How Does Emotional Thinking Affect the Workplace?
Business owners often emphasize the importance of rational thinking at work: solving problems, connecting with customers and thinking of creative ways to help the business succeed. In general, employees should think with their brains, not their hearts; however, employers must address their workers' emotional needs to create a safe and positive work environment. Unexpressed emotions leads to emotional thinking, which has negative consequences for the work environment and can lead to conflicts and even violence.
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Lowers Productivity
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Negative emotional attitudes are contagious, "Wired" magazine points out in an article titled "Happiness and Sadness Spread Just Like Disease." Workers who interact with an angry or critical employee tend to become angry and critical themselves. They begin focusing on negative emotions rather than on the tasks they need to complete for their jobs, which in turn keeps others on the work team from being able to complete their jobs in a timely manner. Thus, as negative emotional thinking spreads through the workplace, workers as a whole become less productive.
Motivational Problems
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Negative emotional thinking contributes to an unpleasant work environment. Workers feel the conflict in the air between co-workers or between employees and employers; this unpleasantness causes employees to dislike or even dread coming to work because they don't want to face the negative environment, notes the Thinking Coach website. When workers are less motivated to come to the job and do their best work, the company may begin to experience high turnover.
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Increased Risk of Violence
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If the work environment is negative, particularly if managers encourage employees to keep their emotions to themselves, the risk of workplace violence increases, according to a Sage Publications paper titled "Emotions, Violence and Counterproductive Work Behavior." Workers become frustrated more easily because of a lack of productivity by their co-workers that interferes with their work or because they feel forced to go to a job they no longer enjoy. As frustrations mount, some workers may become angry enough to explode into violence toward their co-workers or employers.
Solutions for Managers
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Managers can help alleviate the effects of negative emotional thinking by allowing workers to express both positive and negative emotions, the Behavioral Coaching Institute advises. Employers should keep the lines of communication open with their employees and listen to workers' frustrations with the job or with other workers. Employers can also create a positive environment by praising workers for exceptional work and providing incentives to meet work goals. Employers should not discourage workers from reasonable expressions of positive emotion, as that tends to lead to more negative attitudes.
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