Affective Events Theory

7 Key excerpts on "Affective Events Theory"

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  eBook - ePub

  Work Motivation in Organizational Behavior

  • Craig C. Pinder(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Psychology Press

    (Publisher)

  They developed a conceptual model called Affective Events Theory (AET). Represented here as Figure 4.1, this model shows that people have emotional reactions to work events. These affective responses, in combination with the influence of objective features of the work environment, determine an employee’s work attitudes. Fig. 4.1 Affective Events Theory Source: Weiss, H. M., & Cropanzano, R. (1996). Affective Events Theory: A theoretical discussion of the structure, causes and consequences of affective experiences at work. In B. M. Staw & L. L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 18). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. © Elsevier, 1996. In addition, affective reactions to work events can result directly in job-related behavior, which, in turn, may also affect work attitudes, although this linkage is not central to the model as it is portrayed in Figure 4.1 (H. M. Weiss, personal communication, July 15, 1997). Weiss and Cropanzano’s (1996) model has provoked and guided a number of empirical investigations since it was published more than a decade ago. The creative study that resulted in the affective events–emotions matrix model (summarized earlier) provides a fine example (see Basch & Fisher, 2000). Another study by Fisher (2002), employing a within-subjects design, found considerable support for Affective Events Theory. For example, it demonstrated, as hypothesized, that different factors predicted positive and negative affective reactions: Job characteristics were predictive of positive affective reactions but not negative reactions. By the same token, as hypothesized, role conflict predicted negative affective reactions but not positive reactions. The relationships proposed by the theory between affective reactions and job satisfaction received mixed support

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  Effective Leadership

  Theory, Cases, and Applications

  • Ronald H. Humphrey(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  Affective Events Theory to explain how workplace events influence our moods and emotions. Have you ever been in a good mood at work, perhaps chatting with an attractive or amusing coworker, when you spill coffee on yourself? There goes your good mood, replaced by the emotion of embarrassment. Or perhaps you are feeling bored and unmotivated, and the boss stops by and congratulates you on your last project. Sudden mood perk! Or perhaps your emotions swing rapidly due to a mix of good tips (happiness) and pushy and demanding customers (anger, irritation). According to Affective Events Theory, these almost random events that are intermittently boosting or depressing our moods and emotions throughout the day have a big impact on our work attitudes and behaviors.

  According to the leaders as mood and emotion managers perspective (e.g., Humphrey, 2002; Pescosolido, 2002), one of the duties of a leader is to create positive affective events for subordinates and to help subordinates cope with the negative events that do occur. Leaders are also likely to be more resistant to the mood dampening effects of negative events (Humphrey, Pollack, & Hawver, 2008) because of their greater resiliency (Hannah & Luthans, 2008; Luthans & Avolio, 2003).

  A heavy workload or a series of frustrating events can easily drain our energy at work. When this happens, how can we restore our vitality? Fritz, Lam, and Spreitzer (2011) surveyed 214 knowledge workers who worked for a U.S. software development company. Here is what they found:

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  Managing Emotions in the Workplace

  • Neal M. Ashkanasy, Wilfred J. Zerbe, Charmine E. J. Hartel(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Weiss and Cropanzano 1996). It focuses on the events that happen to people in work settings in contrast to the traditional emphasis on personal dispositions or features of the environment taken in the study of antecedents to organizational job attitudes and behaviors.

  Affective Events Theory incorporates the cognitive appraisal process to explain how events elicit emotions. According to cognitive appraisal theorists, emotional reactions begin with a two-stage appraisal of an event (Frijda 1986, 1988 ; Lazarus 1982, 1991a ; Plutchik 1994; Smith and Ellsworth 1985). In primary appraisal, the first stage, an individual evaluates the event for its relevance to well-being in terms of positive or negative events. Lazarus (1991a , 92) terms this as assessing “harms or benefits.” This stage then initiates a secondary appraisal where the individual appraises the more specific context, focusing on consequences, attributions, or coping potential. It is in the secondary appraisal that the experiences of discrete emotions such as anger, sadness, or joy are generated.

  Affective Events Theory and its incorporation of the cognitive appraisal theory of emotions may offer the best way forward in understanding emotions in the workplace. Using these perspectives, this chapter aims to integrate the concept of daily hassles and uplifts, as negative and positive affective work events respectively, with the EL-ED-EE sequence.

