Emotional Dissonance

Challenge: 

Stress is a part of life. At some point, you will be stressed at work. Whether it is because of work or because of something outside of work. Either way, employees wanting to do a good job will experience emotional dissonance. Although it may be good for the moment, your true feelings suppressed may cause consequences that might make things worse. Our priority as frontline managers and our challenge is to help grow emotional intelligence in the workplace that helps employees manage their emotions in the right time and place. 

American SteelCo. 

In the American Steel Co., emotional labor is affecting  Angela, the Sales/Project Manager, because she is the one that works on the front lines and has to interact and deal with customers, which in some cases bother and irritate her. With this she has to control her emotions which we understand can be very taxing.

On the other hand,  Lisa, the Purchasing Manager, could be experiencing is emotional dissonance. The inaccuracies in the lists of materials could be what is contributing to her frustration. Alongside the fact that she believes that she is preforming a task that isn't her responsibility. 

Jerry, the Estimate Manager, given the frustration and the blows that Lisa and Angela are feeling and taking, he has not felt he needs to do anything different based on what they told him. 

According to the book Organizational behavior: In practice, "Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to monitor and manage one’s own emotions and also to perceive the emotions of others". As employees at American Steel Co come to understand how to perceive the emotions of others they will know when to communicate concerns, Ideas and thoughts at the best time. This will play an Important role In our theory of creating a culture of communication with the goal of Increased employee retention. The other part of emotional Intelligence Involves monitoring and managing our own emotions. As our employees and management team come to understand this they will learn emotional triggers and learn to avoid them or adjust and prepare for them. They will also be able to practice and learn certain things that will help In certain situations to be professional, calm and still be able to continue to do their work In situations where emotional dissonance would occur. With an understanding of these two factors It will allow our employees to create a plan and prepare them to attack emotional dissonance In away that will not burn them out, affect there performance, hinder there retention or cause them to feel like they want to quit. 

Actions to Resolve:

As we set to help employees use emotional dissonance in the right time and place and allow them to communicate how they truly feel in a safe space to improve overall emotional intelligence, we will take the following actions.

Action 1: Set a time to meet with our employees individually to determine the culture we as a management team want to establish. 

Action 2: After hearing everyone out, give a company wide training on the 13 signs of emotional intelligence

Action 3: Follow up with specific concerns found in individual meetings and finalize resolutions. For example, it would be beneficial to explain the emotions Angela and Lisa are experiencing and see if their roles are benefiting the company in a positive way. If Angela and Lisa do not like their roles, it is important to find something else that they are passionate about to benefit the company. 

References: 

All  images are copyright free from Google Images. 

Andrade, M. S. (2020). Organizational behavior in practice. 2nd ed. Dubuque, IA: Great River Learning. Topic 5. Section "Emotional Intelligence"