Role of Emotions and Mood and How They Affect Work Behavior of Employees - Coursework Example

Emotions and Moods Student’s Name Institution of Affiliation Emotions and Moods Introduction The focus of this paper is to discuss the role of emotions and mood and how they affect work behavior of employees. Additionally, the paper discusses results of and reflection on self assessments. According to Larcom & Isaacowitz [Lar09], emotions assist in response to challenges and opportunities from the environment, moods are transitory incidents of affect and they can be negative or positive. More often emotion tends to be more intense feelings focused on a person or object but moods are less intense and almost often lacks contextual stimulus. Visibility of emotions occurs when a person is happy about, angry at, or afraid of something or someone. However, moods are not normally directed towards people or events and it is possible that emotions turn into moods when there is no loss of focus on someone or something. Emotions include anger, happiness, fear, sadness, fear, and disgust while moods can be negative or positive. Where emotions are not managed or moods controlled, the personality of a person is affected. Literature review When evaluating mood and emotions, it is essential that one understands the fundamental aspects of concerning moods, emotions and both. The fundamental elements of emotions include biology of emotions, intensity of emotions, duration and frequency, and roles of emotions. The aspects of mood are either negative mood or positive mood. Emotions in the workplace Ralph [Ral06] reveals that the brain is the source of all emotions particularly the limbic system. That is, emotions are pleasant or unpleasant explanation state of mind organized in the limbic system of human brain. When presented with emotions of similar intensity, people tend to respond differently especially depending on their personality[Bre99]. Within work situation, a person is expected to meet emotional demands successfully. However, this is not just possible through determining the emotions that need to be displayed and the intensity of the displayed emotions but also on how long and how often such emotions need to be displayed. In the workplace, emotions are essential in decision making especially given that organizations emphasize on rationality. When employees display negative moods and emotions in the workplace, they are said to make less accurate judgment since they have poor emotional processing and less likely weigh the most likely options. Conversely, positive emotions assist in decision making and problem solving since one can understand and analyze new information. Further, positive mood improves employees’ creativity given that they produce more ideas but only identify and use the most creative ones to solve their problems. Positive motivation within the workplace revolves around providing employees with positive feedback concerning their work. When people are provided with positive feedback, they are highly likely to have their moods reinforced and this contributes to their efficiency and performance at work. Workplace environments also benefit from effective leadership when leaders rely on their emotional appeals to convey their messages and have employees buy into the company’s vision and goals. Further, effective leaders rely on their emotional intelligence to resolve workplace conflicts, negotiate, and positively influence the job attitudes of their employees. Emotional labor Jobs require emotional labor such that during interpersonal transactions, employees express desired emotions. When mood is classified as positive, a person expresses favorable evaluation or feeling[Son05] while negative emotions express unfavorable feelings. Employees must learn how to deal with emotional disparity or emotional dissonance and the causing factors as this heavily tolls their emotional labor. According to Andrew & Daniel [And97], display of emotions during service interactions is dependent on routines of task, role recipient’s power, and autonomy of job. Although emotions are a part of human beings, it is important to understand that emotions have a strong possibility of shaping human decision thereby displaying them as rational or irrational[Mur05]. Emotional intelligence Towards the end of being rational or irrational, humans have to realize that strong emotions conflict with rationality since they tend to drive one to act irrationally and one should always take time to evaluate emotions against rationality. Conversely, when emotions are well managed, people are motivated to engage in activities that are crucial for their survival. According to Phan, Paul, & Tucker [Pha00], knowing ones emotions is crucial in determining their emotional intelligence. The five dimension of emotional intelligence are self awareness, empathy, social skills, self management, and self-motivation. When employees understand their EI, their job performance is positive and they are successful while lack of knowledge on one’s emotional intelligence results to failure. Emotional intelligence in any employee is dependent on one’s ability to detect their emotions and control or manage them. Part B: Results of and reflection on self-assessments  On the measure of emotions test, I scored 29 points which falls within the range of 10-50. With this score it is an