Emotions in the Workplace

Abstract

Beginning in the 1990s and following decades of neglect, what came to be referred to as the Affective Revolution has radically transformed our understanding of the role played by emotion in organizational psychology and organizational behavior (OPOB). In this article, we review the field of emotion in the workplace from different perspectives, corresponding to five discrete levels of analysis: (a) within-person temporal effects, (b) between-person (personality and attitudes) factors, (c) interpersonal behaviors (perception and communication of emotion), (d) group level (leadership and teams), and (e) organizational level (culture and climate). Within these perspectives, we address the importance of affective events theory (AET) and its interaction with emotional intelligence, emotional labor, and emotional contagion, as well as the role of emotion in leadership and organizational culture and climate. We conclude by presenting an integrative model that shows how the five levels are linked, followed by discussion of measurement issues, ideas and areas for future research, and suggestions for practice.