Case Incident #1 – Is It Okay to Cry at Work?
4-17) What factors do you think make some organizations ineffective at managing emotions?
There are several factors that make some organizations ineffective at managing emotions. First, until very recently, the protocol of the work world kept a damper on emotions. They rarely looked at emotions as constructive or contributing to enhanced performance (Organizational Behavior-122). Management tended to neglect the impact of emotions and moods.
In the past several years there has been research done on moods and dealing with emotions, people express them more openly than in years past. This goes “against the grain”, so to speak for those of us that grew up in the culture where you went to work, did your job with a smile on your face and did not express negative emotions. Dealing with employees that express emotions more openly is something new for many managers and executives.
Managers come in all facets, a variety of personalities, and management skills as do employees in general. Moods and emotions have a trait component: Most people have built-in tendencies to experience certain moods and emotions more frequently than others do. People also experience the same emotions with different intensities (Organizational Behavior-128). Although an organization may focus on a positive culture, how managers create a culture in their department and deal with their employees differs. Everyone has a variety of motions and moods, which they bring to work. If an organization does not take the time to train their managers in how to deal with a broad scope of emotions, the manager is left to figuring it out on their own, which may not always produce the right results.
When I first went into management, I was basically thrown into a toxic environment without any formal training. I had an employee that was “over the top” when it came to emotions. Her affect intensity, how strongly she experienced her emotions (Organizational...