Lecture 4: Chapter 4: Emotions, Stress and Job Satisfaction Flashcards
What are emotions?
Psychological, behavioral and physiological episodes experienced towards an object, person or event
–> Occur without awareness often
–> Create state of readiness
What are the 2 main characteristics of emotions?
- Evaluate environmental factors as negative or positive (valence)
- The degree of activation varies
STUDY THE GRAPH IN SUMMARY P.73
What is a teambarometer?
The balance between activation and affect and the results in team behavior
High activ, pos effect: motivated/concentrated
Low activ, pos effect: calm/relaxed
High activ, neg effect: upset/nervous
Low activ, neg effect: bored/unfocussed
Why do negative emotions have a bigger effect on our thoughts and actions? What concept is related to this?
They can protect us from harm and are therefore more important for our survival
Valence asymmetry
What is valence?
Balance between good/bad, helpful/harmful etc.
Core affect signaling the perceived object should be avoided/approached
(Lading)
What are attitudes?
Cluster of beliefs, assessed feelings and behavioral intentions toward a person, object, event (=attitude object)
What is the difference between attitudes and emotions? Give 2 aspects
Attitudes = judgements, more stable over time
Emotions = experiences, experienced briefly
Of which 3 things do attitudes exist?
Beliefs
Feelings
Behavioral intentions
What is cognitive dissonance?
The emotional experience that is caused by the perception that convictions/emotions/behavior aren’t congruent
This inconsistency leads to a need to adapt components toward consistency again
How do we reduce cognitive dissonance? Give 3 options
- Reversing behavior (not often possible)
- Changing beliefs and feelings
- Recognizing previous consonant decisions
Describe the model of emotions, attitudes and behavior?
- Perceived environment
- Cognitive (attitudes: beliefs, feelings, behavioral intentions) and emotional process
- Behavior!
(P126 book)
How do emotions influence attitudes and behavior?
Our brain tags sensory info with emotional markers based on quick evaluations
The markers are automatic and nonconscious
Experienced emotions influence our feelings about attitude object
When is the influence of cognitive reasoning and emotions on attitudes most apparent?
When they disagree with each other
Something isn’t right, but they can’t think of any logical reason to be concerned
What is emotional labor?
The effort, planning and control needed to express organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions
What are display rules?
Norms around the expression and the concealment of relevant emotions at work
In what kind of jobs is emotional labor high? Give 3 things
Jobs requiring:
- Frequent/lengthy emotional displays
- Variety of emotional displays
- Intense emotional displays
How do emotional display norms vary across cultures?
Expressed emotion discouragement: Japan, Ethiopia
Expressed emotion expected/ allowed: Cuba, Spain
What is emotional dissonance?
The psychological tension we experience if the emotions that people display are different from the ones they really have
How can an employee experience emotional dissonance?
When emotions in line with ideals of organization aren’t in line with own feeling
–> Surface acting: not sincere
What is the difference between surface acting and deep acting?
Surface: superficial pretending, faking the acceptable response
Deep: Producing the emotions that are expected by convincing oneself that behavior is in line with deeper value
What is the downside of surface acting?
More stress, less job involvement
What are the 5 main strategies for regulating our emotions? Give an example of each
- Changing the situation: moving out/into workplaces that affect our emotions (move away from annoying customer)
- Modify the situation: modify current setting to create/avoid emotions (shift to less sensitive topic)
- Suppress or amplify emotions: block out thoughts/think about things that produce dysfunctional or expected emotions (avoid becoming emotionally attached to patients)
- Shift attention: change focus of one’s attention (swithc to enjoyable work activity to take you mind off)
- Reframe the situation: cognitively reevaluate a paricular event so it generates desired emotions (failure: event was a learning moment that had a low probability of succeeding)
Which type of acting fits best with the 5 strategies of regulating emotions? Which strategy is most common?
Deep acting
Reframing + shifting attention
What is emotional intelligence (EI)?
Set of abilities to perceive emotions and express them correctly
- Process correctly
- Understand them
- Reason about them
- Regulate them in oneself and others
What are the 4 dimensions of emotional intelligence?
- Consciousness of own emotions
- Control of own emotions
- Consciousness of emotions of others
- Control of emotions of others
What is empathy?
The ability to understand another person’s situation or viewpoint, be sensitive to their thoughts/feelings and experience their emotions
What is the hierarchy of the dimensions of emotional intelligence?
Lowest to highest:
- Awareness own emotions
- Awareness others’ emotions
- Managing own emotions
- Managing other’s emotions
What happens with emotional intelligence as you grow older?
Emotional intelligence increases with age and is part of maturation
What is job satisfaction?
A person’s own evaluation over his job and work context. It’s a collection of attitudes over different aspects of a job and work context
What is the Exit-Voice-Loyalty-Neglect (EVLN) model? What are the 4 ways?
Four ways in which employees can react if they’re not satisfied with their job
- Exit: stop working here
- Voice: try to change situation by choosing for confrontation
- Loyalty: waiting for situation to be solved
- Neglect: reduced engagement, low quality of work, high absence
On what does the reaction of an employee towards the EVLN model depend?
Personal characteristics (personality, values, selfconcept) and the situation (job opportunities, responsibilities of employer)
What is the happy worker hypothesis? What are 3 catches?
