Chapter 4
Workplace
emotions, attitudes
and stress
Learning Objectives
4.1 Explain how emotions and cognition (logical
thinking) influence attitudes and behaviour
4.2 Discuss the dynamics of emotional labour and
the role of emotional intelligence in the
workplace
4.3 Summarise the consequences of job
dissatisfaction, as well as strategies to
increase organisational (affective) commitment
4.4 Describe the stress experience and review
three major stressors
4.5 Identify five ways to manage workplace stress
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Positive Attitudes at Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto values the health and wellbeing of its staff and
the communities in which they work and live. Human
resources are the company’s most important asset, and
Rio Tinto invests significantly in initiatives that help its
staff to achieve and maintain a high quality of life
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Emotions Defined
• Psychological, behavioural and physiological
episodes experienced toward an object,
person or event that create a state of
readiness
• Emotions are experiences. They represent
changes in our physiological state,
psychological state and behaviour
• Emotions put us in a state of readiness
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Types of Emotions
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Attitudes: From Beliefs to
Behaviour
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Emotions, Attitudes and
Behaviour
• Attitudes represent the cluster of beliefs,
assessed feelings and behavioural intentions
towards a person, object or event (called an
attitude object):
– Beliefs are established perceptions about the
attitude object
– Feelings represent positive or negative
evaluations of the attitude object
– Behavioural intentions represent motivation to
engage in a particular behaviour regarding the
attitude object
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Positive Emotions at ING
Direct Australia
To attract and keep
talented employees,
companies are finding
creative ways to generate
positive emotions in the
workplace. Employees at
ING have plenty of fun
with the annual WOW day
(see photo)
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Generating Positive Emotions at
Work
• The emotions–
attitudes–behaviour
model illustrates that
attitudes are shaped
by ongoing emotional
experiences
• Thus, successful
companies actively
create more positive
than negative
emotional episodes
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Cognitive Dissonance
• A state of anxiety that occurs when an
individual’s beliefs, feelings and behaviours
are inconsistent with one another
• Most common when behaviour is:
– Known to others
– Done voluntarily
– Cannot be undone
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Emotions and Personality
• Emotions are also partly determined by a
person’s personality, not just workplace
experiences
• Some people, especially extroverts,
experience positive emotions as a natural
trait
• Positive and negative emotional traits affect a
person’s attendance, turnover and long-term
work attitudes
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Emotional Labour Defined
• Effort, planning and control needed to
express organisationally desired emotions
during interpersonal transactions
• Emotional labour is higher when the job
requires:
– Frequent and long duration display of emotions
– Displaying a variety of emotions
– Displaying more intense emotions
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Emotional Display Norms
Across Cultures
• Displaying or hiding emotions varies across
cultures:
– Minimal emotional expression and monotonic
voice in Korea, Japan, Austria
– Emotional expression encouraged in Kuwait,
Egypt, Spain, Russia
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Emotional Dissonance
• It is difficult to display expected emotions
accurately, and to hide true emotions
• Emotional dissonance
– Conflict between true and required emotions
– Potentially stressful with surface acting
– Less stress through deep acting
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Emotional Intelligence (EI)
• A set of abilities to
perceive and
express emotion,
assimilate emotion
in thought,
understand and
reason with
emotion, and
regulate emotion in
oneself and others
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Emotional Intelligence
Competencies
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Model of Emotional
Intelligence
Highest
Lowest
Relationship
management
Managing other people’s emotions
Social awareness
Perceiving and understanding the
meaning of others’ emotions
Self-management
Managing our own emotions
Self-awareness
Perceiving and understanding the
meaning of your own emotions
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Improving Emotional
Intelligence
• EI is associated with some personality traits,
as well as with parental EI
• EI now becomes a selection criteria
• Can be learned, especially through coaching
• EI increases with age and maturity
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Job Satisfaction
• A person's evaluation of his or her job and
work context
• A collection of attitudes about specific facets
of the job
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EVLN: Responses to
Dissatisfaction
Exit
Voice
• Leaving the situation
• Quitting, transferring
• Changing the situation
• Problem solving, complaining
Loyalty
• Patiently waiting for the
situation to improve
Neglect
• Reducing work effort/quality
• Increasing absenteeism
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Job Satisfaction and
Performance
• Happy workers are somewhat more
productive workers, however:
– General attitude is a poor predictor of specific
behaviours
– Job performance affects satisfaction only when
rewarded
– Effect on performance is strongest in complex
jobs because of greater employee influence on
job performance (e.g. limited in assembly lines)
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Employees First, Customers
