United We Stand, or Else? - Exploring Organizational Attempts to Control Emotional Expression by Employees on September 11, 2001
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-22-2003
Description
The purpose of this paper is to explore the control of emotions in organizations. An analysis of stories collected from members of different organizations who experienced the events of September 11, 2001 (when the USA was attacked by terrorists killing thousands of people) in their workplaces seems to validate previous findings that organizations respond to the expression of strong emotion with equally strong controls. However, organizations seem to differ by the types of emotional control they use and the reactions these controls elicit in their members. All four of Ashforth and Humphrey's organizational control behaviors were used. While buffering, prescribing and normalizing employee emotions seemed to have a somewhat positive effect on employee morale, the use of neutralizing controls seemed to be damaging to employee commitment. A contingency model of organizational control of emotional expression is developed.
Citation Information
Driver, Michaela. 2003. United We Stand, or Else? - Exploring Organizational Attempts to Control Emotional Expression by Employees on September 11, 2001. Journal of Organizational Change Management. Vol.16(5). 534-546. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810310494928 ISSN: 0953-4814