A broaden and build framework of self-transcendent emotions for organizational effectiveness

Abstract

The organizational behavior literature establishes that positive emotions are essential in contributing to desired workplace outcomes. Limited work, however, focuses on self-transcendent emotions – emotions arising from attending to the needs of others that motivate prosocial behaviors. Further, existing theoretical work is limited in explaining the underlying mechanisms by which this category of emotions benefits individuals and organizations. The current work addresses this theoretical lacuna. We distinguish between four self-transcendent emotions – compassion, gratitude, inspiration, and awe, and detail the underlying processes that link them with enhanced organizational functioning. We build our propositions guided by an overarching theory – the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions and detail the specific mechanisms by which each self-transcendent emotion broadens cognitive processes and builds the necessary resources for individual and organizational effectiveness. We conclude our review with four key themes – (i) the importance of delineating levels of analysis in research on self-transcendent emotions, (ii) acknowledging contextual and cross-cultural differences shaping the experience of self-transcendent emotions, (iii) addressing measurement concerns and (iv) examination of other self-transcendent emotions. In effect, we synthesize the positive psychology and organizational behavior literature to generate a framework illustrating how self-transcendent emotions contribute to organizational effectiveness.