indication that my feelings are more to the positive than the negative emotions. The scores only indicate that I was a little distressed on the day of the test. For my workplace, high positive emotions are an indication that my emotional intelligence will be a competent aspect when it comes to high performing employees who have strong and reliable problem solving skills. Additionally, possessing positive emotions means that I am more creative, more satisfied with my job and more willing to help my coworkers. By assisting others, it is evident that I am more likely to take up leadership roles where emotional appeals enable me to convey different messages to different employees as well as putting them in good moods. This test brought me out as an extravert person hence contributing more to people wanting to listen to me. On the affect intensity test, I had a score of 31 points within a range of 10-50 points. This is as high score that indicates i am mostly in positive affect. When combined with positive emotions, the implication is that I am a person of high Emotional intelligence. The implication here is that i am person who clearly has strong self-awareness, self-managed, self-motivated, self-motivation, empathy, and social skills. From the test i strongly disagree that I rarely get emotional or that I am not affected by emotions easily. However, I agree that I posses strong abilities to control my emotions other than focusing to display them irrationally. In term of emotional labor, I fit in well as an employee who can consistently display desired emotions during interpersonal transactions at work. According to Judge and Boyle [Jud], high plosive affect is an implication that I can easily display the emotions expected by the organization and that I can balance felt against displayed emotions regardless of the demands placed on me by my job. On the emotional intelligence my score is 36. This score indicates that, although I demonstrate strong emotions and moods, my personality rarely allows me to demonstrate my irrationality. This is an indication that i am almost aware of most attributes that contribute to my positive or negative modes. This way, I manage to control my emotions and manage my moods. Additionally, strong emotional intelligencer demonstrates that at work I can positively manage organizational influences and cultural influences do not cause emotional dissonance or inconsistencies. As an employee, I understand that at work, I am supposed to express only what the organization demands from me. Through demonstrated strong emotional intelligence, my current and past emotion within or outside work will to affect my performance, satisfaction and quality of outcome. By being self-aware, I understand how I feel and use self motivation to motivate myself while exercising persistence. Emotional intelligence also allows me to be empathetic in that I understand and sense the feelings of others. For any organization, emotionally individuals are great in communication, political skill, organization, vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence. Part C: Answers to the case study questions Laura can best be described as an employee who has low positive and low negative affect or mood[Rob08]. The best mood temperaments that define her are sad, depressed, bored and fatigued for low positive affect while low negative affect is reflected through calm, relaxed, serene and content employee. This affect status is contributed by the fact that the work environment does not promote positive mood. For instance, Laura insists that organizational management has a culture of promoting a cold environment where employees fulfill their duties out of threats and fear. According to Robbins, Judge, Millet, & Waters-Marsh [Rob08] the management understands the condition in the workplace and insists that the employees have to posses strong displayed emotions that reveal the organization as a good place to be. Laura is content with the work environment not because she is happy with her work but because she has to be at work to earn regardless of the environment. Laura could demonstrate self-awareness by recognizing that she is an individual who is separate from the conditions in the work environment and the management around her. Laura can work against the odds of the environment by being aware of her past and future thoughts for the sake of positive performance. Laura has also to be self-motivated such that she can positively persist in the setbacks and failures around her. Empathy should also be used to enable her manage what others are feeling and promote positive emotions in them. Conclusion The discussion in this paper focuses on the role of emotions and moods in the work environment. The paper also reflects on tests on emotions and moods and their impact on me as an individual in the organization. While at work, negative affect and positive affect play crucial roles at work since they define human perceptions. From the case study, it is evident that emotional intelligence plays a crucial role on employees regardless of the environment they work. References Lar09: , (2009), Ral06: , (2006), Bre99: , (Brehm, 1999), Son05: , (Sonja, Laura, & Diener, 2005), And97: , (1997), Mur05: , (Muramatsu & Hanoch, 2005), Pha00: , (2000), Jud: , (2010), Rob08: , (Robbins, Judge, Millet, & Waters-Marsh, 2008), Rob08: , (2008), Read More