Emotional Contagion Paper

Words: 1123
Pages: 5

Emotional contagion is where positive and negative emotions can be contagious, whereas negative emotions have an enduring effect of its virus-like behavior. It is even more common amongst teams, where team member’s emotions can affect one another. (Bauer, Berrin, 2015, p. 193) The textbook mentions that research shows that when the boss is happy, the positive emotions spread to the staff, therefore making the staff happy. Negative emotions can also spread, but has a more forceful tactic, for instance, when you deal with an angry customer, they can ruin your day and change your mood to being negative. Anything and anyone can alter your emotions, from having family problems at home and bringing the emotions with you to work, a telephone call …show more content…
This initiative was a great program for the society, but had a negative affect for my department, where we worked with foreclosed homes. Once word came out of this new program, it spread like a virus and everyone was panicking and questioning what would happen to our department. Rumors, water cooler talk, and “I heard it through the grapevine” and anything else you can call gossip, was occurring everywhere within our floor, where it was the main topic in everyone’s conversation. Unfortunately management was not ready for this information to be broadcasted, the situation was already horrifying, and with nothing being communicated, it made the situation even more …show more content…
Thinking about it now, I realized my positive emotional contagion wasn’t enough to surpass everyone’s questions and fears. Finally after a few weeks of being in the dark, numerous rumors going around, an announcement was made, that we were downsizing. From that point, it finalized everyone’s fears and anxiety, their gossip and rumors turned into reality, and no one was