MGMT20001 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Cognitive Dissonance, Display Rules, Organizational Learning
25 May 2018
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Very brief events that typically subside or occur in waves lasting from milliseconds to a few
minutes
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Directed towards someone or something
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Emotions are physiological, behavioural and psychological episodes experienced towards an object,
person or event that create a state of readiness
Represent changes in our physiological state (blood pressure, heart rate), psychological state
(thought process) and behaviour (facial expression)
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Emotions are experiences
Most emotional reactions are subtle and occur without our awareness
Types of emotions:
Negative emotions tend to generate stronger levels of activation than do positive emotions
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All emotions have an associated valence (core affect) signalling that the perceived object or event
should be approached or avoided
Emotions vary in their level of activation
Emotions, attitudes and behaviour:
Attitudes are the cluster of beliefs, assessed feelings and behavioural intentions towards a person,
object or event (attitude object)
Involve evaluations of an attitude object
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Attitudes are judgements
Attitudes might also operate non-consciously, but we are usually aware of and consciously think
about those evaluations
Attitudes are more stable over time
Acquired from experience and other forms of learning
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Each belief has a valence
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Beliefs - established perceptions about the attitude object
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Calculated from beliefs and associated feelings about those beliefs
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Feelings can also change feelings about specific beliefs
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Feelings - conscious positive or negative evaluations of the attitude object
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Behavioural intentions - motivation to engage in a particular behaviour regarding the attitude
object
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Traditional cognitive perspective of attitudes
People with the same beliefs might form different feelings towards the attitude object
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Several contingencies weaken the beliefs-feelings-intentions-behaviour relationship
Emotions in the Workplace
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People with the same beliefs might form different feelings towards the attitude object
because they have different valences for those beliefs
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People with the same feelings towards the attitude object might develop different behavioural
intentions
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People with the same behaviour intentions might behave differently
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Brain tags incoming sensory information with emotional markers which are automatic and
non-conscious emotional responses
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Emotions are transmitted to the reasoning process, where they are logically analysed along
with other information
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Influence of cognitive reasoning and emotions on attitudes is most apparent when they
conflict
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Emotions influence attitudes and behaviour
Some companies try to inject more positive experiences in the workplace
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Most people perform work that produces some negative emotions
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Research has found that humour and fun at work (natural or contrived) can potentially offset
some of the negative experiences
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Generating positive emotions at work
Cognitive dissonance is an emotional experience caused by a perception that our beliefs,
feelings and behaviour are incongruent
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Develop more favourable attitudes towards specific features of the decision
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Motivated to discover positive features of the decision they didn't notice earlier
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Discover subsequent problems with the alternative they didn't choose
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Emphasising how other decisions have been frugal etc
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People often reduce cognitive dissonance by changing their beliefs and feelings
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Cognitive dissonance
Emotions are partly determined by personality
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People with more positive emotions typically have higher emotional stability and are
extraverted
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People with more negative emotions typically have higher neuroticism and are introverted
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Emotions and personality
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Emotion labour is the effort, planning and control needed to express organisationally desired
emotions during interpersonal transactions
Display rules are norms or explicit rules requiring us within our roles to display specific emotions and
to hide other emotions
Emotional display norms across cultures:
Norms about displaying or hiding your true emotions vary across cultures
Be subdued
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Have relatively monotonic voice intonation
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Avoid physical movement or touching that display emotions
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Ethiopia, Japan, Austria discourage emotional expression, expect people to
Act consistently with their true emotions
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More honestly reveal their thoughts and feelings
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Be dramatic in their conversational tones
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Be animated in their use of non-verbal behaviours
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Kuwait, Egypt, Spain, Russia allow or encourage more vivid displays of emotions, expect people to
Emotional dissonance:
Emotional dissonance is the psychological tension experienced when the emotions people are
required to display are quite different from the emotions they actually experience at that moment
Leads to higher stress and burnout
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Difficult to pretend to feel a particular set of emotions
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Surface acting is pretending to feel the expected emotion even though they actually experience a
different emotion
Demonstration of skill and professionalism, not deprivation of personal self-worth
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Deep acting involves visualising reality differently which then produces emotions more
consistent with the required emotions - requires considerable emotional intelligence
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Employees can view their act as a natural part of their role
Emotional intelligence:
Emotional intelligence (EI) is a set of abilities to perceive and express emotion, assimilate emotion in
thought, understand and reason with emotion, and regulate emotion in oneself and others
4 dimensions of EI
Ability to perceive and understand the meaning of own emotions
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More sensitive to subtle emotional responses to events and understand their message
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Self-aware people use awareness as conscious information
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Awareness of own emotions
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Ability to manage own emotions
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Displaying behaviours that represent desired emotions in a particular situation
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Generating or suppressing emotions
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Deep acting requires high levels of self-management
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Management of own emotions
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Ability to perceive and understand the emotions of other people
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Represented by empathy
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Extends beyond empathy to include being organisationally aware
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Awareness of others' emotions
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Ability to manage other people's emotions
Management of others' emotions
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Yourself
Others
Recognition of emotions
Awareness of own emotions
Awareness of others' emotions
Regulation of emotions
Management of own emotions
Management of others' emotions
Managing Emotions at Work
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Document Summary
Emotions are physiological, behavioural and psychological episodes experienced towards an object, person or event that create a state of readiness. Very brief events that typically subside or occur in waves lasting from milliseconds to a few minutes. Represent changes in our physiological state (blood pressure, heart rate), psychological state (thought process) and behaviour (facial expression) Most emotional reactions are subtle and occur without our awareness. All emotions have an associated valence (core affect) signalling that the perceived object or event should be approached or avoided. Negative emotions tend to generate stronger levels of activation than do positive emotions. Attitudes are the cluster of beliefs, assessed feelings and behavioural intentions towards a person, object or event (attitude object) Attitudes might also operate non-consciously, but we are usually aware of and consciously think about those evaluations. Beliefs - established perceptions about the attitude object. Acquired from experience and other forms of learning.
