Ch 5: Part 2 – Emotions & Stress
Feb 12, 2008
Managing Emotion
• In addition to research on emot intell, new
research on emotional dissonance:
– Situation where you’re required to display
emotions on the job inconsistent with your
true emotions
– Can occur in at least 3 ways: how?
– Due to expectations of your role
– Cognitive & physiological effort involved is
referred to as ‘emotional labor’
– Related to stress
(cont.)
• In emot labor area, Morris & Feldman
distinguish:
– ‘surface acting’
– ‘deep acting ‘
– Some researchers suggest coping w/this by
depersonalizing the situation
• Cultural differences in emotional labor?
• Differential effects of SA & DA on burnout
Affective Events Theory (AET)
• Weiss & Cropanzano (’96)
– Antecedents to our emotional reactions
– Consequences of emotions at work
– Personality & mood moderate the relationships
Work
Environment
Pos and
Neg Emot
Daily Hassles
& Uplifts
Personality &
Mood
(moderators)
Work Outcomes
(Job sat &
Job perf)
AET (cont.)
• Antecedents:
– Our reactions partly determined by work environment
(demands, resources) and daily events
• Moderators:
– Personality (NA/PA)
– Daily mood – both affect interpretations
• Outcomes:
– Job sat – experience more pos emotion – higher job sat.
– Job perf – positive correlation w/pos emotion
Stress
• Stress – pattern of emotional states and
physio reactions in response to stressors
• Strain – accumulated effects of stress
(physical symptoms, perf effects)
• Key is cognitive appraisal of potential
stressors (Lazarus & Folkman)
– Primary appraisal –
– Secondary appraisal –
Lazarus & Folkman’s model
Appraisal
Stressor
Stress Reaction
Coping
Work-related stressors
• Some occupational differences
– Decision-makers, constant monitoring,
unstructured tasks, etc.
• Work/non-work conflict
– Dual career households; work-family stress
(role conflict)
• Role ambiguity – uncertainty about how to
complete a job
Work-related stressors (cont.)
• Overload – average #hrs/week hasn’t
changed since 70’s, but more outliers
• Karoshi – Japanese term for ‘death by
overwork’
– Officially recognized as fatal illness by
Japanese in 1989
– How large is its effect?
Sexual Harassment
• Viewed as a stressor
– See book for legal definition
– Legal categories:
• Hostile environment – examples?
• Quid pro quo – examples?
– Extremely negative effects on job outcomes,
mental health, and health outcomes
Harassment (cont.)
• Impact of climate tolerant of harassment
– Negative effects of harassment on bystanders
– Results from Schneider et al. (1997) study?
• Ethnic harassment components
– Verbal slurs, exclusion due to ethnicity
– Similar negative effects as sexual harassment
– Schneider et al. (2000) study - who had the worst
job-related and psychological outcomes?
Socialization & Hazing
• New research on organizational bullying,
hazing newcomers…
• Hazing new employees
– McDonald’s example
– Power Company example
– Most likely in blue-collar jobs requiring
teamwork
• Why is it done?
Non-work stressors
• Holmes & Rahe’s Stressful Life Events scale:
– Neg & pos changes in life affect vulnerability to
illness
– How is the measure linked to illness likelihood?
– Can we develop a similar stressful events scale
based on job events/changes?
• Impact of daily hassles – minor irritations that
accumulate