Conference paper @ IFKAD 2014 June, Matera, Italy

1. NEGATIVE EMOTIONS AND KNOWLEDGE WORK PERFORMANCE
Maiju Vuolle and Harri Laihonen
I f k a d 2 0 1 4 Matera, Italy

2. Agenda today
•Background and motivation for the paper
•Overall knowledge work performance + well-being
•Findings from the literature
•Summary and next steps

3. NEMO Business Value from Negative Emotions
How negative and contradictory emotions influence intangible assets of the firm? (TUT)
~ 20 SMEs and large companies

4. Motivation – Inner work life
•Literature review on the role of negative emotions in knowledge work context; how to benefit from naturally occuring negative moods?
•Motivation and performance results from the constant interplay of perceptions, emotions and motivations triggered by workday events (Amabile & Kramer, 2007)
Affective events at workInner work lifeWorkplace behavior and outcomes AntecedentsNegative emotionsConsequences

5. OVERALL KNOWLEDGE WORK PERFORMANCE
Task performance
Creative performance
Contextual performance
Counterproductive work behavior (CWB)
WELL-BEING AT WORK
Burnout OR Boredom
Engagement
Workaholic
Satisfied ’just 9 to 5’
(e.g., Russell and Feldman Barrett, 1999; Cropanzano et al. 2003; Salanova et al., 2014; Shaufeli & Salanova, 2014; Koopmans et al., 2013)

6. Findings from the literature
1.Three types of well-being at work (workaholic, burnout and boredom) and link to overall job performance of knowledge workers.
2.Certain types of affective events, such as understimulation, pressure and previous counterproductive work behavior can lead to positive work behavior and high performance.
3.Negative emotions can lead to engagement and creative performance through affective shifts.

7. Linking affective events, emotions and performance
Boredom
Anger
Guilt
Co-worker lack of performance, Organizational constraints,
Lack of expected rewards
Understimulation
(Ohly & Smith 2013; Spector & Fox, 2010; Cushen & Thompson, 2012)
Task performance
Counterproductive work behavior (CWB)
Contextual performance

8. Mood-as-information perspective
•Creative performance - hard work and effort;
–“individuals in negative mood tend to find novel and useful ideas because they are more critical, push themselves more, sees need for change, identifies problems in current situations etc.”
•In supportive contexts, negative emotions can lead to creative performance through interaction of negative and positive moods.
High negative mood
High Positive mood
(George & Zhou, 2002; George & Zhou, 2007)
Creative performance

9. Summary of the findings
Positive and negative affective events(e.g., problem solving, feedback, control, conflicts, job demands, structural liabilities) Perceptions EmotionsMotivationWell-being- Engagement- Burnout, Boredom- Workaholic- 9 to 5AntecedentsInner work lifeBehavior and outcomeOverall job performance- Task performance- Creative performance- Organisational citizenship- Counterproductive work

10. Next steps
•The initial results provides a starting point for the empirical research.
•Identifying and testing research methods for empirical case studies on creative knowledge workers (questionnaires, diary studies, experience sampling, mobile applications etc.)
•Identifying and developing tools for individuals, teams and managers to become better with negative emotions.

11. Maiju Vuolle, D.Sc. Tech.
Novi research center
@Noviresearch
www.tut.fi/novi
@MaijuVuolle
maiju.vuolle@tut.fi