PART TWOPOSITIVE STATES, TRAITS AND

PART TWO
POSITIVE STATES, TRAITS AND
PROCESSES

Positive Emotion in Organizations:
A Multi-level Framework

Neal M. Ashkanasy and Claire E. Ashton-James The fundamental tenet of ‘Positive Organization Scholarship’ (Cameron et al., 2003) is that organizational management and decision settings need to be reframed in a positive light. It follows therefore that managers need to shift their focus to the positive aspects of organizational functioning
and achievement, rather than dwell on the defensive measures needed to deal with real and imagined negative contingencies. A corollary of this view, first advanced by Staw et al. (1994), and more recently confirmed by Lyubomirsky et al. (2005), is that such organizations need also to be characterized by positive, rather than negative emotion. More recently, Ashkanasy and Daus (2002) have described these organizations in terms of a ‘healthy emotional climate’. Consistent with this proposition and based on a multi-level model of emotions in organizations (Ashkanasy,2003a; Ashkanasy and Ashton-James, 2005), we outline in this chapter how organizations can engender positive emotion, and conclude that positive emotion is a necessary precondition of positive organizational behavior. Although Isen and Baron (1991) identified the importance of mild positive affect in organizational behavior 15 years ago, since then much of the literature that has dealt with emotions in the workplace has focused on negative emotions. For example, Fitness (2000) studied ‘anger in the workplace’, Ashkanasy and Nicholson (2003) studied the ‘climate of fear’, while Frost (2003) focused on ‘toxic emotions’, including their antecedents and consequences, and prescriptions for dealing with toxic emotions. In this chapter, we return to the spirit of Isen and Baron’s seminal article and emphasize the link between positive emotion and exceptional performance in organizational contexts. Also, and consistent with Isen (2003), we argue that positive emotions are associated with individual and group creativity. More recently, Lyubomirsky et al. (2005) found, in an extensive meta-analysis, that positive affect leads to more successful outcomes than negative affect across a range of contextual domains, including in the workplace. The theory of positive affect in organizations that we set out here thus provides a basis upon which to understand how and when organizations can foster positive emotion, and why positive emotions should be associated with positive behavior. The multi-level perspective we present in this chapter to address these issues is based on the 5-level model of emotion in organizations described by Ashkanasy (2003a):
Level 1. neuropsychological and cognitive correlates of positive emotion
at the within-person level of analysis;
Level 2. individual differences in positive emotion at the betweenpersons
level of analysis;
Level 3. communication of positive emotion at the dyadic (relationships)
level of analysis;
Level 4. promulgation of positive emotion at the group level of analysis;
and
Level 5. creation of a positive emotional climate at the organizational
level of analysis.
Antecedents of positive emotions in organizations
The majority of research on the antecedents of positive emotions focuses on the cognitive appraisal process that initiates emotional reactions to positive events (e.g. Lazarus, 1991). The nature of the specific events that trigger positive emotions in the organizational environment has only recently been considered, however (see Fredrickson and Brannigan, 2001). To address this in the specific context of the workplace, we base our discussion on Weiss and Cropanzano’s (1996) Affective Events Theory (AET), and use this as a basic framework to describe the situational determinants of positive emotion in workplace settings. Weiss and Cropanzano (1996) argue that events and conditions in the workplace that facilitate the attainment of workplace goals constitute positive ‘affective events’, and it is these events that ultimately determine the occurrence of moods and emotions. Such emotions and moods can lead to the formation of more long-term attitudes, reflected in job satisfaction and affective commitment, or even organizational loyalty (see Wright et al., 1993; Wright and Cropanzano, 1998). The seminal contribution of AET is that it represents an attempt to understand why employees’ moment to moment moods fluctuate in the workplace environment. A further outcome of AET is the importance of accumulation of hassles and uplifts. Thus, rather than the intensity of major events being the source of attitudes
and behavior at work, according to AET, emotions are determined more by the frequency with which hassles or uplifts occur (see Fisher, 2000; Fisher and Noble, 2004; Weiss and Beal, 2005). This conclusion implies in respect of negative emotions that people are more capable of handling once-off incidents than they are of dealing with ongoing hassles. A further corollary of this is that the accumulation of negative events can be offset by positive support from colleagues, friends, and family (see Grzywacz and Marks, 2000). Finally, this idea is consistent with Isen and Baron’s (1991) contention that ‘positive affect states induced by seemingly minor, everyday events can have significant effects on social behavior and cognitive processes that can be important for the functioning of organizations’ (p. 2). It is clear from AET that contextual factors play a pivotal role as determinants of employees’ fluctuating moods and emotions in the workplace. It is also important, however, first to understand the internal neurological and cognitive mechanisms that determine the impact of positive affective events on organizational behavior.

