Emotions in leaders’ enactment of professional agency

Abstract

Purpose Although there has been an increase in workplace studies on professional agency, few of these have examined the role of emotions in the enactment of agency at work. To date, professional agency has been mainly conceptualised as a goal-oriented, rational activity aimed at influencing a current state of affairs. Challenged by this, this study aims to elaborate the nature and quality of emotions and how they might be connected to the enactment of professional agency. Design/methodology/approach Data are collected in the context of a leadership coaching programme that aimed to promote the leaders’ professional agency over the course of a year. The participants (11 middle-management leaders working in university and hospital contexts) were interviewed before and after the programme, and the data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Findings Findings showed that emotions played an important role in the leaders’ enactment of professional agency, as it pertained to their work and to their professional identity. The study suggests that enacting professional agency is by no means a matter of purely rational actions. Practical implications The study suggests that emotional agency can be learned and enhanced through group-based interventions reflecting on and processing one’s own professional roles and work. Originality/value As a theoretical conclusion, the study argues that professional agency should be reconceptualised in such a way as to acknowledge the importance of emotions (one’s own and those of one’s fellow workers) in practising agency within organisational contexts.

Emotional competence at work

“…Such a definition acknowledges the role of socio-cultural conditions (e.g. material circumstances, power, discourses) in the workplace, but sees individuals as subjects who can make choices concerning their own actions and behavior (Eteläpelto et al, 2013;Hökkä et al, 2017Hökkä et al, , 2019. It follows that emotional competence can be enhanced through training interventions.…”

“…For the purposes of this study, the authors adopted a sociocultural view on emotion that makes it possible to elaborate and explore emotional competence, including its links with organizational practices and interactions (e.g. Hökkä et al, 2019;Smith, 2017;Turner, 2007). The socio-cultural approach emphasizes that emotion is not just an individual and internal state, but is always experienced, perceived, and understood in particular social and cultural circumstances.…”

«Трансформирующая Агентность» Как Предмет Исследований И Разработок В XXI Веке: Обзор И Интерпретация Международного Опыта

“…Мотивация к поиску новых подходов [Kanfer, Frese, Johnson, 2017;Elliot, Thrash, 2002] (М) Склонность к риску [Chatterjee, Das, 2015] (Э) Способность ориентироваться в среде неопределенности [Khusainova et al, 2018] / Умение самостоятельно справиться в сложной ситуации, алертность [Bartell et al, 2019;Smith, Ulvik, 2017] (П) Самоподдержка [Cooper, Lu, 2019] (П) Эмоциональная агентность [Hökkä et al, 2019] / Эмоциональная стабильность [Ng, Feldman, 2014] / Эмоциональное лидерство [Humphrey, 2002;Goleman, Boyatzis, McKee, 2013] (С) Автономность [Chatterjee, Das, 2015;Поливанова, Бочавер, Нисская, 2017;Bartram et al, 2020;Mussner et al, 2017;Tuominen, Martinsuo, 2019] (M) Резильетность как независимость от среды [Berridge, 2017] Фокус на продвижении [Higgins, Shah, Friedman, 1997;Lanaj, Chang, Johnson, 2012;Ferris et al, 2013] (П) Стремление преодолевать вызовы (challenges), препятствия [Cooper, Lu, 2019;Murnieks, Klotz, Shepherd, 2019] (М) Умение находить и использовать нужные связи [Sundet, 2019;Lane et al, 2019] / Проактивный копинг (совладание с трудностями) [Kwon, Kim, 2020;Rydzik, Anitha, 2019] (О) / Умение договариваться [Ng, Feldman, 2014] Целеустремленность [Bandura, 1977;Carver, Scheier, 1981;Kanfer, Frese, Johnson, 2017;…”

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

“…Despite considerable research on agency at work, the topic has remained underexplored in terms of its emotional components. Agency at work has mainly been conceptualized as rational and goal-oriented actions aimed at making a difference to a state of affairs, with little attention given to how emotions enter into agentic actions (Hökkä et al, 2019). This, then, is why we argue the need for a deeper understanding of the relationship between emotions and agency, encompassing in particular emotional agency at work.…”

“…In working life and organization studies, the concept of agency has emerged as a construct for understanding how individuals and organizations can survive or even flourish amid rapid societal and organizational changes (Eteläpelto et al, 2013;Hager and Beckett, 2019). As a result of ongoing global and societal transformations, individuals are expected to adopt new orientations toward their work and to enlarge their professional roles, all with a willingness to be flexible and ready for continuous development and learning (e.g., Hökkä et al, 2019). This underlines the meaning of agency as a crucial aspect of continuous learning in workplace contexts (Tynjälä, 2013;Vähäsantanen et al, 2017;Wallin et al, 2022).…”