Emotions In The Organizational Environment

At the heart of any workplace behavior (and not only), there are always one or more emotions (pleasant/unpleasant, partially controllable/uncontrollable, aware/ unconscious, useful/useless/harmful, intense/less intense, predictable/unpredictable, expressed/ repressed, observable/ unobservable, explained/ unexplained, rational/ irrational, and so on). Emotions are the foundation of a complex and mysterious mechanism of action and behavior. Emotions are triggered by certain things, people, events, situations, processes, results, interactions and so on, and are informed by a variety of endogenous (biological) and exogenous factors, and also by the intellectual potential of each individual. Emotions lie at the intersection of rationality, body (physical) and soul (spirit), thought, reason, logic, compassion, autonomy and action/behavior, individual and environment. This article undertakes to define emotions and identify their impact on the organizational environment, with emphasis on emotional climate and managing emotions. Moreover, we will focus on human behavior/action, rather than on the evolution of the nervous system or the cortex in particular. Work itself should not be a source of suffering. It is obvious that certain emotions cause bad moods, unnecessary and even harmful ones, conditions that should be considered, even if they have a situational and subjective character. Some managers think that the decision-maker fulfills his/her duties by strictly conforming to the law and to the agreement clauses and by meeting his/her obligations in a timely and exacting manner. Others believe that a good leader, in addition to observing the applicable rules and regulation, must be honest also to his colleagues and collaborators and sympathetic to the needs, ideas and emotions of those who are interested in the optimal operation of the company. Managers must remain alert to events, people and behaviors that can trigger harmful emotions within the organization. Employees should be encouraged to express their emotions in order to avoid tense situations. Even though tensions may occur, they must be managed effectively because, as we all know, avoiding a war does not mean peace, just as avoiding unnecessary inconveniences does not always equal pleasure. The improvement of emotional behavior represents a competitive edge in business activities for any organization. The main target of this undertaking is to provide a certain perspective on emotion; to be more specific, we are concerned with discovering the circumstances and causes that trigger off emotions in organizational environments. Theoretical approaches conveyed in this article may be perceived as a call to mindfulness and to the managers\\\' awareness as to the importance of improving the emotional climate of the workplace.