Emotions impact the atmosphere and results of the workplace

Regardless of what work you are doing, emotions always play a part in your actions. Discussion in the field of working life studies has recently paid increasing attention to how the emotional atmosphere of work communities is formed and how it can be affected.

PARTICIPATION WAS WORTHWHILE

Petri Mölsä, the managing director of Tampereen Tilapalvelut Oy, is satisfied with the change brought about by the project. In the early stage of the study, the staff had a lot of prejudices, and even fears. Regardless of the sceptical attitude at the beginning, the results have been promising: discussions are now more open, customers can be taken into consideration better and personnel satisfaction is improving.

“The world is changing rapidly, and this fact is common to all organisations,” says Mölsä. "Usually, people first react to change emotionally and think about how it will affect them. Through coaching, they learn to recognise why each person reacts to matters in a certain way. This, in turn, helps understand the environment and advance matters faster.”

People used to think that work was just a question of performance. Today, the relationship between an individual and their work is understood in a more comprehensive way. The emotional atmosphere of workplaces is also seen to have an effect on both wellbeing at work and the results of an organisation.

Researchers examining questions related to working life are increasingly interested in the significance of emotions. Päivi Hökkä, senior researcher in education, and her research team have reached the final stage of the Emotional Agency in Organisational Change (TUNTO) project, which is supported by the Finnish Work Environment Fund. The project was implemented in cooperation with Emergy Oy. The company was responsible for the emotional interventions carried out during the project.

The objective of the project was to enhance the participants’ emotional skills and to develop the emotional atmosphere of the workplace. The study, carried out by the Department of Education, examined emotional agency and how it can be supported in people’s work. The study was implemented as an intervention study at two medium-sized companies.

“Commitment from management is very important for the success of this kind of intervention study,” she says.

CRITICAL THOUGHTS BROUGHT TO BEAR ON THE CHANGE

“We definitely didn’t have the goal of spreading mere superficial cheerfulness or a feeling of ‘oh, we have so much fun’. An organisation must have room for all emotions, including the difficult ones that are often feared,” Hökkä says. During the project, the researchers defined the concept of “emotional agency” and developed an indicator for studying it. The results showed that emotional agency consists of one’s own emotional skills and the way emotions are affected at work. Intervention could be used to support and enhance the emotional agency of employees, and the change was also shown to be permanent. The tools created new terms and practices supporting the handling of emotions in the everyday work at the workplace.

Hökkä says that regardless of the industry the organisation operated in, the results of emotional intervention were similar. The results were visible in challenging situations involving interaction, such as discussions concerning the handling of mistakes that had occurred in the course of work.

“One’s own emotions and those of others were identified and taken into account, and they could be discussed together in a constructive way. This way, for instance, an experience of shame did not form an obstacle to solving the situation,” Hökkä says.

Emotions became permitted, and people learned to identify them. Emotions were noticed, and people understood that they can be seen as a part of everyday work. Hökkä sees a significant area of application for the results in adult education and organisational research.

← Päivi Hökkä