Chapter 4

Question 1

Define emotions and describe its characteristics.

(3)

Answer 1

1. Emotions are physiological, behavioral, and psychological episodes experienced towards something that creates a state of readiness.
2. Have an associated valence (core affect) signaling whether the perceived object/event is positive or negative.
   * Negative emotions tend to generate stronger levels of activation than positive emotions
3. Emotions also have a level of activation (extent they put us into a state of readiness)

Question 2

Define attitudes and describe its characteristics.

(4)

Answer 2

1. Attitudes are our judgements based on the cluster of beliefs, assessed feelings and behavioral intentions toward a person/object/event (i.e the attitude object)
2. Attitudes tend to be more stable over time.
3. Attitudes may affect a person’s behavior but this is dependent on several contingencies.

Question 3

(Attitudes)

Define beliefs and describe its characteristics

Answer 3

1. Beliefs are the established perceptions about the attitude object- what you believe to be.
2. Acquired from experience and other forms of learning
3. Has a valence

Question 4

(Attitudes)

Define feelings and describe how they interact with our beliefs.

(2)

Answer 4

1. Feelings represent your conscious positive or negative evaluations of the atitude object.
2. We normally derive our feelings based on our beliefs.
   * However, our feelings may sometimes affect our beliefs.

Question 5

(Attitudes)

Define behavioral intentions.

Answer 5

1. Behavioral intentions represent your motivation to engage in a particular behavior regarding the attitude object.
   * But may not necessary carry out behavior
2. Behavioral intentions are the best predictor of a person’s behavior, although this depends on the MARS factors of behavior.

Question 6

Explain how emotions influence our attitudes and behaviors.

(2)

Answer 6

1. Our brain tags incoming information with emotional markers based on quick & imprecise evaluations of its threat levels to our innate drives. (Automatic and nonconscious)
   * Influences our feelings about the subject
2. These emotions may affect our conscious evaluation of the subject.

Question 7

Define cognitive dissonance and how most people deal with it.

(2)

Answer 7

1. Cognitive dissonance is the emotional experience caused by a perception that our beliefs, feelings, and behavior are incongruent with one another.
2. Most people reduce cognitive dissonance by changing their beliefs and feelings as it is hard to undo certain actions

Question 8

Describe the link between emotions and personality.

(2)

Answer 8

1. Emotions are partly determined by personality. Some peole experience more negative emotions due to higher neuroticisim and introversion.
2. However, the actual situation has a stronger influence on attitudes and hbehavior.

Question 9

Define emotional labour, display rules and how the latter affects the former.

(3)

Answer 9

1. Emotional labour is the effort, planning, and control needed to express organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions.
2. Display rules are the norms or explicit rules requiring us within our role to display specific emotions and to hide other emotions.
3. Emotional labor also increases when employees precisely rather than casually abide by display rules.

Question 10

Describe how emotional display norms vary across cultures. (2)

Answer 10

1. Countries like Ethiopia, Japan and Austria cultural discourage emotional expression.
2. Kuwait, Egypt, Spaina and Russia allow more vivid displays of emotions and expect people to act more consistently with their true emotions.

Question 11

Define emotional dissonance, surface acting and deep acting. Describe the characteristics of surface acting and deep acting.

(3)

Answer 11

1. Emotional dissonace is the psychological tension experienced when the emotions people are required to dispay are different from the emotions they feel.
2. To deal with workplace requirements, employees may engage with in surface acting; pretending that they feel the expected emotion even though they feel differently.
   * Leads to higher stress and burnout, a form of emotional labour: consumes personal energy
3. They may also engage in deep acting, involving reintepreting reality to produce emotions more consistent with the required emotions.

• Requires high EI
• Reduces psychological damage by viewing their act as a natural part of their role

Question 12

Define emotional intelligence (EI) and describe the 4 abilities that constitute it.

(5)

Answer 12

1. Emotional inteligence is a set of abilities to perceive and express emotion, assimilate emotion in thought, understand and reason with emotion, regulate emotion in oneself and others. These are hierachical abilties.
2. Awareness of their own emotions (lowest level):

• Ability to perceive and understand the meaning of our own emotions
• Are conscious and understand their emotional responses to specific situations

3. Management of their own emotions:

• Ability to manage our own emotions
• Generating or suppressing emotions (like for deep acting)

4. Awareness of others’ emotions:
   * Ability to perceive and understand the emotions of other people (Empathy)
5. Management of others’ emotions (highest level):
   * Consoling others, making others feel comfortable etc

Question 13

Describe how emotional intelligence relates to work outcomes.

