ABSTRACT
The role of emotion in the workplace has been the subject of a series of provocative studies (Hochschild, 1983; Van Maanen & Kunda, 1989). This essay locates research on organizational emotion in the larger traditions of emotion research and argues that the communicative aspects of emotion have been understudied. Existing research on the subject is divided into three themes: the emotional labor and attendant psychological costs that characterize some occupations, the use of emotional expression as a tool for the achievement of management objectives, and the role of culture in shaping the emotional lives of members. Three broad areas requiring study by communication researchers are explored. First, the substantial literature on organizational regulation of emotional display is reviewed and criticized for implicitly casting communication in the role of “emotional packaging.” Second, possibilities for studying the process of emotional interpretation are presented, with particular emphasis on the constitutive and heuristic rules used by organizational members. Third, tactical uses and organizational functions of organizational emotion are explored, with the role of emotional communication in defining work relationships most emphasized. Finally, a call for more message-based research is issued.
