{"id":3875,"date":"2025-07-08T15:54:28","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3875"},"modified":"2025-07-08T15:54:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:54:28","slug":"showing-emotions-at-work-shouldnt-be-taboo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/showing-emotions-at-work-shouldnt-be-taboo\/","title":{"rendered":"Showing Emotions at Work Shouldn\u2019t Be Taboo"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

Many managers and leaders overlook how employees\u2019 emotions can affect their on-the-job productivity. An underappreciated management skill is monitoring team members\u2019 emotional responses to their roles and tasks, as well as significant personal life events unrelated to the organization, and adjusting their management tactics and leadership strategies appropriately.<\/p>\n

Academy of Management Scholar Nancy Rothbard<\/a> of the University of Pennsylvania said that\u2014contrary to the old-school mentality that emotions don\u2019t belong in business\u2014it\u2019s so important to accept that professionals feel a range of emotions at work.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmotions are a part of our everyday lives, and we have all sorts of emotional responses at work,\u201d Rothbard said. \u201cI did a study looking at the emotions that people brought with them into the workplace and how their emotions in response to customers and other types of interactions affected them throughout the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was an experience sampling study where I asked them multiple times a day, \u2018How are you feeling?\u2019 and I was able to really monitor what their productivity was and the various ways that they were able to engage both from a quantity and a quality perspective in their work,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat we found in this study was that emotions mattered a lot\u2014the emotion that people brought to work affected them throughout the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when people experienced more negative emotion throughout the day, they were less productive, and they had to emotionally regulate themselves a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the flipside, when the workers Rothbard studied were more positive, they actually produced higher-quality work\u2014especially their customer service.<\/p>\n

\u201cManagers really need to pay attention to the emotions that people bring with them as they start their workday, and they need to be aware that people vary from one day to the next,\u201d Rothbard said. \u201cManagers need to pay attention to those emotions, and give people the opportunity to regulate them, to help label them for them, to check in with them, and to recognize that they may need to take a little time in order to get in the right headspace to be able to do their jobs well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s actually other research that shows that managers and leaders who are able to read their employees\u2019 emotions better are rated by their employees as being better managers,\u201d she said. \u201cNow, what’s interesting is that those managers don\u2019t always realize that that\u2019s part of their job, but in fact, it is a central part of their effectiveness as managers and leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher Many managers and leaders overlook how employees\u2019 emotions can affect their on-the-job productivity. An underappreciated management skill is monitoring team members\u2019 emotional responses to their roles and tasks, as well as significant personal life events unrelated to the organization, and adjusting their management tactics and leadership strategies appropriately. Academy of Management Scholar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,71,29,19],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-3875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-behavior","category-communicating","category-emotions","category-leadership"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nShowing Emotions at Work Shouldn\u2019t Be Taboo - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/showing-emotions-at-work-shouldnt-be-taboo\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/showing-emotions-at-work-shouldnt-be-taboo\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/showing-emotions-at-work-shouldnt-be-taboo\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Showing Emotions at Work Shouldn\u2019t Be Taboo\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-08T15:54:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/showing-emotions-at-work-shouldnt-be-taboo\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":429,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/showing-emotions-at-work-shouldnt-be-taboo\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/different-emotions.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"BEHAVIOR\",\"COMMUNICATING\",\"EMOTIONS\",\"LEADERSHIP\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/showing-emotions-at-work-shouldnt-be-taboo\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/showing-emotions-at-work-shouldnt-be-taboo\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/showing-emotions-at-work-shouldnt-be-taboo\\\/\",\"name\":\"Showing Emotions at Work Shouldn\u2019t Be Taboo - 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You can reach him at dbutcher@aom.org or via LinkedIn.","sameAs":["https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/danielbutcher\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":70,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"daniel-butcher","display_name":"Daniel Butcher","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp","url2x":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/different-emotions.jpg",1000,645,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/different-emotions.jpg",1000,645,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/different-emotions.jpg",1000,645,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/different-emotions-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/different-emotions-300x194.jpg",300,194,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/different-emotions.jpg",800,516,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/different-emotions.jpg",1000,645,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/different-emotions.jpg",1000,645,false],"owl_elementor_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/different-emotions-600x387.jpg",600,387,true],"owl_elementor_team":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/different-emotions-350x450.jpg",350,450,true],"owl_elementor_testimonial":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/different-emotions-100x100.jpg",100,100,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Daniel Butcher","author_link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/"},"rttpg_comment":2,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/behavior\/\" rel=\"category tag\">BEHAVIOR<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/communicating\/\" rel=\"category tag\">COMMUNICATING<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/emotions\/\" rel=\"category tag\">EMOTIONS<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/leadership\/\" rel=\"category tag\">LEADERSHIP<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By Daniel Butcher Many managers and leaders overlook how employees\u2019 emotions can affect their on-the-job productivity. An underappreciated management skill is monitoring team members\u2019 emotional responses to their roles and tasks, as well as significant personal life events unrelated to the organization, and adjusting their management tactics and leadership strategies appropriately. Academy of Management Scholar…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3875"},{"taxonomy":"sp_smart_badges","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sp_smart_badges?post=3875"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=3875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}