“Understanding Emotions and the Myth of Rationality”

Elizabeth J. Rozell, Ph.D.

Kenneth E. Meyer Professor of Management Missouri State University

What Is Perception, and Why Is It Important?

Perception A process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.

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People’s behavior is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself.

•

The world as it is perceived is the world that is behaviorally important.

Person Perception: Making Judgments About Others Attribution Theory When individuals observe behavior, they attempt to determine whether it is internally or externally caused.

Distinctiveness: shows different behaviors in different situations.

Consensus: response is the same as others to same situation.

Consistency: responds in the same way over time.

Errors and Biases in Attributions Fundamental Attribution Error The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others.

In general, we tend to blame the

person

first, not the situation.

Errors and Biases in Attributions (cont’d) Self-Serving Bias The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal factors while putting the blame for failures on external factors.

Thought: When student gets an “A” on an exam, they often say they studied hard. But when they don’t do well, how does the self serving bias come into play? Hint: Whose fault is it usually when an exam is “tough”?

Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging Others Selective Perception People selectively interpret what they see on the basis of their interests, background, experience, and attitudes.

Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging Others Halo Effect Drawing a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic Contrast Effects Evaluation of a person’s characteristics that are affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics

Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging Others Projection Attributing one’s own characteristics to other people.

Stereotyping Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which that person belongs.

Specific Applications in Organizations 

Employment Interview

– Perceptual biases of raters affect the accuracy of interviewers’ judgments of applicants.

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Performance Expectations

– Self-fulfilling prophecy ( Pygmalion effect ): The lower or higher performance of employees reflects preconceived leader expectations about employee capabilities.

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Ethnic Profiling

– A form of stereotyping in which a group of individuals is singled out—typically on the basis of race or ethnicity—for intensive inquiry, scrutinizing, or investigation.

Specific Applications in Organizations (cont’d) 

Performance Evaluations

– Appraisals are often the subjective (judgmental) perceptions of appraisers of another employee’s job performance.

Emotions- Why Emotions Were Ignored in OB 

The “myth of rationality”

– Organizations are not emotion-free.

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Emotions of any kind are disruptive to organizations.

– Original OB focus was solely on the effects of strong negative emotions that interfered with individual and organizational efficiency.

What Are Emotions?

Affect A broad range of emotions that people experience.

Emotions Intense feelings that are directed at someone or something.

Moods Feelings that tend to be less intense than emotions and that lack a contextual stimulus.

Felt versus Displayed Emotions

Felt Emotions

An individual’s actual emotions.

Displayed Emotions

Emotions that are organizationally required and considered appropriate in a given job.

What Are Emotions?

Emotional Labor

A situation in which an employee expresses organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions.

Emotional Dissonance

A situation in which an employee must project one emotion while simultaneously feeling another.

Emotion Continuum 

The closer any two emotions are to each other on the continuum, the more likely people are to confuse them.

Source:

Based on R.D. Woodworth,

Experimental Psychology

(New York: Holt, 1938).

OB Applications of Understanding Emotions 

Ability and Selection

– Emotions affect employee effectiveness.

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Decision Making

– Emotions are an important part of the decision-making process in organizations.

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Motivation

– Emotional commitment to work and high motivation are strongly linked.

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Leadership

– Emotions are important to acceptance of messages from organizational leaders.

OB Applications… (cont’d) 

Interpersonal Conflict

– Conflict in the workplace and individual emotions are strongly intertwined.

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Customer Services

– Emotions affect service quality delivered to customers which, in turn, affects customer relationships.

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Deviant Workplace Behaviors

– Negative emotions lead to employee deviance (actions that violate norms and threaten the organization).

• • • Productivity failures Property theft and destruction Political actions • Personal aggression

Emotional Intelligence: The Concept

Emotional Intelligence

An assortment of noncognitive skills, capabilities, and competencies that influence a person’s ability to succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressures.

