Emotions of Medical Personnel versus the Status and Power at Work in Hospital Wards

The hospital is characterized by one of the most formalized structures with a strict division of tasks and responsibilities. An essential element of any formal organization is the system of authorities and power. There is a hierarchy and a system of power between hospital departments and within each of them. This hierarchy structure overlaps with the level of power and status felt and perceived by each employee, which implies the emergence of specific emotions. They influence interactions, shaping their course. When describing emotions in the context of power and status, I will refer to Theodore Kemper’s concept that interactions and changes in the relative power and status (prestige) of individuals have an impact on arousing both negative and positive emotions. The aim of this article is to show how an individually-determined level of power and status can shape relations between employees, their methods of communication, and emotions in the workplace. The paper answers the question of whether and how having and/or feeling a certain status and level of power implies the emergence of certain emotions. It is important to reveal those activities and interactions which, as a result of a specific position in the hospital structure, shape and modify the emotions of medical personnel. All the considerations are based on ethnographic qualitative research conducted in three hospital departments, differing in terms of the nature of work in the department and the type of patients treated in each of them. The article describes three of the distinguished categories, i.e. “disrespect game,” ”holding emotions,” and pride. In the course of the analyses, it was found that hierarchy and a specific level of power implies the appearance of emotions of pride, satisfaction, and contentment, as well as it leads to an increase in the level of trust between members of medical personnel. Pride results from belonging to a specific profession and a specific group of employees, and it appears as the consequence of a well-conducted procedure or performance of a difficult activity that took time to master. Pride also emerges as a result of the prestige of the profession or workplace (hospital, ward).

Hospitality employees’ emotions in the workplace: a systematic review of recent literature

Purpose This systematic review synthesizes the recent literature (2010–2020) on hospitality employees’ emotions, affect and moods. This study has three objectives: to clarify the definitions of emotions, affect and moods; to explain how theories are integrated into understanding hospitality employees’ emotions, affect and moods; and to assess how emotions, affect and moods are measured. Design/methodology/approach Using seven major databases, the authors selected 61 peer-reviewed academic journal articles published in hospitality outlets for review. We based our study on five stages of conducting a systematic review: scoping, planning, identification, screening and eligibility. Findings Affect is an umbrella term encompassing moods and emotions. Emotions are distinct from emotion-laden constructs, such as emotional labor and emotional intelligence. Theories on conservation of resources, emotional labor and social exchange have been most frequently used to understand hospitality employees’ emotions. However, they overlooked the dynamic nature of emotions when using these theories. Hospitality researchers often used a subset of the positive and negative affect scale and did not discuss back-translation. Practical implications Hospitality employees’ emotions lead to far-reaching consequences in attitudes, intentions and behaviors in work and non-work domains. Effective practices (e.g. creating a supportive climate) that help evoke positive employee emotions and reduce negative employee emotions are thus desirable. Originality/value Our findings crystallize the understanding of emotions, affect and moods of hospitality employees. We further provide a roadmap for future research on hospitality employees’ emotions. Data triangulation, cross-cultural research and mixed emotions are novel opportunities for future research.

Employee reactiveness and inclusive leadership: time to manage emotional diversity

PurposeThe different perspectives of diversity have until recently ignored emotional diversity primarily because emotions were discounted as “irrational.” To highlight the need for a broader integrative view of emotions in the workplace, the question addressed in the study was whether inclusive leadership helped emotionally reactive employees improve their performance and whether these employees displayed potential leadership qualities for future roles.Design/methodology/approachThe study was qualitative. This cross-sectional study applied qualitative methods to gather the required information. Sixteen business heads across different sectors in India were purposively chosen for in-depth interviews with respondents. The interviews were semi-structured. The approach of theoretical sampling was adopted. From the initial set of questions, the next set of questions was evolved and the itineration was continued until saturation was achieved.FindingsThe results showed that mentoring and empowerment helped emotionally reactive employees improve their performance. On the question of their potential leadership role, the results were mixed.Research limitations/implicationsThe follower (protégé) perception, if also taken, can validate whether the person-centered style helped in the performance improvement of the followers. The responses of the leaders were based on their memory and no reports were checked from their office records to corroborate the same.Practical implicationsResearchers have argued that worker behavior and productivity are directly affected by employee affect and emotional states. The study contributes significantly to creating emotionally inclusive workplaces.Originality/valueThe study is focused on the role of diversity of emotions in the workplace impacting productivity. Emotions are vital and affect the workplace significantly. The study focused on what organizations could do to handle emotionally reactive employees at work. The study showed that inclusive leadership through mentoring and empowerment helped in assimilating difficult employees into the mainstream work.

