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15 - Benefits of Negative Affective States

from Part II - Workplace Affect and Individual Worker Outcomes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2020

By
Antje Schmitt
Edited by
Liu-Qin Yang ,
Russell Cropanzano ,
Catherine S. Daus  and
Vicente Martínez-Tur
Liu-Qin Yang
Affiliation:
Portland State University
Russell Cropanzano
Affiliation:
University of Colorado
Catherine S. Daus
Affiliation:
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Vicente Martínez-Tur
Affiliation:
Universitat de València, Spain
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Summary

Workers can have bad days at work. Frustration, sadness, and fear are naturally occurring emotions in daily work life (Bledow, Schmitt, Frese, & Kühnel, 2011; Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) and they often depend on the occurrence of events at work such as frustrating interactions with customers, receiving negative feedback, or frequent interruptions (Ohly & Schmitt, 2015; Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). In general, the affective repertoire of individuals is skewed toward negativity (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Finkenhauer, & Vohs, 2001): four of the six basic emotions (fear, anger, disgust, sadness) are negative (Ekman, 1992), and workers report a greater variety in their negative emotions than in their positive emotions (e.g. Dasborough, 2006). Even though positive emotions happen more frequently at work, negative ones are more easily recalled and have a stronger effect on overall affective outcomes at work (Miner, Glomb, & Hulin, 2005).

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Workplace Affect , pp. 200 - 213
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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