How we manage emotions is important for how we engage with the world around us. This is the case in both our social and professional life. We feel emotions and we express them. Still most professionals are more concerned with the management of decisions than with the management of emotions. This is probably a mistake as most decisions are indeed influenced by various types of emotions.
To cast light on the importance of emotions in organizations, I would like to share with you the above video produced by The Annual Review. It gives a great introduction to emotions in organizations and points out how for example ‘group affect’ is linked to the positive feelings of satisfaction, cooperation, engagement and performance.
In light of emotions influencing strategy, communication, planning and implementation processes and much more, it makes sense that we start to pay closer attention to the management of emotions and moreover ‘take leadership’ on emotions.
How to form teams
Summarising the main managerial practical implications for managing group emotions, the Annual Review points out that when forming teams, we should pay attention to the following:
Don’t overlook affective composition as an important factor to consider
Cultivate shared positive feelings to produce better group attitudes/performance.
Leaders and managers are a powerful driver of a teams’ mood
This video is the beginning of a flow of information for you about ’emotions in organisations’ and how to manage them. In my opinion, the world of research is not up-to-speed on the topic of emotions. Although a smaller group of researchers are doing a tremendous job on casting light on the importance and influence of emotions in organisations, this area of research has for too long been disregarded as a ‘less relevant’ ‘soft’ issue. Given that emotions can change and ‘steer’ not only organisations, but the entire stock marked within minutes – it has not received the respect and attention it deserves.
We will continue to provide you further insights and knowledge about emotions in organizations where, among others, expert on emotions: Professor Moïra Mikolajczak, University of Louvain – Belgium, will share her knowledge with you.
Want to read more about this topic right now? Please see the companion article to the video by Sigal Barsade and Andrew Knight in The Annual Review
