The meaning of my feelings depends on who I am: work-related identifications shape emotion effects in organizations

Published in: Academy of Management Journal - June 2017

Written by

Samantha Conroy, William Becker and Jochen Menges

Summary

What we found: Traditionally, people believed that negative emotions lead to negative outcomes and that positive emotions lead to positive outcomes. In this research, we show that if employees strongly identify with their company, negative emotions can also lead to positive outcomes such as reduced turnover intentions.

Why it matters: Recognizing that it is not only about whether an emotion is positive or negative, but also about how much employees identify with their company, may help to shift our focus to encouraging employees to identify with their company instead of focusing only on preventing negative emotions.

What next: Instead of trying to suppress negative emotions, organizations should adopt practices that help employees to identify with their organization. Communicating prestigious organizational facts or establishing policies that reflect the power of the group may help leaders to foster the organizational identification of their employees.