Role Of Emotions In Workplace

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“Do you believe emotions play a role in the workplace behavior?” Feeling and emotions are at the core of any human experience and since we spend more time of our lives engaging in work than any other single activity, the role of emotions concerned with behavior in the workplace has never been more important. As stated by Muchinsky (2001), the workplace is a rich arena for the expression of both positive and negative, human emotions. This is because emotions can influences organizational behaviour in direct ways such as the initiation of behavior by emotions, and indirect ways such as emotions influencing behaviour through intervening mechanisms like motivation or cognition. There is no doubt that, until recently organizations were reluctant to accept the relevance of emotional aspect of an employee. Emotional expression has become more accepted with the popularity of emotional intelligence as a core interpersonal aptitude (Bierema, 2008). Goleman (2006) suggests that emotional intelligence is a trait that goes beyond academic achievement or IQ. In fact high academic intelligence can sometimes stand in the way of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence determines how well we handle difficult situation, which cannot be solved by logic, but more by a “feel” for the situation. Keeping in mind the above context, this essay will focus on emotional labor, emotional intelligence and the broader issue of emotions, which has been shown to play a powerful role in workplace settings. The later part of this essay will consider management efforts to be put in by the managers/leaders to facilitate emotional growth of employees through emotional intelligence. The workplace offers an abundant opportunity to experience a wide range of emotions. Lazarus and Lazarus (as cited in Muchinsky, 2001) offer five categories of emotions. The first is what they call the ‘nasty’
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