Journal
EMOTIONS AND ORGANIZATIONAL GOVERNANCE
Volume 12, Issue -, Pages 381-408Publisher
EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1108/S1746-979120160000012012
Keywords
Emotionology; emotion rules; emotion resources; emotion regulation; case study; inter-organizational information systems project
Categories
Funding
- Academy of Finland [259454]
- Academy of Finland (AKA) [259454, 259454] Funding Source: Academy of Finland (AKA)
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Purpose - This study examines emotionologies (Stearns & Stearns, 1985), that is, attitudes that members of an inter-organizational information systems (IOIS) project hold toward emotions and their appropriate expression and regulation in this project. In order to understand attitudes toward emotions and emotion regulation, we suggest the adoption of the concept of emotion structure, consisting of emotion rules and resources (Callahan, 2004). Methodology/ approach - To investigate the kinds of emotionologies present in this IOIS development project, we have chosen a qualitative case study approach. Our data consists of 41 qualitative interviews, collected in two phases. Findings - We trace how emotion rules and corresponding emotion regulation strategies change among the sub-groups working in the project throughout their first year of collaborating. We show that organizational actors are skilled emotion managers, whose behavior is guided not only by many collective emotion rules (professional, organizational, social) but also by personal emotion rules. Our findings also suggest the need to critically reflect on certain emotion rules, such as those pertaining to the expression of fear and anger, and their potential positive and negative implications on project work. Research implications - We argue that group emotionologies with their professional, organizational, and social emotion rules interact with personal emotion rules, resulting in interesting emotion regulation strategies that often try to minimize emotional dissonance, sometimes at the expense of risking open conflict among project members. With this in mind, one theoretical and practical suggestion is to further explore the potential constructive implications of experiencing and expressing fear in projects.
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