Expressing and Amplifying Positive Emotions Facilitate Goal Attainment in Workplace Interactions

Abstract

Expressing emotions has social functions; it provides information, affects social interactions, and shapes relationships with others. Expressing positive emotions could be a strategic tool for improving goal attainment during social interactions at work. Such effects have been found in research on social contagion, impression management, and emotion work. However, expressing emotions one does not feel entails the risk of being perceived as inauthentic. This risk may well be worth taking when the emotions felt are negative, as expressing negative emotions usually has negative effects. When experiencing positive emotions, however, expressing them authentically promises benefits, and the advantage of amplifying them is not so obvious. We postulated that expressing, and amplifying, positive emotions would foster goal attainment in social interactions at work, particularly when dealing with superiors. Analyses are based on 494 interactions involving the pursuit of a goal by 113 employes. Multilevel analyses, including polynomial analyses, show that authentic display of positive emotions supported goal attainment throughout. However, amplifying felt positive emotions promoted goal attainment only in interactions with superiors, but not with colleagues. Results are discussed with regard to the importance of hierarchy for detecting, and interpreting, signs of strategic display of positive emotions.

Classification of affective and social behaviors in public interaction for affective computing and social signal processing

“…Another important issue to mention is the uneven distribution of scales. The expression of positive emotions is considered to be a goal achievement tool (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005;Wong, Tschan, Messerli, & Semmer, 2013), which accounts for the fact that positive emotions are expressed more often in social interactions. At the same time, negative emotions tend to be disguised, and it is harder for an outside observer to estimate them (Jordan et al, 2011).…”

The Relationship between Teachers' Perceptions of Emotional Labor and Teacher Burnout and Teachers' Educational Level

“…According to the Meriam-Webster dictionary (2017), emotion is: "A conscious mental reaction (as anger or fear) subjectively experienced as a strong feeling usually directed toward a specific object and typically accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes in the body". The expression of feelings has many diverse social functions: it is related to gathering of information, influences social interactions and shapes interpersonal relationships with others (Wong et al, 2013). This relationship, between emotion and the social context, creates feeling rules (Hochschild, 1983;Hochschild, 2012) which can be described as norms that relate to the way a culture perceives the suitability or appropriateness of ways to express emotions in specific social interactions, including the degree and intensity of which expressions are expressed (Ekman & Friesen, 1975;Matsumoto & Hwang, 2013).…”

Disentangling the components of surface acting in emotion work: experiencing emotions may be as important as regulating them

“…Positive influences on interaction quality by displaying positive and suppressing negative emotions are plausible because emotions are contagious (Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, ; Sy, ), and are likely to be matched by interaction partners. Thus, displaying positive emotions increases the probability of positive responses (Wong, Tschan, Messerli, & Semmer, ), and displaying negative emotions is likely to trigger negative responses (Andersson, ; Butler & Gross, ; Coté, ; Pearson & Porath, ). From this perspective, SA involving the suppression of negative emotions should lead to higher interaction quality.…”