Gender and the Give and Take of Emotions in the Workplace

Mobasseri, Sanaz

doi:10.5465/ambpp.2018.15119abstract

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, a recent study by Mobasseri (2018) provides a possible route. In her work, Mobasseri (2018) analyzed a corpus of 710 employee emails from a mid-sized technology firm to uncover what emotions are expressed at the workplace, and whether there are rewards or penalties when one aligns their emotions toward other workers. Future research could use this type of data along with HR records to examine whether employees who express more anger in their emails are more likely to be promoted or fired.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Anger at work

Porat,

Levy Paluck

2024

Front. Soc. Psychol.

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What happens when you express anger at work? A large body of work suggests that workers who express anger are judged to be competent and high status, and as a result are rewarded with more status, power, and money. We revisit these claims in four pre-registered, well-powered experiments (N = 3,852), conducted in the US, using the same methods used in previous work. Our findings consistently run counter to the current consensus regarding anger's positive role in obtaining status and power in the workplace. We find that when men and women workers express anger they are sometimes viewed as powerful but they are consistently viewed as less competent. Importantly, we find that angry workers are penalized with lower status compared to workers expressing sadness or no emotions. We explore the reasons for these findings both experimentally and descriptively and find that anger connotes less competence and warmth and that anger expressions at work are perceived as inappropriate, an overreaction, and as a lack of self-control. Moreover, we find that people hold negative attitudes toward workplace anger expressions, citing them as relatively more harmful, foolish, and worthless compared to other emotional expressions. When we further explore beliefs about what can be accomplished by expressing anger at work, we find that promoting one's status isn't one of them. We discuss the theoretical and applied implications of these findings and point to new directions in the study of anger, power, and the workplace.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%