Answer 13

1. Studies suggest that people with high EI are more effective team members, perform better in jobs requiring emotional labor, maintain a more positive mindset for creative work.
2. High EI is associated with effective leadership because leaders engage in emotional labor as well as regulating the emotions of others.

Question 14

Define job satisfaction and discuss 3 issues with how it is measured.

(4)

Answer 14

1. Job satisfaction is a person’s evaluation of his or her job and work context.
   * Viewed as the collection of attitudes about different aspects of the job and work context
2. Dissatisfied employees may be reluctant to reveal their feelings because this it is like admitting they made a mistake and are not enjoying life.
3. People in China and Japan may subdue their emotions and avoid extreme survey ratings such as “very satisfied”
4. Economic conditions may impact job satisfaction

Question 15

(Job dissatisfaction and behavior)

Define each part of the EVLN model.

(6)

Answer 15

1. The consequences of job dissatisfaction can be understood using the Exit -Voice -Loyalty-Neglect (EVLN) model. It identifies 4 ways employees may react to job dissatisfaction.
2. Exit: Exit includes leaving the organisation, transferring to another work uni, or getting away from the dissatisfying situation.

• Exit may be caused by slowly accumulating job dissatisfaction over time
• Or by specific “shock events”

3. Voice: voice is any attempt to change, rather than escape, the dissatisfying situation.

• Can be constructive or confrontational
• Some employees may engage in counterproductive behaviors to get attention and force changes in the organisation

4. Loyalty:

• In the old model, it predicted whether people would exit or not
• In the new model, it vaguely suggests that “loyalists” are employees who patiently wait/ suffer in silence

5. Neglect: Neglect includes reducing work effort, paying less attention to quality, increasing absenteeism and lateness
6. How employees respond also depends on individual’s personality, values, self-concept and the situation.

Question 16

Describe and qualify the link between job satisfaction and performance.

(2)

Answer 16

1. “happy worker hypothesis”: moderately positive relationship between job satisfaction and performance
2. However, it may be that better job performance causes higher job satisfaction because high performers get more rewards and recognition than low-performers.

Question 17

Define the service profit chain model and describe the steps. Explain how more satisfied employees produce happier and more satisfied customers and profits.

(4)

Answer 17

1. The service profit chain model: a theory explaining how employees’ job satisfaction influences company profitability indirectly through service quality, customer loyalty, and related factors.
2. Work place practices influence job satisfaction -> infuences employee retention and job motivation -> affects service quality -> affects customer satisfaction -> popularity of service ->company’s profitabilitiy and growth
3. Satisfied employees have a more positive mood and exhibit friendliness and positive emoitions which transfers to their customers.
4. Satisfied employees are less likely to quit their jobs, and so have more work experience.

Question 18

Define organisational commitment and continuance commitment.

(2)

Answer 18

1. Affective organisational commitment is the employee’s emotional attachment to, involvement in, and identification with an organization.
2. Continuance commitment is an individual’s calculative attachment to an organisation.

• Either because employee has no alternative job opportunities
• Or leaving the company would be a significant financial sacrifice

Question 19

Describe the consequences of affective and continuance commimtment.

(2)

Answer 19

1. High affective commitment can be a significant competitive advantage.

• Employees are less likely to quit or be absent
• Higher work motivation and organizational citizenship, somewhat higher job performance
• Engage in more cooperative methods to solve employee-employer relationship issues
• However, employees may also have higher conformity and thus less creativity

2. Employees with high levels of continuance commitment tend to have lower performance and are less likely to engage in organizational citizenship behaviors
   * Unionized employees may use formal grievances

Question 20

Describe 5 ways to increase affective organisation commitment.

(5)

Answer 20

1. Justice and support:
   * Affective commitment is higher in organizations that fulfill their obligations to employees and abide by humanitarian values such as fairness, courtesy, forgiveness and moral integrity.
2. Shared values:

• Affective commitment is higher when employees feels their values are congruent with their organization.
• Employees experience more positive emotion , increasing their motivation to stay with the organisation.

3. Trust:

• Trust refers to positive expectations one person has towards another person in situations involving risk.
• Employees identify and feel obliged to work for an organization only when they trust its leaders

4. Organisation comprehension:

• Refers to how well employees understand the organisation, like its strategic direction, social dynamics and physical layout.
• This involves creating a clear mental model of the organisation by giving employees up to date information about the orgnisation, encouraging interaction with coworkers and learning about the organization’s history and future plans.

5. Employee involvement:
   * Increases affective commitment by strengthening the employee’s psychological ownership and social identity with the organisation.

