Certain emotions impact an employee’s productivity and performance at work. This is because in most cases, people’s emotions affect other aspects of their life including their job. If an employee experiences positive emotions such as enthusiasm, happiness, and acceptance, this is likely to affect their performance constructively. On the other hand, emotions such as hostility, stress, and anger decrease the quality of work output. In particular, it is possible to compare and contrast the effects of acceptance and hostility on work performance.
Acceptance generally has a positive influence on a person’s work performance. Employees who feel accepted at their workplace perform their tasks to the best of their ability. The quest to maintain this acceptance manifests through motivation to produce high-quality work. Aside from wanting to please their employers, acceptance produces better relationships between colleagues (Bashir et al., 2020). An employee can work well with others if they feel that their colleagues are accepting of them and vice versa. Consequently, this improves teamwork, decision-making, problem-solving, and any other tasks that require people to work together.
Acceptance also results in better work performance because it puts an employee in the optimum emotional state to work. When a person feels accepted at the workplace, it enhances their self-esteem. With higher self-confidence, the employee is better suited to present any work ideas he or she may have without fear of judgment or harsh criticism (Bashir et al., 2020). It also encourages the person to freely express any complaints or concerns. Feelings of acceptance create a positive workplace where employees are motivated to work hard. Acceptance boosts the psychological well-being of an employee, which improves their performance at work.
In contrast, hostility is likely to negatively impact work performance. If a person feels that they work in a hostile work environment, it will de-motivate him or her from working hard. For instance, if an employee files a harassment complaint and the management does not take action, their work output will reduce due to the hostility experienced at work. Hostility impacts performance unfavorably because it results in poor work relationships between employees (Abbas et al., 2017). Feelings of hostility are accompanied by defiance and impoliteness that can be detrimental to work relationships. Therefore, hostility impacts performance negatively because it creates poor relations.
Besides creating poor connections, hostility is bad for performance in a diverse workplace. In particular, hostility is likely to emerge in such a workplace because of the differences among the people expected to work together. Feelings of hostility will eradicate any benefits that can be accrued from a diverse workplace (Abbas et al., 2017). For instance, diversity fosters efficient problem-solving due to the heterogeneity of ideas, yet this advantage cannot be enjoyed in a hostile work environment. In general, hostility is an emotion that reduces work performance.
Emotions affect a person’s work performance either positively or negatively. An example of an emotion that results in increased output is acceptance. It boosts self-esteem and sparks the motivation to work hard. Acceptance also leads to good working relationships with colleagues and employers. Hostility is an emotion that hinders meaningful work performance. It ruins relationships and leads to problems between coworkers thereby adversely affecting performance. Managers should understand the effects of these emotions to work performance and work towards creating a positive work environment for their employees.
References
Abbas, A. A., Hussein, A. A. A., & Khali, H. H. (2017). The effect of hostile work environment on organizational alienation: The mediation role of the relationship between the leader and followers. Asian Social Science, 13(2), 140-158. Web.
Bashir, A., Amir, A., Jawaad, M. & Hasan, T. (2020). Work conditions and job performance: An indirect conditional effect of motivation. Cogent Business & Management, 7(1). Web.