THE EMOTIONS AS INSTRUMENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. German Sergio Monroy-Alvarado and Eduardo De la Fuente-Rocha ABSTRACT

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1 THE EMOTIONS AS INSTRUMENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT German Sergio Monroy-Alvarado and Eduardo De la Fuente-Rocha Published in the journal Administración y Organizaciones, Vol 1, Num. 1, pp , DCSH, UAM-X, Mexico City, November ABSTRACT Every organization can be seen under the metaphor of the anatomy, the physiology and the pathology of the human body. Starting from the study of organizational illnesses, the concept is expanded to cover psychological aspects specially emphasizing the emotions. Among the emotions than can be observed for an organization, in this paper we distinguish, on the one hand, the emotions of fright, enthusiasm, cordiality, anger and sadness, that every organization can experience during any stage of its development, and on the other hand, those emotional attitudes that in reality correspond to an inadequate perception of the organization and/or of the context in which it operates. From this point of view, a theoretical framework is proposed that allows the construction of an instrument to diagnose those attitudes and propose alternatives for appropriate training for organizational development. INTRODUCTION It has been argued (3,6,11) on the basis that a good number of theories of organizations implicitly contain the use of the metaphor: "an organization is like a human body" (organismic metaphor), focusing their efforts in the study of its anatomy and its physiology, to describe the morphological, physical and structural characteristics of its parts and to explain its functional characteristics, it becomes suggestive (9) to explore enlargening that metaphor to incorporate and emphasize the aspects of pathology as the study of illnesses. The metaphor was then built (9): "the organization, like the human body, can also get sick"; the analogy was then explored with human body illnesses, what it means related to the somatic aspects, leaving aside the psychological, psychic or psychosomatic aspects.

2 This paper tries to contribute to the advances of the organizational pathology metaphor, starting an exploration of some psychological aspects, especially of some emotions; in this way the paper contributes to efforts that have already been started in this field (7, 8, 9). BODY AND MIND Considering the persons as integrated systems of the elements body and mind (2) and considering in general the pathology as the study of the illnesses or the "anomalous", even when not every anomaly is an illness, and with regard to the mind, psychological and/or psychic, it is more difficult than in the somatic to determine what is normal; nevertheless, the psychopathology (14) can be approachable through different ways. To start on one of these paths lets proceed to define some psychological elements and underscore their importance for the study of organizations. The fundamental characteristic of a person, of an individual, that affects and is affected either by its somatic element as by its mind is its personality, which has been mainly studied in the last one hundred years by psychology, recognizing, nevertheless, that other scientific, philosophical and humanistic activities have contributed to the generation of knowledge about that concept. In a general way, it can be said that an individual, in a certain context with which it interacts, forms and/or has a certain personality (1) very proper to that circumstance and that, with and through that personality, displays a certain behavior. Personality must be consider as a dynamic concept, a function in which different ways of thinking, perceiving, appraising, evaluating and remembering are synthesized. Concepts such as consciousness and unconsciousness that affect the personality and also the behavior of the individual can be considered as products of interactions between the ways of perceiving and the function of remembering. Ways of believing and characteristic attitudes of a certain personality form on the basis of the previous components. To those characteristics the feelings must be added. The feelings can be defined as states of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, producers and products of the elements that integrate the personality. For some authors (2) the emotions represent structural and functional changes that happen associated to the feelings; nevertheless they result inseparable aspects of the same phenomenon. For that reason, in this paper the emphasis is put on the concepts of emotions as well as on the attitudes associated with them. Some typologies of the emotions are outlined in order to be applicable to organizations.

3 From the previous outline of the concepts rises the importance of the personality of individuals that participate in organizations, which shades their personality, their behavior and way of acting within. In this paper the relevance of the emotions is the only one underscored. ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY This paper approaches the psychopathology through the emotions, considering them as products of the interaction of thoughts and feelings that are themselves, very frequently, products of perception of evocations in which the memory also intervenes. People, as elements of an organization can display within them different kinds of emotions. We are interested in this paper in the emotions displayed, not in an individual manner, but on those displayed by a collectivity, in such a way that can be generalized to talk about the emotions of an organization. We start then from a first classification of emotions that can be experienced in every organization along any stage of its development. Some attitudes associated with them are determined and considered as emotional attitudes. In order to consider different degrees of expression we use a typology of basic emotions, with which we will determine the cases of some emotions, which in reality can correspond to inadequate perceptions of the organization and/or its context, producing an anomaly, an emotional organizational psychopathology. Within our theoretical framework, we propose the foundations to construct a measuring instrument to detect those emotional attitudes and alternatives to try to eliminate the anomalies and in such a way to recall health and help a heartily organizational development. DEVELOPMENT, EMOTIONS AND ATTITUDES On basis of children observation from newly born until they reach two years of age (4, 5) the different emotions that they experience have been detected. It has then been observed that from the moment of birth until leys are three months old, they mainly present excitement as an emotional response to stimula from the new environment. The excitement usually will attenuate along the life cycle and will combine with other experiences. The next three months, it has been observed, the emotion of joy develops as well as the negative emotions of anger, displeasure, sadness and fear. Starting at 12 months children begin to have more esteem for adults and, at 18 months, for other children. The previous range of emotions is then complemented with jealousy. At 24 months the joy of actions has matured and transforms into enthusiasm, cordiality and gaily of living. As it has been mentioned, these emotions are developed as a maturing process and not all