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Emotional Intelligence (EI)

• Self-awareness • Self-management • Self-motivation • Empathy • Social skills

Research Findings

• High EI scores, not high IQ scores, characterize high performers.

Emotional Intelligence “We are being judged by a new yardstick; not just how smart we are, or by our training and expertise, but also how well we handle ourselves and each other.”

Daniel Goleman, Ph.D.

Working with Emotional Intelligence

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence is not about being nice all the time.

• It is about being honest.

Emotional intelligence is not about being “touchy-feely.” • It is about being aware of your feelings, and those of others.

Emotional intelligence is not about being emotional.

• It is about being smart with your emotions.

Personal Benefits of Emotional Intelligence • Greater career success • Stronger personal relationships • Increased optimism and confidence • Better health

Professional Benefits of Emotional Intelligence • Effective leadership skills • Improved communication • Less workplace conflict • Better problem solving skills • Increased likelihood of promotion

The Five Essential Competencies of Emotional Intelligence • Self-Awareness • Self-Regulation • Self-Motivation • Empathy • Effective Relationships Relate to Ourselves Relate to Others

Self-Awareness “If you understand your own feelings you get a really great handle on how you’re going to interact and perform with others… So one of the first starting points is, ‘what’s going on inside of me?’”

Chuck Wolfe

President, C. J. Wolfe Associates, LLC

Self-Regulation “If we are in a heightened state of agitation or anger we cannot make good decisions, we cannot reason well.”

Christine Casper

Communication, Motivation & Management Inc.

Self-Motivation “High performers are those who are able to see with some clarity to what degree they are responsible for a setback and to what degree it may be circumstance or other people, and as a result they are able to be more persistent.”

Dr. J.P. Pawliw-Fry

Co-Director, Inst. For Health & Human Potential

Empathy “If people will stop for a moment and put themselves in another person’s shoes… it will help them modify their own behavior. It will help them develop relationships with those people.”

Darryl Grigg, Ed.D.

Co-Developer, American Express Emotional Competence Program

Social Skills "And so there's a real pay-off.

The people who will become the leaders, the people who will become the star performers, are the ones who have the strengths in the key emotional intelligence abilities."

Daniel Goleman, Ph.D.

Founder, Emotional Intelligence Services

Rozell’s Research Stream in EI Topics of Recent Publication • EI as a predictor of performance in salespeople • EI as a predictor of workplace aggression • EI as a predictor of group satisfaction • EI as a moderator of emotional labor and burnout • EI as a predictor of impression management

Rozell’s Research Stream in EI (cont.) Topics of Recent Publication • EI and ethical decision making • EI and work attitudes • EI and organizational citizenship behaviors • EI and management development • EI and international students in business school curriculum

Example Study #1

EI and Workplace Aggression

Research Question: • Does EI impact workplace aggression?

We expected that as a person’s EI increased, his or her ability to control negative emotions would be enhanced, and therefore, workplace aggression would decrease.

Sample: • 110 behavioral health workers

Example Study #1 (cont.) Findings: • Verbal aggression – no significance • Physical aggression – significant • Hostility – significant • Anger – no significance Implications: • Organizations should seek to hire and retain employees with high emotional intelligence.

• Also implications for training, selection, placement practices, and performance appraisal practices.

Example Study #2

EI and Performance in Salespeople

Research Question: • Does EI impact performance in salespeople?

We expected that the highest levels of sales performance would be achieved by salespeople possessing the highest levels of EI.

Sample: • 103 salespeople employed by a national company that specializes in medical devices.

Example Study #2 (cont.) Findings: • Performance significantly related to emotional intelligence • Emotional awareness – significant • Internal emotional control – significant • External emotional control – no significance Implications: • Important for a salesperson to have ability to control own emotions (e.g. rejection) and have empathy (e.g. understand) needs of clients.

• Implications for sales training, job assignment, and selection.

Questions?