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

WorkEnvironment

Daily Hassles & Uplifts

Pos andNeg Emot

Work Outcomes(Job sat &Job perf)

Personality &Mood

(moderators)

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

StressorAppraisal

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