4 children go through the emotional development with the same speed. The expression of this behavior is very similar from one child to another. Using the previous emotions development model we can enlarge the organismic metaphor and establish a parallelism between the child maturing and emotional development, and organizational development, emotions and attitudes. The same as in the child development previously describes, when organizations initiate their operation, we also observe excitement but not an experienced knowledge of the emotions that favor the successes and failures that they will go through. In a few months, the organizations will learn to relate themselves with its environment, to feel displeasure and other negative emotions as a consequence of the events and also joy for the reached successes. With maturity, the organization usually could come to enjoy its place in the context and will establish cordial relationships with other organizations. From the observation of disabled children (5), some authors consider that some emotions are innate, since children that were not able to learn the emotional expression from observation, such as the case of innately blind and deaf children, react to fear, anger or pleasure similarly to normal children. Likewise it can be said that fear, anger, sadness, pleasure expressions and other emotions that can be experienced within an organization facing the reality of the environment that affect it are innate, but they can be matured to achieve their correct expression. The same as in a child, the emotional expressions of an organization can be attributed on the one side, to the maturing of itself and on the other, to the learning process it goes through in order to make its way in the environment. Some of the emotions that originally are innate to the organization are also promoted through the learning process within the context as regards to the different possibilities of expression (10), as can be the case of social sadness, which through the publicity media and its repetition in commonplaces of mass communication produce depressive states in the people (masses), discourage the investment and favor the dependency on other emotionally stronger groups. This many times allows for the creation of monopolies in the markets. With regard to fear (13), research conducted about fright in children has shown that some forms decline with age and other forms become common. It is also believed (10) that some fears are innate and others are developed through maturing. In the same way, we can affirm that an organization starts its operations with strong fright toward the specific tests, which the initiation of its activities presumes and the resulting fatigue. The fears about their permanence in the context, facing other competing organizations and the adverse environments, will increase as time goes by, until they reach a certain moment,

5 after some time of operation, when the organization adapts itself and gets a place in the market. From that moment on, this type of fear diminishes. In the emotional development of a person (13), some of the decreasing fears observed are the fear of objects, situations and persons unknown, falls, lack of support, sudden and unexpected movements. Among the increasing fears, threats or dangerous damages stand out. In a similar way, the same is observed in organizations even if, in a certain way, the familiarity with other organizations and the context generates trustfulness toward the organization. This same experience allows it to see with and increasing degree of awareness the dangers that every organization has to face. Emotions are fundamental to achieve activity, but if they are too intense or deficitary, they inhibit action. It has been observed that to the different degrees of emotionality (10) in. a person, correspond different degrees of activity. Emotion allows a person and, similarly, an organization, as emotionality increases, to go from restfulness to watchfulness, to increased alertness, to achieve optimal returns or performance; if the emotion is intense it will lead to a disturbing emotionality and to disorganization (Fig. 1) HIGH OPTIMAL RETURNS ACT IVITY INCREASED ALERTNES WATCHFULNES PERFORMANCE DISTURBING EMOTIONALITY LOW RESTFULNES DISORGANIZATION LIGTH EMOTIONALITY FIGURE 1 INTENSE The level of performance of one organization is related to the degree to which it lives its emotions.

6 BASIC EMOTIONS AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGIC DIAGNOSTIC On basis of the previous metaphor related to organizational development, emotions and attitudes, this section uses a typology (12) that classifies the emotions in eight basic categories and making the distinction among different degrees of expression, they are used as instruments to establish a diagnostic of the emotional attitudes of the organization facing external or internal events. The typology is shown in fig.2. ANNOYANCE In such representation we can observe eight basic emotions inside the circle and each adjacent couple produces a secondary emotion, expressed outside the circle. For example, repulsion and sadness, when simultaneous, produce remorse. The four basic emotions on the right: acceptance, fear, surprise and sadness are related to a receptive attitude to the extent that each of them is generated from stimula mainly coming from the exterior. The four basic emotions on the left: repulsion, anger, anticipation and joy are related to an expressive attitude, since it is the person itself or the organization which provides the action and projects it to the exterior.

