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Affective Events Theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) proposes a theoretical framework that outlines the structure, antecedents, and consequences of affective experiences at work. We elaborate on Affective Events Theory by incorporating recent theory of attitude and by further exploring the role of work environment features within the model. Our proposed model acknowledges the immediacy of judgment driven as well as affect-driven behavior. It provides a mechanism through which affect-driven or judgment-driven behaviors can be more easily predicted and it shows how work environment features not only make certain events more or less likely but also influence resulting behaviors through attitude formation. We outline the practical application of our model and give direction for future research.

The purpose is to understand how affective events employees experience at work, and emotions those events elicit, influence within-person fluctuations in perceived organizational support (POS). The authors explore the possibility of socioemotional needs as a boundary condition of the effects. They integrate affective events theory with organizational support theory to develop their arguments.

Using a diary study method, 55 working adults responded to three surveys per day for ten days (876 total datapoints).

The results suggest POS fluctuates daily. Furthermore, workplace affective events are significantly related to discrete emotions (happiness and anger), which are significantly related to fluctuations in POS. Indirect effects were generally stronger when socioemotional needs were high compared to low, though the moderation was not statistically significant.

The authors extend organizational support theory by integrating affective events theory; they highlight the role of affective events and transient emotion in relation to momentary changes in POS and explore socioemotional needs as a moderator of those relationships.

Organizations can be mindful of employees' daily experiences when considering how to foster POS; minimizing negative affective events and maximizing supportive affective events may enhance POS.

This study is the first to consider predictors of short-term fluctuations in POS. Moreover, the authors integrate affective events and discrete emotions to consider the role of affect in organizational support theory.

To explore the roles of perceived leader caregiving, and followers’ leader-specific attachment orientations, in followers’ experiences of negative interactions and emotions.

In a qualitative field study, individuals identified as secure and insecure (avoidant or anxious) on a pre-measure of leader-specific attachment, were interviewed regarding perceptions of leader caregiving and experiences of negative affective events in their current leadership dyad.

Followers perceived and interpreted negative interpersonal events and emotions in ways that reflected underlying attachment concerns, and embedded perceptions, of leader caregiving quality.

The study was small-scale but provides rich relational information on which future researchers can build to further explore the development and impact of leader-follower attachment dynamics.

Attachment-focused leadership development training may be useful in enhancing leader-follower relationship quality.

This study is the first to demonstrate qualitatively the associations between followers’ leader-specific attachment orientations, their perceptions of leader caregiving, and their experiences of negative affective events in the leader-follower dyad.

To reconcile theoretical discrepancies between discrete emotion, dimensional emotion (positive vs. negative affect), and the circumplex model, we propose the bifurcation model of affect structure (BMAS). Based on complexity theory, this model explores how emotion as an adaptive complex system reacts to affective events through negative and positive feedback loops, resulting in self-organizing oscillation and transformations between three states: equilibrium emotion, discrete positive and negative emotion in the near-equilibrium state, and chaotic emotion. We argue that the BMAS is superior to the extant models in revealing the dynamic connections between emotions and the intensity of affective events in organizational settings.

Although there has been increasing interest in the role of affect in work settings, the impact of moods and emotions in strategic decision making remains largely unexplored. In this essay, we address this shortcoming by proposing a conceptual model of strategic decision making that incorporates, at its core, the impact of affective states on cognitive processes that are integral to the decision outcome. The model is based on the principles of Affective Events Theory, which holds that environmental exigencies generate “affective events” that cause emotional reactions in organizational members which, in turn, determine members’ attitudes and behaviors. We extend this model to include the effect of the extra-organizational environment, and propose that emotions “infuse” those cognitive processes that are critical to the strategic decision making process. We conclude that strategic decision making in organizations is not always a controlled, deliberate, purely cognitive process, as it is often described. Rather, we contend that the moods and emotions that managers experience in response to positive and negative workplace events have a significant affect on strategic decision-making processes and ultimately, organizational-level outcomes. We discuss the implications of our model for theory, research, and practice.

Researchers in the field of occupational stress and well-being are increasingly interested in the role of emotion regulation in the work context. Emotion regulation has also been widely investigated in the area of lifespan developmental psychology, with findings indicating that the ability to modify one’s emotions represents a domain in which age-related growth is possible. In this chapter, we integrate the literatures on aging, emotion regulation, and occupational stress and well-being. To this end, we review key theories and empirical findings in each of these areas, summarize existing research on age, emotion regulation, and stress and well-being at work, and develop a conceptual model on how aging affects emotion regulation and the stress process in work settings to guide future research. According to the model, age will affect (1) what kinds of affective work events are encountered and how often, (2) the appraisal of and initial emotional response to affective work events (emotion generation), and (3) the management of emotions and coping with affective work events (emotion regulation). The model has implications for researchers and practitioners who want to understand and facilitate successful emotion regulation and stress reduction in the workplace among different age groups.

