Negative emotions in informal feedback: The benefits of disappointment and drawbacks of anger

an article by Genevieve Johnson and Shane Connelly (University of Oklahoma, USA) published in Human Relations Volume 67 Number 10 (October 2014)

Abstract

Using the emotions as social information (EASI) model, this study investigated the emotional, attitudinal and behavioral reactions to failure feedback by manipulating negative emotional displays (angry, disappointed or none) and the position level and relational distance of the feedback source.

Undergraduate students (N = 260) responded to an organizational failure feedback vignette and completed a subsequent performance task.

Results demonstrated that guilt was the complementary emotional experience following displays of disappointment, while reciprocal anger followed displays of anger.

These emotional reactions served as important mediators between the emotional displays paired with the feedback message and participant responses of social behaviors, creative task performance and perceptions of the feedback source.

In addition, our findings indicated that negative emotions can have positive organizational and interpersonal outcomes. Guilt in response to disappointed displays resulted in beneficial behaviors and attitudes, while anger in response to angry displays was socially detrimental. The emotion displayed during feedback provision also served as a consistent contextual factor that did not interact with the position level or relational distance of the feedback source to impact behavioral and attitudinal reactions.

Overall, this study indicates that discrete negative emotions have unique social-functional properties that require further investigation.

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Understanding the positive and negative effects of emotional expressions in organizations: EASI does it

an article by Gerben A van Kleef (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) published in Human Relations Volume 67 Number 9 (September 2014)

Abstract

Emotions have a pervasive impact on organisational behaviour. They do not just influence people’s own actions; when expressed, emotions may also exert influence on other organisation members who perceive the expressions. Sometimes emotional expressions have ‘symmetrical’ effects, in that positive expressions yield advantageous outcomes for the expresser, while negative expressions produce disadvantageous outcomes.

In other cases effects are ‘asymmetrical’, such that negative emotional expressions generate beneficial outcomes for the expresser, while positive expressions produce detrimental outcomes.

Drawing on Emotions as Social Information (EASI) theory, I develop a theoretical analysis of when and how expressions of anger and happiness generate symmetrical versus asymmetrical effects. I support my analysis with a review of empirical research on the interpersonal effects of anger and happiness in negotiations and leadership.

This review permits two general conclusions:

1. symmetrical effects of anger and happiness are mediated by affective reactions of perceivers, whereas asymmetrical effects are mediated by inferential processes in perceivers;
2. the relative strength of affective reactions versus inferential processes (and thereby the likelihood of symmetrical versus asymmetrical effects) depends on the perceiver’s information processing motivation and ability and on the perceived appropriateness of the emotional display.

I discuss theoretical implications and future directions.

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