Second at Clydesdale Bank
NAB’s Clydesdale Bank
treats employees well so
that they treat customers
well. They listen to and act
on employee concerns,
spruce up the work
environment, introduce
career development
programs, provide better
coaching and give staff
more freedom to decide
how to serve clients
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Job Satisfaction and
Customers
• Job satisfaction increases
customer satisfaction and
profitability because:
– Job satisfaction affects
mood, leading to
positive behaviours
toward customers
– Job satisfaction
reduces employee
turnover, resulting in
more consistent and
familiar service
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Job Satisfaction and
Customers
Service profit chain model is a theory explaining how
employees’ job satisfaction influences company
profitability indirectly through service quality, customer
loyalty and related factors
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Job Satisfaction and Business
Ethics
• Job satisfaction is also an ethical issue that
influences the organisation’s reputation in the
community
• Societies now expect companies to provide
work environments that are safe and
enjoyable
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Organisational Commitment
• Affective commitment
– Emotional attachment to, identification with and
involvement in an organisation
• Continuance commitment
– Calculative attachment: stay because too costly to
quit
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Consequences of Affective
and Continuance Commitment
• Organisational (affective) commitment can
affect retention, motivation, organisational
citizenship and job performance as well as
customer satisfaction. However, can lead to
conformity and less creativity
• Continuance commitment can be
dysfunctional and lead to lower performance
and less organisational citizenship
behaviours
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Building (Affective)
Commitment
Justice/ support
Shared
values
Trust
• Apply humanitarian values
• Support employee wellbeing
• Values congruence
• Employees trust org leaders
• Job security supports trust
Organisational
comprehension
• Know firm’s past/present/future
• Open and rapid communication
Employee
involvement
• Employees feel part of company
• Involvement demonstrates trust
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What is Stress?
• An adaptive response to a situation that is
perceived as challenging or threatening to
the person’s wellbeing
• A physiological and psychological condition
that prepares us to adapt to hostile or
noxious environmental conditions
• Eustress versus distress
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General Adaptation Syndrome
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Consequences of Distress
Physiological
Cardiovascular disease, hypertension,
headaches
Behavioural
Work performance, accidents, absenteeism,
aggression, poor decisions
Psychological
Dissatisfaction, moodiness, depression,
emotional fatigue, burnout
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Job Burnout Process
Interpersonal and
role-related stressors
Emotional
exhaustion
Cynicism
Physiological,
psychological
and behavioural
consequences
Reduced personal
accomplishment
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What are Stressors?
• Stressors are the causes of stress—any
environmental condition that places a
physical or emotional demand on the person
• Some common workplace stressors include:
– Harassment and incivility
– Work overload
– Low task control
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Psychological Harassment
Repeated and hostile or unwanted conduct,
verbal comments, actions or gestures that
affect an employee’s dignity or psychological or
physical integrity and that result in a harmful
work environment for the employee
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Sexual Harassment
• Unwelcome conduct—detrimental effect on
work environment or job performance
• Quid pro quo
– Employment or job performance is conditional on
unwanted sexual relations
• Hostile work environment
– An intimidating, hostile or offensive working
environment
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Work Overload and Task
Control Stressors
• Work overload stressor
– Working more hours, more intensely than one can
cope with
– Affected by globalisation, consumerism, ideal
worker norm
• Task control stressor
– Due to lack of control over how and when tasks
are performed
– Stress increases with responsibility
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Individual Differences in
Stress
• Different threshold levels of resistance to
stressor
• Use different stress coping strategies
• Resilience to stress
– Due to personality and coping strategies
• Workaholism
– Highly involved in work
– Inner pressure to work
– Low enjoyment of work
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Work-Life Balance at Pumpkin
Patch
• At Pumpkin Patch, the
children’s-wear store,
employees get to
spend time with their
children
• Pumpkin Patch rewards
loyalty and long
service, and families
with young children are
supported with inhouse crèche facilities
or childcare subsidies
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Managing Work-Related Stress
• Remove the stressor
– Minimise or remove stressors
• Withdraw from the stressor
– Vacation, rest breaks
• Change stress perceptions
– Positive self-concept, humour
• Control stress consequences
– Healthy lifestyle, fitness, wellness
• Receive social support
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Summary
• Emotions and cognition influence attitudes
and behaviour
• Emotional labour and emotional intelligence
have an important role in the workplace
• Managers need to strategically increase job
satisfaction and organisational commitment
• Stress can be harmful to the employee and
the organisation and needs to be managed
by both
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Chapter 4
Workplace
emotions, attitudes
and stress