Mood @ Work

In recent article in the July 26th issue of Knowledge @ Wharton, Wharton Management Professor Nancy Rothbard and Ohio State Professor Steffanie Wilk write about the impact of mood on work performance. It seems like common sense that the mood one brings to work will have an effect on their work performance as well as the performance of others around them. However, most research has focused on work- family conflicts, and very few have looked at the effect of mood.

As a clinical social worker by training...I've always been interested on the impact of mood and attitude in the workplace. I see it all the time...whenever I walk into a company or talk to people about where they work. There is always a discussion about the people that come to work in very positive moods and those who always seem to arrive with a negative mood. The article points out that both positive and negative moods have an impact...but positive moods are more potent. They also suggest that it's the moods you bring to work that have a stronger effect on work performance rather than mood changes caused by events at work.

To quote the article:

"One of our findings shows that the mood people bring with them at the very start of the workday influenced employee mood more powerfully and consistently than any other variable," Rothbard and Wilk write. "We also found that for the most part, as expected, customer mood influenced employee mood. Interestingly, negative customer interactions only affected less experienced workers. Last, we show that daily mood at work can influence important work outcomes."

And...

"What I think is really interesting about these findings is that the positive mood that you bring to work is very strong," Rothbard says. "People actually do a pretty good job of walling off the negatives. What's interesting for organizations to understand is that what people bring with them to work is not all bad for the organization, and in fact can be quite positive."

So, start your day off with a positive mood and it will carry over.

...Michael

Michael T. Bauer, MSW is the President and Chief Creative Officer of Innovative Business Resources, LLC, a management consulting firm that focuses on helping organizations align their leadership and culture with their business strategy.

Michael is the publisher of the Creative Edge Newsletter.