Why Does Affect Matter in Organizations?

Interest in and research about affect in organizations have expanded dramatically in recent years. This article reviews what we know about affect in organizations, focusing on how employees ’ moods, emotions, and dispositional affect influence critical organizational outcomes such as job performance, decision making, creativity, turnover, prosocial behavior, teamwork, negotiation, and leadership. This review highlights pervasive and consistent effects, showing the importance of affect in shaping a wide variety of organizational behaviors, the knowledge of which is critical for researchers, managers, and employees. WhyDoesAffectMatter inOrganizations? Anorganizational vignette... I had just mentioned how small a raise I was going to give to Jerry, my top salesperson this year. I could see a subtle wave of anger and frustration wash over his usually calm features. I had been afraid this was going to happen. But what could I do? I was caught in the middle—the CEO wanted to cut our budget by 6%! Jerry’s voice had an edge to it, and I could tell that my explanations about th