Washington D.C. [USA], Jan 19 : People often get emotional at work, but the idea of faking emotions to elicit real-life benefits may not work always. According to a recent study, faking a positive attitude to elicit real-life benefits often backfires when used with co-workers. According to researchers, making an effort to actually feel the emotions you display is more productive.
Allison Gabriel, associate professor of management and organisations in the Eller College of Management, led a team that analyzed two types of emotion regulation that people use at work: surface acting and deep acting. The study was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.
"Surface acting is faking what you're displaying to other people. Inside, you may be upset or frustrated, but on the outside, you're trying your best to be pleasant or positive," Gabriel said. "Deep acting is trying to change how you feel inside. When you're deep acting, you're actually trying to align how you feel with how you interact with other people."
The study surveyed working adults in a wide variety of industries including education, manufacturing, engineering and financial services.
"What we wanted to know is whether people choose to engage in emotion regulation when interacting with their co-workers, why they choose to regulate their emotions if there is no formal rule requiring them to do so, and what benefits, if any, they get out of this effort," Gabriel said.
According to the researchers, when it comes to regulating emotions with co-workers, four types of people emerged from the study: First are the nonactors, or those engaging in negligible levels of surface and deep acting, second are low actors, or those displaying slightly higher surface and deep acting. Third are deep actors, or those who exhibited the highest levels of deep acting and low levels of surface acting and regulators, or those who displayed high levels of surface and deep acting.
In each study, nonactors made up the smallest group, with the other three groups being similar in size.
The researchers identified several drivers for engaging in emotion regulation and sorted them into two categories: prosocial and impression management. Prosocial motives include wanting to be a good co-worker and cultivating positive relationships.
The team found that regulators, in particular, were driven by impression management motives, while deep actors were significantly more likely to be motivated by prosocial concerns.
"The main takeaway is that deep actors - those who are really trying to be positive with their co-workers - do so for prosocial reasons and reap significant benefits from these efforts.
According to the researchers, those benefits include receiving significantly higher levels of support from co-workers, such as help with workloads and offers of advice. Deep actors also reported significantly higher levels of progress on their work goals and trust in their co-workers than the other three groups.
The data also showed that mixing high levels of surface and deep acting resulted in physical and mental strain.