Results (Indonesian) 1:

BAGIAN DUASERIKAT POSITIF, CIRI-CIRI DANPROSESEmosi positif dalam organisasi:Kerangka multi-levelNeal M. Ashkanasy dan Claire E. Ashton-James prinsip mendasar 'Positif organisasi beasiswa' (Cameron et al., 2003) adalah bahwa organisasi manajemen dan keputusan pengaturan perlu reframed dalam cahaya yang positif. Maka karena itu bahwa manajer perlu menggeser fokus mereka untuk aspek-aspek positif dari fungsi organisasiand achievement, rather than dwell on the defensive measures needed to deal with real and imagined negative contingencies. A corollary of this view, first advanced by Staw et al. (1994), and more recently confirmed by Lyubomirsky et al. (2005), is that such organizations need also to be characterized by positive, rather than negative emotion. More recently, Ashkanasy and Daus (2002) have described these organizations in terms of a ‘healthy emotional climate’. Consistent with this proposition and based on a multi-level model of emotions in organizations (Ashkanasy,2003a; Ashkanasy and Ashton-James, 2005), we outline in this chapter how organizations can engender positive emotion, and conclude that positive emotion is a necessary precondition of positive organizational behavior. Although Isen and Baron (1991) identified the importance of mild positive affect in organizational behavior 15 years ago, since then much of the literature that has dealt with emotions in the workplace has focused on negative emotions. For example, Fitness (2000) studied ‘anger in the workplace’, Ashkanasy and Nicholson (2003) studied the ‘climate of fear’, while Frost (2003) focused on ‘toxic emotions’, including their antecedents and consequences, and prescriptions for dealing with toxic emotions. In this chapter, we return to the spirit of Isen and Baron’s seminal article and emphasize the link between positive emotion and exceptional performance in organizational contexts. Also, and consistent with Isen (2003), we argue that positive emotions are associated with individual and group creativity. More recently, Lyubomirsky et al. (2005) found, in an extensive meta-analysis, that positive affect leads to more successful outcomes than negative affect across a range of contextual domains, including in the workplace. The theory of positive affect in organizations that we set out here thus provides a basis upon which to understand how and when organizations can foster positive emotion, and why positive emotions should be associated with positive behavior. The multi-level perspective we present in this chapter to address these issues is based on the 5-level model of emotion in organizations described by Ashkanasy (2003a):Level 1. neuropsychological and cognitive correlates of positive emotionat the within-person level of analysis;Level 2. individual differences in positive emotion at the betweenpersonslevel of analysis;Level 3. communication of positive emotion at the dyadic (relationships)level of analysis;Level 4. promulgation of positive emotion at the group level of analysis;andLevel 5. creation of a positive emotional climate at the organizationallevel of analysis.Antecedents of positive emotions in organizationsThe majority of research on the antecedents of positive emotions focuses on the cognitive appraisal process that initiates emotional reactions to positive events (e.g. Lazarus, 1991). The nature of the specific events that trigger positive emotions in the organizational environment has only recently been considered, however (see Fredrickson and Brannigan, 2001). To address this in the specific context of the workplace, we base our discussion on Weiss and Cropanzano’s (1996) Affective Events Theory (AET), and use this as a basic framework to describe the situational determinants of positive emotion in workplace settings. Weiss and Cropanzano (1996) argue that events and conditions in the workplace that facilitate the attainment of workplace goals constitute positive ‘affective events’, and it is these events that ultimately determine the occurrence of moods and emotions. Such emotions and moods can lead to the formation of more long-term attitudes, reflected in job satisfaction and affective commitment, or even organizational loyalty (see Wright et al., 1993; Wright and Cropanzano, 1998). The seminal contribution of AET is that it represents an attempt to understand why employees’ moment to moment moods fluctuate in the workplace environment. A further outcome of AET is the importance of accumulation of hassles and uplifts. Thus, rather than the intensity of major events being the source of attitudesand behavior at work, according to AET, emotions are determined more by the frequency with which hassles or uplifts occur (see Fisher, 2000; Fisher and Noble, 2004; Weiss and Beal, 2005). This conclusion implies in respect of negative emotions that people are more capable of handling once-off incidents than they are of dealing with ongoing hassles. A further corollary of this is that the accumulation of negative events can be offset by positive support from colleagues, friends, and family (see Grzywacz and Marks, 2000). Finally, this idea is consistent with Isen and Baron’s (1991) contention that ‘positive affect states induced by seemingly minor, everyday events can have significant effects on social behavior and cognitive processes that can be important for the functioning of organizations’ (p. 2). It is clear from AET that contextual factors play a pivotal role as determinants of employees’ fluctuating moods and emotions in the workplace. It is also important, however, first to understand the internal neurological and cognitive mechanisms that determine the impact of positive affective events on organizational behavior.