  Hassles and Uplifts As Negative and Positive Work Events

  One promising avenue for the study of psychological well-being in the workplace is provided by the concept of daily hassles and uplifts. Hassles are “the irritating, frustrating, distressing demands or annoying minor events that more or less characterize everyday transactions with the environment” (Kanner, et al. 1981, 3). In contrast, uplifts are the “positive experiences such as the joy derived from manifestations of love, relief at hearing good news, the pleasure of a good night’s rest, and so on” (Kanner et al. 1981, 6). Hassles and uplifts can elicit negative and positive affect respectively. Uplifts or positive experiences at work have been empirically linked with favorable outcomes such as performance and supervisory evaluations (Staw, Sutton, and Pelled

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  Burnout at Work

  A psychological perspective

  • Michael P Leiter, Arnold B Bakker, Christina Maslach(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Psychology Press

    (Publisher)

  This example illustrates that experiences of exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy may change substantially within the same employee from one moment or day to another as a response to the continuously changing job characteristics and work-related events. Since there is evidence suggesting that work conditions (i.e., levels of job demands and job resources) vary substantially from one workday to another (Butler et al., 2005; Xanthopoulou et al., 2009; Xanthopoulou et al., 2008), it may be argued that reactions to these conditions may vary accordingly. This micro-approach in the study of burnout is supported by Weiss and Cropanzano’s (1996) AET, which proposes that specific critical events at work are the most proximal causes of employees’ affective reactions to these events. For example, the occurrence of pleasant events (e.g., having a nice conversation with a client) may elicit momentary positive emotions (e.g., happiness, satisfaction), while unpleasant events (e.g., arguing with a colleague) may elicit momentary negative emotions (e.g., frustration).

  Building on AET, Beal and Weiss (2013) provided a more elaborate analysis of how critical events at work explain emotional and, consequently, behavioral reactions on a daily basis. These authors proposed that life at work can be partitioned in a series of episodes, and that employee experiences and behaviors may be best examined in relation to these episodes. They distinguished between emotion episodes that concern how people feel with respect to a specific event at work, and performance episodes that concern what people did with regard to a specific event or goal at work. Events are the initiators of both types of episodes and refer to “any aspect or occurrence of one’s environment that influences another element or stream of experience” (Beal & Weiss, 2013, p. 17). As such, the main characteristic of events is that they are clearly exogenous experiences that can have a potentially beneficial or harmful effect on employee momentary well-being. Beal and Weiss (2013) recognize that the extent to which an event will influence an employee is determined by its nature, with shock-like events being far more influential than routine ones.

  In this context, we argue that daily experiences of exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy may be examined in relation to specific events or episodes because how employees feel depends on what is happening at work on a day-to-day basis and during different instances throughout a day (Beal & Weiss, 2013). As episodic experiences, these may vary substantially within the same employee from one moment or workday to another since they depend highly on the specific critical events that take place during each day at work. A first advantage of the episodic approach in the study of burnout is that surveying individual burnout experiences the moment that they occur facilitates capturing their dynamic nature (Xanthopoulou et al., 2012a). In other words, it is possible to investigate whether and how exhaustion, cynicism, and efficacy experiences change within the same person across short periods of time as a response to specific episodes or critical work events.

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  Emotions During Times of Disruption

  • Ashlea C. Troth, Neal M. Ashkanasy, Ronald H. Humphrey, Ashlea C. Troth, Neal M. Ashkanasy, Ronald H. Humphrey(Authors)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Emerald Publishing Limited

    (Publisher)

