Using a sample of employees from a wide range of occupations, this research examines the general communication rules that govern emotion management in all aspects of organizational involvement— with coworkers and not just customers. Through content analysis of examples of both appropriate and inappropriate displays or masking of positive and negative emotions, results showed that (a) maintaining “professionalism” is central to appropriate emotion management, (b) positive emotions, not just negative emotions, need to be displayed in appropriate ways, and (c) the appropriate display of negative emotions typically means masking those emotions. This leads to a broader view of the role of emotions in organizational communication, one that is frequently overlooked in the rational paradigm that permeates organizational research.
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