Monday, August 3, 2009

Expressing Emotions In Constructive, Productive Ways Can Improve Employee Performance.

Organizations typically have unwritten rules about when, where, and how much employees can display their feelings and emotions. Some organizations specially require employees to suppress, hide, or manipulate their emotions at work, in order to maintain a machine-like atmosphere. Managers used to believe that emotions got in the way of rational, logical business thinking and behavior. Today’s best managers know that such strict workplace regulations can hurt employee attitudes and performance. Instead, they adopt healthy and supportive rules that help employees share how they feel with each other in constructive and productive ways.

Source: Coupland, C., Brown, A. D., Daniels, K., & Humphreys, M. 2008. Saying it with feeling: Analyzing speakable emotions. Human Relations, 61, 327-353.