins 2010, 45-57). This is the reason why it is necessary to control the experience of negative emotions when regulating the behavior of an organization. In contrast, positive emotions are very useful because they increase the reasoning capacity of the employees in an organization. In addition to this, they enable the building of cognitive, physical and social resources. Employees are very productive when they have positive emotions such as happiness, for instance joy in a work place promotes play, which is essential in developing physical, social, and intellectual skills. Besides, happiness expands the personality and worldview and facilitates the support of incorporating; which can lead to other positive emotions and solidifies employee and social resources (Gardner 2008, pp. 369). Positive emotions are very vital because they necessitate various processes in an organization. Such processes include shaping of knowledge, inventiveness, efficient social associations, organizational obligations, collective orientations and social behavior. Positive emotions can also act as a remedy for destructive physiological and other related effects of negative emotions. A research done by Riggio, (2010) shows that happier employees are more productive and capable of inventing new ideas for solving a problem. This means that positive emotions set the right environment for employees to think and apply any positive solutions to any challenging situations, these employees have also been found to be motivated by their achievement (Riggio 2010, pp. 96-98). Emotions and motivations Emotion plays a very important part in motivation. Employees might differ in their emotional tendencies but on the other hand they can interact with various events in the organization which will help them in modifying an individual’s objectives and his or her aggressiveness while going for a certain goal (Clore 2008, 189). The emotional process is very important for an individual or an employee who is working in an organization in looking forward to accomplishing the organizational goal or for personal achievement. Organizations can also use its employees’ differences in emotions to carry out selection for promotion or to carry out training programmes in different fields. They can also use those differences in predicting the training out come and performance in highly demanding jobs. Lastly, motivation and emotion is very vital in a context of training employees so as to adopt new skills. They are also important because its acts as a guide to employees when handling issues of a work-family and how to balance them. Emotions and Social Processes The major similarity between emotion-evoking stimuli and emotion response is that they are quick, continually producing effects before the processing take place. This facilitates emotions to be a guide when people from different personalities are interacting. This indicates that a person’s feeling could be revealed through his voice tone and the body posture. The posture of our bodies can tell how we feel towards others, do we like them or do we dislike them. Emotions and Information Processing Emotions can be a state of the body at a given time, state of the mind and can also contribute to a central system which processes the information. Many researchers have discovered that the mood of a person and his emotions determine the style of information being processed. Strong emotions can interfere with cognitive process and can also be too much and above all it can be too comprehensive for action. On the other hand, moods have a great distinction on the information being processed. Evolution and Emotions It is important to understand emotions because it helps to know how evolution has influenced the human behavior. The interface of emotional systems and behavioral normally underlies many other human behaviors and acquiring the evolutionary viewpoint which assists in conveying such relations into focus (Gardner 2008, pp. 369). Evolutionary perspective helps in appreciating the possibility of working as a team and leading the social processes which is crucial in the evolution of human being. As a result, emotions have a close connection with social capacities, enabling nonverbal means to pass information through body signs, voice tone and facial expressions. This is very important for leaders though many organizations do not pay much attention to such issues. Effective leaders should be able to communicate through such means so that they can handle all categories of people regardless of the inabilities they might be facing. Organizations which have such leaders can be positioned well by the clients and the society at large. Furthermore, organization would be portrayed as an organization with a positive behavior (Robbins 2010, 45-57). In conclusion, emotions can improve the functioning of the organization in various ways as discussed in the above, it is therefore necessary for an organization to understand the emotions of its employees. This will help greatly in handling the staff so that they would improve their performances. Bibliography Clore, G. L. 2008. Why emotions require cognition. The nature of emotion New York: Oxford University Press pp. 181–191. Elaine, B. 2008.The 2010 Pfeiffer Annual Training. John Wiley and Sons (46) pp86-90 Gardner, W. L. 2008. Perceptions of leader charisma and effectiveness. Macmillan publishers 10, 345–373. Khurana, N. N. R. 2010. Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice. Harvard Business Press (2) pp.145-150. Riggio, E. R. 2010. Introduction to industrial/organizational psychology. Prentice Hall, (6) pp. 95-98. Robbins, T. A. 2010. Organizational Behavior. Prentice Hall (4) pp. 45-47. Read More