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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.

Emotional appraisal is an act of sense making: What does a particular event mean for me? It is not the event itself – but rather an individual's subjective evaluation of the event – that elicits and shapes emotions (Scherer, 1997b). Thus, appraisal is the crucial first step in the emotion process, and describes how we attend, interpret and ascribe meaning to a given event or stimulus. First, emotional appraisal requires attention; given cognitive limits, we must prioritize which events are even worthy of our notice. Second, we must code the event, interpreting its meaning, and in particular its implications for the self (Mesquita & Frijda, 1992). If another person in a team environment is being rude, how one interprets the personal significance of this behavior may change significantly the emotional response – for example, whether the rude individual is a teammate, a customer, a supplier, or a competitor, and whether the rude behavior is directed at an innocent bystander or an instigator. Likewise, a bear approaching a campsite may elicit fear, but the same bear in a zoo could result in delight. Often the cognitive evaluation of stimuli associated with emotional appraisal occurs so quickly and automatically, before our conscious awareness, that we may be unaware of this individual component of the unfolding process. However, even in such cases, we can see the role of appraisal processes by examining, for example, how emotional reactions change over time and vary from person to person. An event that may have caused great embarrassment during youth might in adulthood leave one unfazed, and an event that makes one person angry might make another person sad. Indeed, it can be the lack of conscious awareness of the appraisal process – and the sense that appraisal is clear and lacking a subjective interpretive lens – that prevents individuals from questioning and evaluating it. This results in a particular challenge to reconciling colleagues’ often vastly differing emotional appraisals.

Behavioral ethics research in the field of management is burgeoning. While many advancements have been made, applying an organizational neuroscience approach to this area of research has the possibility of creating significant new theoretical, empirical, and practical contributions. We overview the major areas of behavioral ethics research concerning moral cognition and conation, and then we concentrate on existing neuroscience applications to moral cognition (moral awareness, moral judgment/reasoning, effects of moral emotions on moral reasoning, and ethical ideology). We also demonstrate the usefulness of neuroscience applications to organizational behavioral ethics research by summarizing a recent study on the neuroscience of ethical leadership. We close by recommending future research that applies neuroscience to topics such as moral development, group ethical judgments and group moral approbation, and moral conation (e.g., moral courage and moral identity). Our overall purpose is to encourage future neuroscience research on organizational behavioral ethics to supplement and/or complement existing psychological approaches.

Searching for a job is an important process that influences short- and long-term career outcomes as well as well-being and psychological health. As such, job search research has grown tremendously over the last two decades. In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of prior research, discuss important trends in current research, and suggest areas for future research. The authors conceptualize the job search as an unfolding process (i.e., a process through which job seekers navigate through stages to achieve their goal of finding and accepting a job) in which job seekers engage in self-regulation behaviors. The authors contrast research that has taken a between-person, static approach with research that has taken a within-person, dynamic approach and highlight the importance of combining between- and within-person designs in order to have a more holistic understanding of the job search process. Finally, authors provide some recommendations for future research. Much remains to be learned about what influences job search self-regulation, and how job self-regulation influences job search and employment outcomes depending on individual, contextual, and environmental factors.

In this chapter, we argue that state and trait mindfulness and mindfulness-based practices in the workplace should enhance employee outcomes. First, we review the existing literature on mindfulness, provide a brief history and definition of the construct, and discuss its beneficial effects on physical and psychological health. Second, we delineate a model of the mental and neurobiological processes by which mindfulness and mindfulness-based practices improve self-regulation of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, linking them to both performance and employee well-being in the workplace. We especially focus on the power of mindfulness, via improved self-regulation, to enhance social relationships in the workplace, make employees more resilient in the face of challenges, and increase task performance. Third, we outline controversies, questions, and challenges that surround the study of mindfulness, paying special attention to the implications of unresolved issues for understanding the effects of mindfulness at work. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our propositions for organizations and employees and offer some recommendations for future research on mindfulness in the workplace.

In this chapter, we discuss the impact of business trips on travelers and their families from the perspective of respite, thus embedding business trips in stress theories. We begin by reviewing the literature on respite and recovery. Focusing on the role of travelers’ resources, we relate the phenomenon of business trips to conservation of resources (COR) and job demands-resource (JD-R) theories. We then discuss the negative and positive characteristics and outcomes of business trips. We offer evidence from interviews with business travelers regarding the special characteristics and consequences of business trips. We summarize by addressing the question of whether business trips are a special kind of respite.

Although the term “trigger event” is commonly accepted and frequently mentioned by many disciplines in conjunction with sensemaking, research attention on the trigger event construct is sorely lacking. We chose to examine this construct within a specific setting that global leaders have to master – the intercultural context. After reviewing the relevant literature, we created an original model of trigger events and sensemaking in the intercultural context, which is accompanied by propositions that determine the likelihood of an event rising to the level of a trigger. It is our hope that this theoretical model will lead to a better understanding of how trigger events function in general. The chapter contributes to a greater understanding of the cognitive element of global leadership effectiveness. Finally, the model has practical implications for intercultural and global leadership training and executive coaching.

The concepts of “mindfulness” and “transformational learning” arise from several domains (i.e., traditional and positive psychology, organizational and social sciences, human and organizational learning and development) and are researched within numerous contexts. Given the need to be sensitive to the complexities of multiple levels for analyses (Hitt, Beamish, Jackson, & Mathieu, 2007), our discussion of individual mindfulness in organizations is centered on the micro level of analysis. This construct of individual mindfulness differs from two constructs at the macro, or organizational, level of analysis: “collective mindfulness” – the practices and processes high-reliability organizations employ to increase organizational reliability – and “mindful organizing” (Langer, 2000; Weick & Putman, 2006; Weick & Roberts, 1993; Weick & Sutcliffe, 2007; Weick, Sutcliffe, & Obstfeld, 2002).

This chapter presents a case study of the ways the Phoebe pedagogic planner assists faculty to design and select e-learning technology because “it's not the technology, but the [quality] of the educational experience that affects learning” (Seltz, 2010, p. 1). Faculty applied guidance from Phoebe to evaluate various interactive media options for undergraduate psychology courses to enhance student learning and engagement. The authors discuss the application of instructional technology in Introduction to Psychology, Cross-cultural Psychology, and Human Motivation and Emotion courses. These projects were prompted by earlier work (Hager & Clemmons, 2010) that explored collaboration to promote integration of technology in traditional courses. The new technologies include discussion forums; online simulations, cases and assessments; text-to-poll; and the Moodle learning management system (LMS). Current theories of e-learning are applied to analyze and critique these projects, concluding with recommendations for future research, practice, and faculty development to incorporate learning technologies. The authors demonstrate how learner-centered collaboration among faculty, researchers, and administrators can shape and improve student engagement and develop institutional cultures of e-learning.