How Emotion and Mood Influence Behavior

Emotion and mood can affect temperament, personality, disposition, motivation, and initial perspectives and reactions. Hence, it is essential to the workplace's productivity and culture that managers balance the mood of the groups they lead.

Emotion and mood can affect temperament, personality, disposition, motivation, and initial perspectives and reactions.

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

  • Describe the importance of employee moods and emotions on overall performance from an organizational perspective

KEY POINTS

  • The poor decision-making effects of a given mood can hinder a person's job performance and lead to bad decisions that affect the company.
  • Emotion is a subjective lens on an objective world; decision-making should discard emotion whenever possible. This is particularly important for managers, who make significant decisions on a daily basis.
  • As emotion is largely a chemical balance (or imbalance) in the mind, emotions can quickly cloud judgment and complicate social interactions without the individual being consciously aware that it is happening.

TERMS

  • emotions

    Subjective, conscious experiences that are characterized primarily by psycho-physiological expressions, biological reactions, and mental states.

  • mood

    A mental or emotional state.

 

Emotions in the Workplace

Emotions and mood can affect temperament, personality, disposition, and motivation. They can affect a person's physical well-being, judgment, and perception. Emotions play a critical role in how individuals behave and react to external stimuli; they are often internalized enough for people to fail to notice when they are at work. Emotions and mood can cloud judgment and reduce rationality in decision-making.

 

Mood

All moods can affect judgment, perception, and physical and emotional well-being. Long-term exposure to negative moods or stressful environments can lead to illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, and ulcers. The decision-making effects of any kind of bad mood can hinder a person's job performance and lead to poor decisions that affect the company. In contrast, a positive mood can enhance creativity and problem-solving. However, positive moods can also create false optimism and negatively influence decision making.

 

Emotion

Emotions are reciprocal with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, and motivation. Emotions can be influenced by hormones and neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and serotonin. Dopamine can affect a person's energy level and mood, while serotonin can affect critical-thinking skills. As emotion is largely a chemical balance (or imbalance) in the mind, emotions can quickly cloud judgment and complicate social interactions without the individual being consciously aware that it is happening.

The implication for behavior is important for both managers and subordinates to understand. Workers must try to identify objectively when an emotional predisposition is influencing their behavior and judgment and ensure that the repercussions of the emotion are either positive or neutralized. Positive emotions can be a great thing, producing extroversion, energy, and job satisfaction. However, both positive and negative emotions can distort the validity of a decision. Being overconfident, for example, can be just as dangerous as being under-confident.

 

Organizational Implications

By encouraging positive employee-management relationships and employee dynamics, an organization may be able to balance a person's mood and emotions. Improving the level of job satisfaction for employees is another way that a company can influence an employee's mood. If a person is satisfied at work, that condition may reduce levels of stress and help influence motivation and disposition. Job satisfaction can affect a person's mood and emotional state. Providing organizational benefits, such as a company gym, meditation classes, or company retreats, can likewise influence a person's emotions. An active lifestyle has been shown to produce an increased level of dopamine, which can enhance energy and mood.

Managers are tasked not only with monitoring and controlling their own moods and emotions but also with recognizing emotional issues in their subordinates. Managers should strive to balance the emotions of their subordinates, ensuring nothing negatively affects their mental well-being. This can be a difficult role for management, as many people display their emotions in different ways (and most tend to hide them, particularly at work). Managers must be both perceptive and strategic in ensuring a mental balance at work.


Source: Boundless
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Last modified: Monday, November 9, 2020, 2:57 PM