Hypothesis that a happy worker is also a productive worker
- General attitudes like job satisfaction don’t predict behavior well
- Employee’s performance can depend on technological/team aspects
- Netter job performance might cause job satisfaction instead of opposite
What is the service profit chain model?
It models the effect of job satisfaction on customer service and organizational profit
The model argues that job satisfaction has a positive effect on customer service, which is advantageous to share holders
What are 2 key explanations of why more satisfied employees generate happier customers?
- Job satisfaction puts employees in good mood, which makes them produce more friendly emotions towards customers
- Job satisfaction leads to less employee retention, so more experienced employees serve customers
What are the 5 steps mentioned in the service profit chain model?
- Worplace practices increase/decrease job satisfaction
- Influence employee retention and motivation
- Influence service quality
- Affects customer satisfaction and their loyalty
- These customers influence profit and growth of organization
What is affective organizational commitment? What is continuance commitment? What is normative commitment?
Affective = Individual’s emotional attachment, involvement and identification with an organization
Continuance = An individual’s calculative attachment to an organization
Normative = felt obligation or moral duty to the organization –> Norm of reciprocity
What is the norm of reciprocity?
A felt obligation of helping or giving something of value to someone who has already helped or given smth to you
What are the 3 types of organizational commitment?
- Affective organizational commitment
- Continuance commitment
- Normative commitment
What is the difference between affective and continuance commitment?
Affective = intrinsically motivated, originates from self-concept
Continuance = externally motivated, leaving would mean significant social or financial costs (can’t afford to quit)
What are the 5 main strategies for increasing organizational engagement?
- Justification and support: organizations fulfill duties towards employees, have humanitarian values
- Shared values: identification with an organization is high if the values of employee are congruent with values of organization
- Trust: one person holds for another in risky situations, reciprocity
- Organizational understanding: employees understand organization and its goals
- Employee engagement: employees are engaged because of psychological connectedness
What is stress?
An adaptive response to a situation that is perceived as challenging or threatening to the person’s wellbeing
A physiological response to external conditions
What is the difference between distress and eustress?
Distress is a type of stress, but distress covers only negative experiences
Eustress is a type of stress that covers positive experiences, that make us feel motivated and self-efficacious
What is the General Adaptation Syndrome?
The idea that people have consisten physiological responses when faced with stressful occasions
Which 3 stages does the general adaptation syndrome model have?
- Alarm reaction: perception of threat, activation physiological responses
- Resistance: biochemical, psychological, behavioral mechanisms are activated and individual has more energy to deal with situation–> Leads to lower immune system resources
- Exhaustion: if the stress is prolonged
See exhibit 4.7 p 78 summary
What is cynicism/depersonalization and what is the relationship with stress?
Indifferent work attitude toward work, cynical view of organization and tendency to strictly follow rules rather than to adapt to needs of others
This happens when there is so much stress, there is a job burnout
What are consequences of too much distress?
- Muscle ache
- Emotional problems
- Serious illeness
- Burnout
What is a burn-out?
Happens if people are emotionally exhausted and cynical and experience decreased personal accomplishments
What are stressors? Give 4 main work-related stressors
Any environmental conditions that place a physical or emotional demand on the person
- Organizational constraints (lack of budget, equipment) –> interference task performance
- Intimidation/rudeness/conflict
- High work pressure
- Few control: can’t adjust pace of the load to own energy
What are 5 different ways of dealing with stress?
- Removing stress factor
- Moving away from stress factor
- Changing one’s perception of stress factor (positive evaluation)
- Controlling consequences of stress
- Receiving social support from people close to the person
What is work-life integration and how does it deal with workrelated stress?
The degree that people are engaged in their various work and nonwork roles and have a low degree of role conflict across those domains
Deals with workrelated stress by removing stressor. E.g. personal leave benefits for maternity leave, flexibility to pick up kids from school
What is the most often used strategy that employees manage stress? Give an example
Withdrawal from stressor
–> E.g. going on holiday to recover from stress and reenergize
What do we mean with changing stress perceptions?
A way to manage stress by coaching employees to improve self-concept, personal goal setting and self-reinforcement practices
Also: humor can improve optimism and create positive emotions by taking psychological weight off a stressful situation
How do you control the consequences of stress?
Keeping physically fit and maintaining healthy lifestyle
What is meant with the strategy of receiving social support when dealing with stress?
Social support networks buffer an individual’s stress experience. This can improve the person’s optimism and self-confidence, because it makes people feel valued and worthy
What is meant with the tend and befriend response? Which gender follows this route more often? What does the other gender do?
Response to stress by seeking social support
Female: tend and befriend
Male: fight or flight
What is the difference between emotions and moods?
Moods aren’t directed to something and last longer
What are 3 ways you can develop emotional intelligence?
Training
Feedback
Coaching
What are 5 beneficial outcomes of high emotional intelligence?
- Better teamwork
- Better emotional labor
- Effective leadership
- Decisions involving others
- Positive mindset in creativity
People experience less stress or less negative stress outcomes when they have (4):
- Better physical health
- Appropriate coping strategies
- Personality: low neuroticism, high extraversion
- Positive self-concept
Give examples of job resources
Support, autonomy, feedback, tools
Increasing resources can help employees to deal with stress
