MODULE 9.1 Work Attitudes The Experience of Emotion at Work Imagine that you are a manager with a Fortune 500 company and you have just been promoted to a new position in a new location.Your emotions probably include happiness. pride,excitement,and enthusiasm-and perhaps some nervousness as you face the challenges of getting to know your new responsibilities and your new co-workers.In accordance with company policy,on your first day in the new location,you report to the security office to have your photo taken for an identification badge and turn your laptop over to the IT department for a routine security check and any needed software updates. Now imagine that,the following morning.your new boss calls you into her office and,with a cold stare,informs you that the IT department has discovered evidence in your laptop that you have been mishandling company funds!The previous day's positive emotions are instantly overcome by a wave of shock,dismay,embarrassment,and anger at what you are sure is a false accusation.You remain in an intense emotional state over the next few days as you investigate the details of the accusation and gather evidence to disprove it.Eventually. as you succeed in dearing your name,your fact finding reveals that an employee in the IT security department cooked"your laptop financial records as an act of revenge because. months earlier.you fired his sister,who had been one of your subordinates in your previous job.The guilty IT employee is a total stranger to you,but he obviously harbored very strong emotions about you based on what his sister must have told him.How would you describe your emotional reaction to this discovery? Life is full of strong emotions.Consider the elation you experienced when you received an A on a term paper and the anger you experienced when you took a test that you felt was grossly unfair.Similar emotions occur in the workplace.In the course of a day at work.you may be angry with a co-worker,stressed by your boss,amused by another colleague,and proud from the praise given by a manager.You may have come to work in a foul mood because of an encounter with another driver on the commute.This foul mood might have put a damper on the first few hours at work.You might leave work in such a great mood that you decide to take your children and spouse out to dinner and a movie.The school experience is not much different:roommates are all too often aware of the effects on each other of good and bad days in class and in social activities. Emotions experienced at work affect both work and non-work behavior.Similarly.non. work-related emotions affect both work and non-work behavior.Understanding emotions at work is no simple task Not only do we experience both work and non-work stimuli but we also have a range of different reactions,ranging from attitudes to emotions to moods.In this chapter we will deal with the complex relationships of work and non-work emotions and attitudes as well as their effects on behavior (Judge Kammeyer-Mueller,2012)