Women and Affect in the Workplace

What is Affect

Affect describes the range of feelings that individuals experience. It includes feeling states, which are shorter-term moods and emotions, and feeling traits, also referred to as ‘dispositional affect’, which are ingrained tendencies to feel and act in certain ways.

Feeling states are comprised of distinct emotions and moods. Distinct emotions are short lived and target-focused feelings. Moods are not focused on a specific cause, are a generally positive or negative feeling, and can have a longer duration. A feeling trait is related to one’s “usual” state, or outlook towards life. It is a product of attitudes, beliefs, and experiences. (Barsade & Gibson, 2007).

Separate from Affect in definition, but important in how emotions are interpreted and expressed is emotional intelligence, the management of one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions (Salovey &Mayer, 1990). Emotional intelligence encompasses self awareness, self regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill (Goleman, 1998).

Why Does Affect Matter? The Impact on the workplace

Because we bring it with us. Affect is part of everyday work environment. We interact with our and others’ affect, or feeling states, at all times during our work and private life. In the workplace in particular, affect matters because people’s traits, moods, and emotions are brought to their activities and interactions, and their affective experiences and expressions influence others (Barsade & Gibson, 2007).

Because it’s contagious. One way in which feelings impact the work environment is through emotional contagion and collective affect. Emotional contagion is the transferring of emotions among people. Similar to the common cold, the “sniffles” we may bring with us to the work environment are often transferred to others by means of facial expressions and voice. When your boss is having a “bad day”, you might be more likely to be influenced by her behavior and be more somber yourself. A collective affect is a group emotion or mood, and might emerge from a combination of emotional contagion, individual’s traits, or group norms (Barsade & Gibson, 2007). Emotional contagion and tendency for collective affect are usually stronger among highly cohesive teams, specific character tendencies, and as a response to leaders’ affect.

Because positive/negative affects impact performance. In general, positive emotional traits, or dispositions, and emotional intelligence have been shown to be key ingredients for excellent performance, especially in the higher levels of the company. People who are able to manage their feelings and impulses are able to create an environment where politics and infighting are reduced and trust and productivity are high (Barsade &Gibson, 2007,Goleman, 1998).

Emotional States can impact several elements, such as decision making, creativity, turnover, pro-social behavior and conflict resolution. There are conflicting views on whether positive or negative affect influence effective decision making. On the one hand, negative affect can cause heightened awareness to a problem or create an extra “push” to try and resolve an issue or examine it in more detail. On the other hand, positive affect has been found to relate to more careful, systematic decision making and higher likelihood of incorporating new information and reaching out for more information. (Barsade & Gibson, 2007). Creativity, pro-social behavior, and conflict resolution are enhanced by positive affect because of the openness and trust formed by both the affector and affectee (Lyubomirsky, King & Diener, 2005).

Women and Affect

When reviewing this material, the first question that came to my mind was whether women are more emotionally intelligent than men (I assumed they might be more emotionally aware), and how well they control their emotions (I assumed they didn’t). Apparently that question/assumption in itself is what creates much of the challenge for women in creating positive affect in the workplace.

Stereotypical biases place an additional strain on women in the workplace. Due to gender expectations, the same leadership style that would be described as assertive in a man could be described as abrasive in a woman both by women and men. These perceptions influence the trust and willingness to follow women leaders (The Double Bind Dilemma, 2007) and indicate that the degree to which women have to manage conflicting personal relationships might be higher than men. An interesting study comparing traits and emotional intelligence by gender (Lyusin, 2006) reflects that no gender distinctions are evident for emotional self awareness, but that women do manage their emotions and control expressions to a lesser degree than men. As a result of these stereotypes and the gender penalization for nonconformance informal women leaders often emerge, in agreement with stereotypical female behavior, when tasks require greater levels of social interaction (Neubert & Taggar, 2004).

Conclusions on affect and how to leverage it

Affect matters because emotions are part of our understanding and internalization process, are different from our rational, cognitive understanding, and have the potential to rapidly move and direct behavior and involvement. Emotions are often overlooked in the work environment, though they do permeate all perceptions and behaviors (Fox & Amichai-Hamburger, 2001). Understanding emotions and being able to control them by developing emotional intelligence allows people to work more effectively with others. Understanding emotions and being able to control them also allows the development and leveraging of social capital needed to promote effectiveness in achieving one’s goals, resolving differences and allowing individuals to move forward towards consensus and compromise (Perrewé, Ferris, Frink and Anthony, 2000). Emotional intelligence and political skills are especially important for women to display considering the barriers they still face to effective interactions with others at the workplace.

So what are ways to shape emotions? Realizing that emotions are different from cognition and reason, some of the ways emotions can be shaped are by changing emotional contexts - the emotional meanings, modes, settings, and people. Emotional meanings engage words with emotional connotations or metaphors. Examples can be seen in statements such as “winning the war”, or “taking the market by storm”. Emotional modes involve using appropriate methods to link emotions and cognition, such as images, music, slogans, and humor. Settings can channel emotions through ceremonies, group dynamics, and an atmosphere that is conducive to calm, open discussion and work. People can also shape emotions by providing a personal example, adhering to moral and ethical principles, being open, competent, and concerned (Fox & Amichai-Hamburger, 2001). Using these techniques, combined with emotional awareness and control, women can greatly increase their effectiveness in the workplace.

Bibliography

Barsade, S. G. & Gibson, D. E. 2007. Why does affect matter in organizations? Academy of Management Perspectives, 21(1): 36-59.

Fox, S. & Amichai-Hamburger, Y. 2001. The power of emotional appeals in promoting organizational change programs. Academy of Management Executive, 15(4): 84-94.

Goleman, D. 2004. What makes a leader? Harvard Business Review, 82(1): 82

Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131(6), 803–855.

Lyusin, D. B (2006). Emotional Intelligence as a Mixed Construct: Its Relation to Personality and Gender. Journal of Russian & East European Psychology, Vol. 44, p54-68.

Neubert, Mitchell J, Taggar, Simon (2004). Pathways to informal leadership: The moderating role of gender on the relationship of individual differences and team member network centrality to informal leadership emergence. Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 15, p175-195.

Perrewe, P. L., Ferris, G. R., Frink, D. D., & Anthony, W. P. 2000. Political skill: An antidote for workplace stressors. Academy of Management Executive, 14(3): 115-123.

Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9, 185–211.

The Double-Bind Dilemma for Women in Leadership: Damned if You do, Damned if You Don’t.(2007).Catalyst.