Despite being a seminal explanation of the workforce emotional experiences, capable of mapping the path from the antecedents to consequences, affective events theory (AET) only offers a “macrostructure” of a working environment. To date, little is known about the universal features of the work environment that may guide the understanding of imperative work aspects triggering employees’ emotions at work. Hence, the study proposes and validates that Stafford Beer’s viable system model (VSM) can provide a holistic view of the organizational work environment, enabling a comprehensive understanding of work events or factors triggering workforce emotions.

First, the VSM structural layout is used to fill in the “macrostructure” of the “working environment” in AET to diagnose the functional and relational aspects of the work and the related work events occurring within. Using a deductive approach, 31 work events were adopted to determine the impact of VSM-based work environment events on the employees’ emotional experiences and subsequent work attitudes (job satisfaction) and behaviors (citizenship behavior). To field test the proposed nexus of VSM and AET, the survey was conducted on two hundred and fifteen employees from 39 different organizations. PLS-SEM tested the explanatory power of the suggested VSM’s systemic approach for understanding the affective work environment in totality.

The findings confirmed that the VSM metalanguage provides a holistic view of the organizational functioning and social connectivity disposing of affective work events, helpful in assessing their aggregate influence on employees’ emotions and work-related outcomes.

The findings identify how employees' emotions can be triggered by everyday work operations and social relations at work, which can affect their extra-role behaviors and necessary work-related attitudes.

The study utilized Beer’s VSM framework based on the systemic principle of “holistic view” for ascertaining the affective work environment and its related features holistically, which filled in well the macrostructure of “work environment features” with micro-structures of organizational inter-related aspects which are yet to be known in AET – a seminal explanation for managing workforce emotions.

Since its publication in 1996, Affective Events Theory (AET) has come to be regarded as the seminal explanation for structure, causes and consequences of affective experiences at work. AET does not, however, elucidate why, how, and when objects and events in the workplace trigger moods and emotions which in turn influence cognitive and behavioral outcomes. Consequently, AET does not yet provide us with a theoretical basis upon which to predict the way in which contextual, cognitive, motivational, or individual factors might moderate the impact of workplace events on affective states and subsequent behavior. In this chapter, we outline the central tenets of AET, and review a model of the processes underlying AET, with a view to understanding individual differences in the manifestation and consequences of affect in the workplace.

Organizational behavior scholars have long recognized the importance of a variety of emotion-related phenomena in everyday work life. Indeed, after three decades, the span of research on emotions in the workplace encompasses a wide variety of affective variables such as emotional climate, emotional labor, emotion regulation, positive and negative affect, empathy, and more recently, specific emotions. Emotions operate in complex ways across multiple levels of analysis (i.e., within-person, between-person, interpersonal, group, and organizational) to exert influence on work behavior and outcomes, but their linkages to human resource management (HRM) policies and practices have not always been explicit or well understood. This chapter offers a review and integration of the bourgeoning research on discrete positive and negative emotions, offering insights about why these emotions are relevant to HRM policies and practices. We review some of the dominant theories that have emerged out of functionalist perspectives on emotions, connecting these to a strategic HRM framework. We then define and describe four discrete positive and negative emotions (fear, pride, guilt, and interest) highlighting how they relate to five HRM practices: (1) selection, (2) training/learning, (3) performance management, (4) incentives/rewards, and (5) employee voice. Following this, we discuss the emotion perception and regulation implications of these and other discrete emotions for leaders and HRM managers. We conclude with some challenges associated with understanding discrete emotions in organizations as well as some opportunities and future directions for improving our appreciation and understanding of the role of discrete emotional experiences in HRM.

In the few years since the appearance of Affective Events Theory (AET), organizational research on emotions has continued its accelerating pace and incorporated many elements of the macrostructure suggested by AET. In this chapter we reflect upon the original intentions of AET, review the literature that has spoken most directly to these intentions, and discuss where we should go from here. Throughout, we emphasize that AET represented not a testable theory, but rather a different paradigm for studying affect at work. Our review reveals an obvious shift toward AET in the way organizational researchers study affect at work, but also that some elements have been neglected. Ultimately, we see the most fruitful research coming from further delineation of the underlying processes implicated by the macrostructure of AET.