7 An organization can feel joy when actions bring success and sadness in the opposite case. Each emotion can be expressed to different degrees. Here we only consider three ranges: deficient, equilibrium form and excess. Hence, if there is a lack of joy there will be discouragement and if there is joy in excess there will be euphoria. lt is not convenient that an organization act on the extremes of deficit or excess of emotionality; this will bring, as already shown, a reduction of returns or performance. So, the extreme ranges of degree of emotionality represent states of emotional psychopathology; they do not contribute to the optional performance of the organization. If there is little acceptance there will be not enough motivation in the organization; and lf there is an excess, the actions given to follow will be accepted without sufficient analysis. The deficit in fear favors imprudent actions and its excess paralyzes the organization partially or totally. Surprise is good as a capability for being interested in new things; but in excess it will make the organization feel astonished by the findings and getting caught up in them or feel less capable, being astonished by the achievements of the competitors. Surprise in deficit will generate distracted organizations that do not take in the possibilities that the context offers them as a novelty form to progress. Sadness allows the organization a suffering that gives notice with pain of the consequences brought by mistakes done; but in deficit, it contributes to error repetition and in excess, to depression. This is the case of organizations that live with melancholy, that go through difficult economic and financial stages, deploring the situation and waiting for favorable times, without proposing or implanting any solution. Repulsion is the emotion of every organization that allows itself not to accept anything that can produce damage. In excess, it will reject any type of opportunity and in deficit; the organization will miss the capacity to discriminate, so it will incorporate inadequate elements and systems that in the long run hurt the organization. Anger is a frequent feeling in organizations that consider aggressiveness requirement of its development. Even though it is true that every organization requires a certain degree of aggressiveness to open space for itself in the context and to achieve prestige based on assertively, it is also true that extreme aggressiveness is a source of conflicts, generated as a response to the exterior, when the organization feels it is being attacked.

8 Anticipation is the emotion displayed when planning and programming are carried out, and the latter are seen as a panacea and as the gate to progress. But the abuse of these leads to the devaluation of the present and to inadequate answers to current demands, producing insatisfaction among the organization stakeholders and hindering, paradoxically, the future development of the organization. On the contrary, the lack of anticipation generates organizations living day by day, without consideration for ups and downs that reality will bring in the future. As it has been mentioned with regard to joy, its deficit within an organization will produce discouragement and its overcoming will require motivation. Motivation is situational (contingent) and depends on the degree of development, hence (10), for lower levels of maturing, it will only pretend to survive and, for higher levels, it will pass on, to emotional stages of security, belonging, status and self-realization. Euphoria produced by joy in excess will bring to the organization a blockage of objectivity and there will be a tendency to carry out imprudent actions, relying too much on good luck and disregarding the data that the context or the organization itself offers. Based on the previous description we can assert that emotional psychopathology of organizations is present when a deficit or an excess of emotions happens; nevertheless, every organization requires them to appear in a balanced form to guarantee the survival and growth. The emotional psychopathologies of the organizations can get more complicated adding to the manifestation of disequilibrium presents before, through the possible simultaneous presence of other emotions in disequilibrium in couples, in threesomes, etc. HEALTH AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Based on the previous concepts, a measuring instrument can be constructed which, for each one of the eight emotional categories, should be able measure the degree of its expression. For each of these categories, the instrument will contain an appropriate number of questions; a number not so big that it would increase the application and diagnostic costs and the time required to answer by the stakeholders, but also not too small, so as to be sufficient to give a significant measure for diagnosing the organization. It is not convenient to build only one instrument and generalize it, since the emotions will change with regard to the context, the kind of organization and the research time. For each organization it is possible to build such an instrument that measure the emotional disequilibrium, either in excess or in deficit, to detect the emotions that produce low organizational returns or performance.

9 The knowledge obtained applying such an instrument could be used as a foundation for training programs that explore the motivation that carry an organization to action or inhibit it in its context. At the same time, it could measure the degree of matureness which is shown by the organization and with which it responds to appropriate or adverse stimula and the aversion actions that tend to repeat in a systematic way. As the organization matures and learns, it will promote its adaptation and progress in its context. This way the health with regard to both, the emotional psychopathologies and the organizational development is promoted. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. ACKOFF, R.L., On Purposeful Systems, Aldine, N.Y, ACKOFF, R.L., Redesigning the Future-A Systems Approach to Societal Problems, Wiley, N.Y, BURRELL, G. and G. Morgan, Sociological Paradigms and Organizational Analysis-Elements of the Sociology of Corporate Life, Heinemann, London, CRAIG, Grace, Human Development, Prentice-Hall, N.Y., DAVIDOFF, Lida, Introduction to Psychology, Mc Graw Hill, N.Y., GEORGE, C.S., The History of management Thought, 2Ed., Prentice Hall, N.J., KETS de VRIES and Miller, D., "Neurotic Style and Organizational Pathology" Strategic Management Journal, Vol.5, p.p , (1984). 8. KETS de VRIES, et al, The Neurotic Organization, Jossey Bass, San Francisco, MONROY, Alvarado, G. S., "Organizational Pathology", Paper presented at the XXVI International Conference. The Institute of Management Science, Copenhagen, Denmark, MORRIS, Charles, Psychology, An Introduction, Prentice-Hall, New York, ORTONY, A. (ED.), Metaphor and Thought, U. of Cambridge Press, Cambridge, 1973.

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