Personal sense of power, emotion and compliance in the workplace: a moderated mediation approach

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between personal sense of power (PSP) and compliance as a function of the interaction between negative emotion intensity and emotion regulation tactics. Design/methodology/approach First, hypotheses linking PSP to different emotional reactions and to different levels of compliance with two types of conflict management styles were formulated. Subsequently, data were collected in three waves with a five-week interval between them to test the hypotheses. Findings Results based on principle component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis indicated that workers with high PSP reported lower internalized negative emotions (negative emotions directed to the self) in the workplace and were less inclined to comply with harsh tactics, in comparison to workers with low PSP. The importance of emotional components (suppression and negative emotions in the workplace) was underscored by the moderated mediation model: internalized negative emotions mediated the association between PSP and compliance with harsh tactics as a function of level of suppression such that the link between negative affect and compliance was negative only under high suppression, but not under low suppression. Research limitations/implications The findings point to the deleterious influence of high emotional suppression of negative emotions on study behaviors, especially for employees with a low sense of power. Because the data were collected from a single source, which could raise concerns about common method variance and social desirability bias, future study should examine other-reports. Practical implications Recruitment and training of employees and managers should aim to create an open and safe organizational environment that encourages emotional expression and lessens emotional suppression. Social implications The findings can help develop empowering interventional programs to coach employees to use suppression in an adaptive manner. Originality/value The current study sheds new light on the relationships between PSP and compliance from the emotion regulation perspective.

We have emotions but can’t show them! Authoritarian leadership, emotion suppression climate, and team performance

How do authoritarian leaders in modern organizations influence work team emotional climate and performance? Defining authoritarian leadership as an ambient, demanding, and controlling leadership style, we conducted a survey study of 252 leaders and 765 subordinates matched in 227 work teams in three large public Japanese organizations. The results indicate that authoritarian leaders are more likely to create a team climate of emotion suppression, which induces a higher level of team emotional exhaustion that negatively impacts team performance. Furthermore, we found that authoritarian leaders’ own emotion suppression enhances the above sequential mediation effects, i.e. the more emotion suppression the authoritarian leader him/herself exercises, the stronger the team climate of emotion suppression, the higher the level of team emotional exhaustion, and the lower the team performance. These findings suggest that leadership effectiveness may be improved if leaders can reduce their authoritarian behaviors and identify appropriate channels for employees to release emotions in the workplace.

The Moral Economy of Casino Work in Singapore

Singapore opened two casino resorts in 2010 despite strong public suspicion and resistance. Casino work brings a good income and a certain prestige, but it also places employees in a state of moral uncertainty. Drawing from fieldwork in Singapore, the chapter looks at the moral economy of casino work, especially how employees negotiate moral dilemmas with financial and professional gains. Casino employees fashion a flexible sense of self and hold on to a strong belief in professionalism and self-responsibilization. Such strategies allow employees to suspend personal emotions in the workplace, and to value personal detachment as professionalism. As casino employees recode their moral values through the logic of ‘making exception’, they actively contribute to the moral economy of the casino in Singapore.

Emotions in Organizations

There has been an “affective revolution” in organizational behavior since the mid-1990s, focusing initially on moods and affective dispositions. The past decade has seen a further shift toward investigating the complex roles played by discrete emotions in the workplace. Discrete emotions such as fear, anger, boredom, love, gratitude, and pride have their own appraisal antecedents, subjective experiences, and action tendencies that prepare people to respond to their current situation. Emotions have intrapersonal effects on the person experiencing them in terms of attention, motivation, creativity, information processing and judgment, and well-being. Some emotions have characteristic voice tones or facial expressions that serve the interpersonal function of communicating one’s state to interaction partners. For this reason, emotions are integral to social processes in organizations such as leadership, teamwork, negotiation, and customer service. The effects of emotions on behavior can be complex and context-dependent rather than straightforwardly mechanistic. Individuals may regulate the emotions they experience, the extent to which they display what they feel, and the actions they choose in response to how they feel. Research has tended to focus on negative emotions (e.g., anger or anxiety) and their potential negative effects (e.g., aggression or avoidance), but negative emotions can sometimes have positive consequences. Discrete positive emotions have been relatively ignored in organizational research but feeling and expressing positive emotions often have positive consequences. There is considerable scope for investigating the ways in which specific discrete emotions are experienced, regulated, expressed, and acted upon in organizational life. There may also be a case for intentional efforts by organizations and employees to increase the occurrence of positive emotions at work.