Emotion during organizational transformations - An interactive model of survivor reactions

Researchers have begun to incorporate emotion as an explanatory construct i n organizational studies. The present study sought to determine how the exp ressed emotion of top-level managers in a Fortune 500 organization undergoi ng a major transformation effort was associated with their assessments of c hange activities and job attitudes. Computer aided text analysis and the Di ctionary of Affect in Language were used to assess the emotional content of responses to open-ended questions along two theoretically grounded dimensi ons of emotion: pleasantness and arousal. Results indicated that a hypothes ized interaction between the two emotion dimensions explained significant v ariance in attitudes dealing directly with the managers' jobs. Reasons for assessing emotion in transformation contexts are discussed.