  (2018) used AET as an underlying framework to postulate that goal-related interruptions as work events elicit certain types of affective reactions. Hunter et al. (2019) also used AET to argue that interruptions that impede work trigger negative affect while interruptions that assist goals elicit positive affect. Additionally, Zohar et al. (2003) claimed that work events that hinder goals produce negative emotional reactions, whereas work events that enhance goals produce positive emotional reactions. More specifically, work events or situations that are compatible with goal achievement and goal progression elicit positive affective reactions (i.e., work-enhancing events), whereas events or situations that are incompatible with goal achievement and goal progression elicit negative affective reactions (i.e., work-hindering events). In this chapter, we argue that the effect of interruption type on individual outcomes is in part explained by individuals' use of emotional regulation in response to the emotion generated by the work interruptions. Emotion Regulation at Work Emotion is naturally embedded in daily working life (Ashforth & Humphrey, 1995). Employees go through various positive emotions such as love, calmness, enthusiasm, and happiness as well as negative emotions such as shame, frustration, anger, fear, and sadness (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). These numerous emotions shape the thoughts and actions of employees at work (Fredrickson, 1998). Researchers from various disciplines and backgrounds have attempted to define emotion. Some refer to emotion as a state of feeling (Frijda, 2000), while others view emotion as a cognitive process (Lazarus, 1991) or a chain of reactions to various stimuli which are behavioral, physiological, and cognitive factors (Gross, 1998). Based on these studies, Gross (1998) defined emotions as personal reactions or feelings triggered by internal or external stimuli

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  Individual, Relational, and Contextual Dynamics of Emotions

  • Laura Petitta, Charmine E. J. Härtel, Neal M. Ashkanasy, Wilfred Zerbe(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Emerald Publishing Limited

    (Publisher)

  On one hand, the trait affect is defined by Watson and his colleagues as a set of enduring predispositions, such as positive and negative affectivity. On the other hand, Forgas (1992) defines the state affect as a subjective feeling state. In this research, we focus on negative affective states, which encompass feelings of anger, fear, anxiety, helplessness, nervousness, guilt, and distress (Ashforth & Humphrey, 1995 ; Forgas, 1992 ; Watson et al., 1988). This is because negative affective states not only influence critical organizational outcomes (e.g. job performance, leadership, and turnover; see Barsade & Gibson, 2007 for a review), but are also more salient in abusive supervision conditions (Ghosh, Dierkes, & Falletta, 2011). Additionally, we also focus on negative rather than positive affect. We do this because, as Dasborough (2006) found, negative emotions are felt with great intensity and in more detail, thus making them more impactful than positive emotions. It is for these reasons that we conceptualize negative affect as an affective state rather than trait. Theoretical Framework: Affective Events Theory To deepen the understanding of negative affect, especially negative emotional contagion processes in abusive supervision, we adopt Weiss and Cropanzano’s (1996) Affective Events Theory (AET). In AET, the authors sought to explain how salient affective events at work can stimulate employees’ emotional and attitudinal reactions, as well as affect- (e.g. interpersonal conflict) and judgment-driven behaviors (e.g. task performance; Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). In accordance with AET, we conceptualize leaders’ negative affect as a negative affective event, which, through emotional contagion, can elicit followers’ negative affect, thereby influencing their (1) perception of abusive supervision and (2) behavioral outcomes

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  Naked Safety

  Exploring The Dynamics of Safety in a Fast-Changing World

  • Andrew Sharman(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  The Affective Events Theory was the first framework to consider causes and consequences of affect at work by attempting to understand the role of mood and emotion. The theory focuses on structure, causes and consequences of affective experiences at work, viewing events as proximal or immediate causes of affect. In this way, people feel the way they do when at work because of their reactions to events at work, their dispositions and a range of other environmental factors. Longitudinal studies have confirmed the benefits of positive emotions on health and wellbeing, and the ‘Happy-Productive Worker’ hypothesis, where ‘happy’ workers are assumed to perform better remains popular with academics and Human Resource practitioners alike.

  Although many organisations have established wellbeing programmes, there is little by way of solid evidence to confirm their effectiveness. As interventions often take place at the local level, such as within a team or department, it is difficult to make valid quantitative analysis of their effectiveness. Additionally, often when programmes are implemented, in practice they do not reliably control other influencing factors and are not systematically assessed in the workplace. Fundamentally, measures of wellbeing are typically ‘outcomes’ and do not reflect the ‘wellbeing process’. So, to measure effectiveness we must consider the process of the intervention itself – though process evaluation itself also presents a challenge in that there is a lack of sound theoretical basis upon which to evaluate.

  Evaluation of both management and employee perceptions on the effectiveness of wellbeing interventions is vital, as these views may not totally align. In their recent study looking at reducing adverse psychosocial work environment factors, Hasson et al. (2012) found that in more than 50 per cent of interventions, the proportion of employees reporting that a specific change was implemented did not correspond to the amount of change reported by management.

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