Working with people invariably involves managing emotions. This qualitative study examines a coaching intervention designed to help a group of retail support workers in one mobile communications organisation in the UK to articulate and manage their emotions more effectively in order to improve workplace relations and motivation. The paper discusses the concepts of emotion work, emotional contagion and emotion regulation in order to frame an action research study of a coaching intervention. Findings from the study suggest that following the intervention employees dealt with emotional situations in a calmer more measured way and that this impacted both individual motivation and working performance in the organisation.
AntonakisJ. (2004). On why ‘emotional intelligence’ will not predict leadership effectiveness beyond IQ or the ‘big five': an extension and rejoinder. Organizational Analysis, 12(2), 171–182.
2.
AshforthB., TomiukM. & KulikC. (2008). Doing emotion in service encounters: service agents’ perceptions of emotional labor and emotional contagion. In AshkanasyN. M. & CooperC. L. (Eds.). Research companion to emotion in organizations, pp. 335–348, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
3.
AshkanasyN.CharmineE. J.Härtel, & ZerbeW.J. (2000). Emotions in the workplace: research, theory, and practice, Greenwood Publishing Group.
4.
BachkirovaT. & CoxE., (2007). Coaching with Emotion in Organisations: investigation of personal theories, Leadership and Organization Development, 28, 7, 600-612.
5.
BarsadeS. (2002). The Ripple Effect: Emotional Contagion and Its Influence on Group Behavior, Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(4), 644–675.
6.
BoltonS. (2004). Conceptual confusions: emotion work as skilled work. In WarhurstC., GrugulisI. & KeepE. (Eds). The Skills that Matter, pp.19–37. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
7.
CannonW.B. (1931). The effects of progressive sympathectomy on blood pressure. American Journal of Physiology. 197, (pp. 592–595).
8.
ClutterbuckD. (2010). Team coaching. In: CoxE., BachkirovaT. & ClutterbuckD. (Eds.) The complete handbook of coaching. pp. 271–283. London: Sage.
9.
CoxE. & BachkirovaT. (2007). Coaching with emotion: How coaches deal with difficult emotional situations, International Psychology Review, 2(2), 178–190.
10.
CrottyM. (1996). Doing Phenomenology. In WillisP., and NevilleB., (Eds). Qualitative Research Practice in Adult Education, David Lovell Publishing: Melbourne.
11.
DavisM.C. (2009). Building emotional resilience to promote health, American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 3 (1 Suppl), 60S–63S.
12.
DenscombeM. (2007). The good research guide: for small-scale social research (third edition). Maidenhead: Open University Press.
13.
De RiveraJ. (1992). Social structure and emotional dynamics. In StrongmanK.T. (Ed.). International Review of Studies on Emotion, 2, 197–210.
14.
FinemanS. (Ed.) (2000). Emotion in organizations (2nd edition). London: Sage.
15.
FjukA., NurminenM. I., & SmordalO. (1997). Taking articulation work seriously – an activity theoretical approach. Technical report, Turku Centre for Computer Science, Finland. Retrieved 6/9/10 from: http://heim.ifi.uio.no/∼ftp/publications/others/OSmordal-5.pdf
16.
GeorgeJ. M., & BriefA. P. (1992). Feeling good doing good: a conceptual analysis of the mood at work-organizational spontaneity relationship. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 310–329.
17.
GrantA. (2007). Enhancing coaching skills and emotional intelligence through training, Industrial And Commercial Training, 39(5), 257–266.
18.
GrantA., CurtayneL. & BurtonG. (2009). Executive coaching enhances goal attainment, resilience and workplace well-being: a randomised controlled study, The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4(5), 396–407.
19.
GriceJ., BurkleyE., BurkleyM., WrightS. & SlabyJ. (2004). A sentence completion task for eliciting personal constructs in specific domains, Personal Construct Theory and Practice. 1, 1–12.
20.
GrossJ. & ThompsonR. (2007). Emotion regulation: Conceptual foundations. In: GrossJ. (Ed). Handbook of Emotion Regulation. pp. 3–26. New York: Guilford Press.
21.
HampsonI. & JunorA. (2005). Invisible work, invisible skills: Interactive customer service as articulation work. New Technology, Work and Employment, 20(2), 166 – 181.
22.
HampsonI. & JunorA. (2010). Putting the process back in: rethinking service sector skill. Work, Employment & Society, 24(3), 526–545.
23.
HartelC., GoughH. & HartelG. (2008). Work-group emotional climate, emotion management skills and service attitudes and performance, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 26(1), 21–37.
HatfieldE. & RapsonR. (2004). Emotional contagion: Religious and ethnic hatreds and global terrorism. In TiedensL., & LeachC.W. (Eds) The social life of emotions. pp. 129–143. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
26.
HaugM., (2011). What is the relationship between coaching interventions and team effectiveness?International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, Special Issue No 5, pp. 89 - 101.
27.
