Emotions and attentional engagement in the attention-based view of the firm

Abstract

This essay integrates emotions into the attention-based view of the firm to enhance the theory’s explanatory power and open a generative path for future research. Organizational structures and communicative practices shape organization leaders’ and members’ emotions. These emotions influence their attentional engagement. Structures and communicative practices shape emotions via two main paths: (1) perceived issue or initiative characteristics, which influence organization leaders’ and members’ specific emotions toward the issue and initiative, and (2) the socially constructed context for interaction about the issue or initiative, which influences the emotional energy leaders and members associate with the issue or initiative. The resulting emotions influence attentional engagement over three time horizons: immediately in the triggering situation, recurringly after the triggering situation, and through the creation of additional structures and practices that influence attentional engagement.

When is it good to feel bad? How sadness and fear differ in their effects on routine development

“…Managers who focus on quickly restoring organizational efficiency might in some situations benefit from substituting fear with sadness, e.g., by creating certainty with regard to a negative event. From a more general attention-based perspective, our study further raises awareness that negative emotions might reduce attentional commitment toward change and, as a consequence, employees' exploratory behavior (Vuori, 2023). Accordingly, managers need to be vigilant about linking changes in routines to positive emotions that increase both the intensity and quality of attentional engagement.…”