Results (Indonesian) 2:

BAGIAN DUA
POSITIF SERIKAT, SIFAT-SIFAT DAN
PROSES Emosi Positif dalam Organisasi: Sebuah Kerangka Multi-level (. Cameron et al, 2003) Neal M. Ashkanasy dan Claire E. Ashton-James Prinsip dasar 'Positif Organisasi Beasiswa' adalah bahwa manajemen organisasi dan pengaturan keputusan harus dibingkai dalam cahaya yang positif. Oleh karena itu berikut bahwa manajer perlu mengalihkan fokus mereka ke aspek-aspek positif dari fungsi organisasi dan prestasi, bukan memikirkan langkah-langkah defensif yang diperlukan untuk menghadapi kontinjensi nyata negatif dan membayangkan. Sebuah konsekuensi dari pandangan ini, pertama kali disampaikan oleh Staw dkk. (1994), dan baru-baru dikonfirmasi oleh Lyubomirsky dkk. (2005), adalah bahwa organisasi tersebut perlu juga akan ditandai dengan positif, bukan emosi negatif. Baru-baru ini, Ashkanasy dan Daus (2002) telah dijelaskan organisasi-organisasi ini dalam hal 'iklim emosional yang sehat'. Konsisten dengan proposisi ini dan berdasarkan model multi-level emosi dalam organisasi (Ashkanasy, 2003a; Ashkanasy dan Ashton-James, 2005), kami menjelaskan dalam bab ini bagaimana organisasi dapat menimbulkan emosi positif, dan menyimpulkan bahwa emosi positif adalah diperlukan prasyarat perilaku organisasi positif. Meskipun Isen dan Baron (1991) mengidentifikasi pentingnya ringan mempengaruhi positif dalam perilaku organisasi 15 tahun yang lalu, sejak itu banyak literatur yang telah berurusan dengan emosi di tempat kerja telah difokuskan pada emosi negatif. Misalnya, Pusat (2000) mempelajari 'kemarahan di tempat kerja', Ashkanasy dan Nicholson (2003) mempelajari 'iklim ketakutan', sementara Frost (2003) difokuskan pada 'emosi beracun', termasuk anteseden dan konsekuensi, dan resep untuk berurusan dengan emosi beracun. Dalam bab ini, kita kembali ke semangat Isen dan Baron artikel mani dan menekankan hubungan antara emosi positif dan kinerja yang luar biasa dalam konteks organisasi. Juga, dan konsisten dengan Isen (2003), kami berpendapat bahwa emosi positif berhubungan dengan kreativitas individu dan kelompok. Baru-baru ini, Lyubomirsky dkk. (2005) menemukan, dalam meta-analisis yang ekstensif, yang positif mempengaruhi mengarah ke hasil yang lebih berhasil daripada negatif mempengaruhi di berbagai domain kontekstual, termasuk di tempat kerja. Teori positif mempengaruhi dalam organisasi yang kami berangkat sini sehingga memberikan dasar yang di atasnya untuk memahami bagaimana dan kapan organisasi dapat menumbuhkan emosi positif, dan mengapa emosi positif harus dikaitkan dengan perilaku positif. Perspektif multi-level kami sajikan dalam bab ini untuk mengatasi masalah ini didasarkan pada model 5-tingkat emosi dalam organisasi dijelaskan oleh Ashkanasy (2003a): Tingkat 1. neuropsikologi dan kognitif berkorelasi emosi positif pada tingkat dalam-orang dari analisis; Level 2. perbedaan individu dalam emosi positif