HochschildA. (1983). The managed heart: the commercialization of human feeling, University of California Press.
28.
HodsonR. (1997). Group relations at work: Solidarity, conflict, and relations with management. Work and Occupation. 24(4), 426–45.
29.
HudsonF. M. (1999). The handbook of coaching: A comprehensive resource guide for managers, executives, consultants, and human resource professionals. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
30.
IvesY. & CoxE. (2012). Goal Focused Coaching, New York: Routledge.
31.
JudgeT.A. & Kammeyer-MuellerJ.D. (2008). Affect, satisfaction and performance, In AshkanasyN. Μ. & CooperC. L. (Eds.). Research companion to emotion in organizations (pp. 136–151). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
32.
KemmisS., & McTaggartR. (2005). Participatory action research: Communicative action and the public sphere. In DenzinN. & LincolnY. (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed.) (pp. 559–604). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
33.
LeeG. (2003). Leadership Coaching: From personal insight to organizational performance, London: CIPD.
34.
LindebaumD. (2009). Rhetoric or remedy? A critique on developing emotional intelligence, Academy of Management Learning and Education, 8, 2, 225 – 237.
35.
Miln SmithD. & LeicesterS. (1996). Hug the monster, London: Ryder.
36.
MorganL. D. (ed.) (1993). Successful focus groups: Advancing the state of the art, Newbury Park: Sage Publications.
37.
NeenanM. & DrydenW. (2002). Life coaching: A cognitive behavioural approach. London: Brunner-Routledge.
38.
NielsenE. A & NorreklitH. (2009). A discourse analysis of the disciplinary power of management coaching. Society and Business Review, 4, 3, 202–214.
39.
OliveroG., BaneK., & KopelmanR. E. (1997). Executive coaching as a transfer of training tool: Effects on productivity in a public agency. Public Personnel Management26, 4, 461–469.
40.
PayneJ. (2009). Emotional labour and skill: A reappraisal, Gender, Work and Organization. 16(3), 348 – 367.
41.
PeltierB. (2001) The Psychology of Executive Coaching: Theory and Application. New-York: Brunner-Routledge.
42.
PenneyL. M., & SpectorP. E. (2008). Emotions and counterproductive work behavior. In AshkanasyN. M. & CooperC. L. (Eds.). Research companion to emotion in organizations (pp. 183–196). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
43.
ReasonP. & BradburyH. (2006). Handbook of action research, London: Sage.
44.
RotterJ.B. & RaffertyJ.E. (1950). The Rotter incomplete sentences blank manual: College form. New York: Psychological Corporation.
45.
RotterJ.B. (1966). Generalized expectancies of internal versus external control of reinforcements. Psychological Monographs, 80 (whole no. 609).
46.
SaavedraR. (2008). Kindling fires and extinguishing candles: the wind of mood contagion in work groups. In AshkanasyN. & CooperC. (Eds) Research Companion to Emotion in Organisations. (pp. 423 - 440). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.
47.
SeymourD. & SandifordP. (2005). Learning emotion rules in service organisations: socialization and training in the public house sector. Work Employment Society. 19, 547–564.
48.
SchweingruberD. & BernsN. (2005). Shaping the selves of young salespeople through emotion management, Journal Of Contemporary Ethnography. 34, 6, 679–706.
49.
ShulmanL. (1999). The skills of helping individuals and groups, Belmont: Brooks/Cole.
50.
SlaskiM. and CartwrightS. (2003) Emotional intelligence training and its implications for stress, health and performance, Stress and Health, 19, 233–239.
51.
SlåttenT., SvenssonG. and SværiS.(2011). Service quality and turnover intentions as perceived by employees: Antecedents and consequences, Personnel Review, 40(2), 205 – 221.
52.
SteersR.M. & PorterL.W. (1991). Motivation and work behavior, 5th ed., New York: McGraw-Hill.
53.
StraussA. (1993). Continual permutations of action, New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
54.
TaylorS.E., KleinL.C., LewisB.P., GruenewaldT.L., GurungR.A.R., & UpdegraffJ.A. (2000). Biobehavioral responses to stress in females: Tend-and-befriend, not fight-or-flight. Psychological Review, 107(3), 411–429.
55.
TugadeM. & FredricksonB. (2007). Regulation of positive emotions: Emotion regulation strategies that promote resilience, Journal of Happiness Studies, 8, 311–333.
56.
Van DijkP. & Kirk BrownA. (2006). Emotional labour and negative job outcomes: An evaluation of the mediating role of emotional dissonance, Journal of Management and Organization, 12, 101 – 115.
57.
WhartonA. (1999). The psychosocial consequences of emotional labour, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 561, 158 – 176.
58.
WoodheadV. (2011) How does coaching help to support team working? A case study in the NHS, International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, Special Issue No 5, pp.102 - 119.
59.
ZapfD. (2002). Emotion work and psychological well-being. A review of the literature and some conceptual considerations. Human Resource Management Review, 12, 237–268.
