Emotional Agency at Work: The Development and Validation of a Measure

Abstract

Despite intensive research on agency in education and work environments, the topic remains underexplored through the lens of emotions. This study conducted the development and validation of a quantitative measure to explore emotional agency in working life. Empirical data (N = 240) were collected via a web-based survey within the professional domains of healthcare and real estate services. The participants’ age, educational level, and gender corresponded to the domain-specific and general employee distribution in Finland. The questionnaire items were based on a theoretical construct of emotional agency at work. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that emotional agency includes two dimensions: Emotional Competence at Work and Influencing Emotions at Work. Exploratory structural equation modeling showed these dimensions to be equivalent across the studied professional domains. Furthermore, the convergent and discriminant validity of the measure was confirmed in relation to the emotional climate at work and work engagement. The study enriches the current theory of agency and emotions at work by exploring their connection. It also proposes a novel measure of emotional agency at work (the E-Ag measure), offered as a useful tool for researching and developing working life and organizational behavior.

(Un)expected Emotions and Teamwork: Narratives of Early Childhood Education Practitioners

“…The rules of feeling (Hoschchild 1975), which we see as master narratives about what we should feel in certain situations, illustrate the power relations related to which emotions one is allowed to show. Thus, emotions also involve power and influence; when individuals have power and opportunities to influence their work, they are more likely to experience positive emotions and have a kind of social permission to express various feelings, thereby influencing the emotions of others (Fredrickson 2000;Hökkä et al 2022). Individuals who do not have much power and opportunity for influence are more likely to experience negative emotions and feel they are expected to hide their feelings or express only positive ones (Þorsteinsdóttir & Heijstran 2022;Hecht & LaFrance 1998).…”

“…Individuals who do not have much power and opportunity for influence are more likely to experience negative emotions and feel they are expected to hide their feelings or express only positive ones (Þorsteinsdóttir & Heijstran 2022;Hecht & LaFrance 1998). Indeed, emotions are intertwined with agency at work, and strong agency at work is linked to engagement and well-being in one's job (Hökkä et al 2022). Agency at work refers to practitioners' opportunities to have influence over their work, as well as their ability to participate and be involved in the community and in decisions about their work (Vähäsantanen, Räikkönen et al 2022).…”

“…ECEC practitioners collaborate in multiprofessional teams in emotionally demanding work environments (Kumpulainen et al 2023). As a result, ECEC teachers' emotions directly affect the quality of educational interactions and the emotional climate of the child group (Jeon et al 2018), and the impact of practitioners' emotions on workplace well-being, learning, and professional agency has been recognized (Benozzo & Colley 2012;Hökkä et al 2022).…”