Question 21

Define stress and its negative and positive versions.

(3)

Answer 21

1. Stress is an adaptive response to a situation that is perceived as challenging or threatening to a person’s well-being

• Negative: Distress is the degree of physiological, psychological and behavioral deviation from healty functioning
• Positive: Eustress activates and motivates people to achieve goals, change their environments, and succeed in life’s challenges.

Question 22

Describe the 3 stages of the general adaptation syndrome of model of stress.

(3)

Answer 22

1. General adaptation syndrome is a model of the stress experience, consisting of thre stages: alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion.
2. Alarm reaction:

• Occurs when a threat activates the physiological stress responses.
• Individual’s energy level and coping effectiveness decrease due to initial shock

3. Resistance:
   * Activation of various biochemical, psychological and behavioral mehcanism that increase energy and engage coping mechanisms to overcome source of stress (i.e more blood to brain, muscle tightening, increased breathing, adrenaline release, immune system shut down to conserve resources)
4. Exhaustion

Question 23

State some consequences of stress and describe the 3 stages of job burnout.

(4)

Answer 23

1. Stress may result in tension headaches, muscle pain, and high stress levels also contribute to cardiovascular disease, like heart attack and strokes, and some form of cancer
2. 3 stages of job burnout:
3. Emotional exhustion: Characterised by a lack of energy, tiredness, and feeling like one’s emotional resources are depleted
4. Cynicism/ depersonalisation: Indifferent atitude towards work, emotional detachment from clients, cynical view towards organisation, a tendency to strictly follow rules rather than be flexible.
5. Reduce personal accomplishment: Feelings of diminished confidence in one’s ability to perform the job well, development of learned helplessness regarding their job.

Question 24

Define a stressor and list and elaborate on 4 stressors.

(1, 2-2, 3-1, 4-2, 5-2)

Answer 24

1. Stressors are any environmental conditions that place a physical or emotional demand on a person.
2. Organisational constraints are situational factors like lack of equipment, supplies, budget funding, coworker support and other resources to complete the job.

• Such factors directly influence individual performance beyond the employees control.
• Causes stress by threatening the individual’s fundamental drive to influence his/her environment.

3. Interpersonal conflict is usually caused by structural sources such as ambiguous rules, lack of resources and conflicting goals between employees.
   * Psychological harassment, includes repeated hostile or unwanted conduct, verbal comments, actions or gestures that affect an employee’s dignity, psychological or physical integrity and that result in a harmful work environment for the employee.
4. Work overload

• When employees are expectd (or believe they are expected) to complete more work with more effort than they can provide within the allotted time.
• Evident when employees consume more of their personal time to get the job done.

5. Low Task Control

• When employees lack control over how and when they perform their tasks as well the pace of work activity.
• Becomes a stressor when employees face high workloads without the ability to adjust the pace of the load to their own energy, attention span, and other resources.

Question 25

List 3 factors that contribute to individual differences in stress. (1, 2-1, 3-2)

Answer 25

1. Physically healthy employees, due to regular exercise and a healthy lifestyle produce larger a larger store of energy to cope with stress. 2. Individual coping strategies such as seeking help and reframing the stressor in a positive light reduce stress. * Specific coping strategies work better for some stressors and few work well for all. 3. Personality traits like high emotional stability (low neuroticisim) cause lower stress levels. * Extraverts tend to experience less tress than introverts because they think more positively and interact with others which helps buffer the stress. * Positive self-concept: high self-esteem, self-efficacy, makes people feel more confident when faced with stress. (More optimistic)

Question 26

List 5 ways to manage work related stress and explain. (1-5, 2-4, 3-2, 4, 5)

Answer 26

1. Removing the stressor * Flexible and limited work time * Job sharing: Splitting a job between two people * Telecommuting: Working from home to reduce travel time and increase flexibility in performing nonwork obligations. * Personal leave: Flexibility in managing family and other nonwork demands * Child care support: On-site subsidised child care facilities that reduce the tension between family commitments and work. 2. Withdraw person from stressor: * Temporarily remove employees from the stressor. * Permanent withdrawal in such and transferring jobs. * Unpaid sabbaticals * Vacations or break rooms to recharge 3. Change stress perception: * Level of stress can be changed by how we perceive the situation * Positive self-evaluation and optimism help employees manage stress by improving their self-concept so challenges are less threatening. 4. Control stress consequences: * Regular exercise and effective stress manangement strategies control stress consequences like anxiety, blood pressure and muscle tension. 5. Receive social support: * Social support occurs when coworkers, supervisors, family members, friends and others provide emotional support to buffer an individual's stress experience.