pada betweenpersons tingkat analisis; Level 3. komunikasi emosi positif pada diad (hubungan) tingkat analisis; Tingkat 4. diundangkan emosi positif pada tingkat kelompok analisis; dan Tingkat 5. penciptaan iklim emosional yang positif pada organisasi tingkat analisis. Anteseden emosi positif dalam organisasi Mayoritas penelitian tentang anteseden emosi positif berfokus pada proses penilaian kognitif yang memulai reaksi emosional terhadap peristiwa positif (misalnya Lazarus, 1991) . Sifat dari peristiwa tertentu yang memicu emosi positif dalam lingkungan organisasi baru telah dipertimbangkan, namun (lihat Fredrickson dan Brannigan, 2001). Untuk mengatasi ini dalam konteks spesifik tempat kerja, kita mendasarkan diskusi kita pada Weiss dan Cropanzano (1996) Acara Affective Teori (AET), dan menggunakan ini sebagai kerangka dasar untuk menggambarkan penentu situasional emosi positif dalam pengaturan tempat kerja. Weiss dan Cropanzano (1996) berpendapat bahwa peristiwa dan kondisi di tempat kerja yang memfasilitasi pencapaian tujuan kerja merupakan positif 'peristiwa afektif', dan itu adalah peristiwa ini yang pada akhirnya menentukan terjadinya suasana hati dan emosi. Emosi dan suasana hati seperti dapat mengarah pada pembentukan sikap lebih jangka panjang, tercermin dalam kepuasan kerja dan komitmen afektif, atau bahkan loyalitas organisasi (lihat Wright et al, 1993;. Wright dan Cropanzano, 1998). Kontribusi mani AET adalah bahwa hal itu merupakan upaya untuk memahami mengapa saat karyawan untuk suasana hati saat berfluktuasi di lingkungan tempat kerja. Sebuah hasil lebih lanjut dari AET adalah pentingnya akumulasi kerepotan dan uplifts. Jadi, daripada intensitas peristiwa besar menjadi sumber sikap dan perilaku di tempat kerja, menurut AET, emosi lebih banyak ditentukan oleh frekuensi yang kerepotan atau uplifts terjadi (lihat Fisher, 2000; Fisher dan Noble, 2004; Weiss dan Beal, 2005). Kesimpulan ini menyiratkan sehubungan emosi negatif bahwa orang lebih mampu menangani sekali-off insiden dari mereka berurusan dengan kerepotan yang sedang berlangsung. Sebuah konsekuensi lebih lanjut dari ini adalah bahwa akumulasi peristiwa negatif dapat diimbangi oleh dukungan positif dari rekan-rekan, teman, dan keluarga (lihat Grzywacz dan Marks, 2000). Akhirnya, ide ini konsisten dengan Isen dan Baron (1991) pendapat bahwa 'mempengaruhi negara positif yang disebabkan oleh tampaknya kecil, peristiwa sehari-hari dapat memiliki efek yang signifikan pada perilaku sosial dan proses kognitif yang dapat menjadi penting untuk berfungsinya organisasi' (hal. 2 ). Hal ini jelas dari AET bahwa faktor kontekstual memainkan peran penting sebagai penentu suasana hati fluktuasi karyawan dan emosi di tempat kerja. Hal ini juga penting, bagaimanapun, pertama untuk memahami mekanisme neurologis dan kognitif internal yang menentukan dampak dari peristiwa afektif positif pada perilaku organisasi.