Emotions at Work: Normative Control, Organizations, and Culture in Japan and America

Abstract

Our work life is filled with emotions. How we feel on the job, what we say we feel, and what feelings we display - all these are important aspects of organizational behavior and workplace culture. Rather than focusing on the psychology of personal emotions at work, however, this study concentrates on emotions as role requirements, on workplace emotions that combine the private with the public, the personal with the social, and the authentic with the masked. In this cross-cultural study of emotion management, the author argues that even though the goals of normative control in factories, offices, and shops may be similar across cultures, organizational structure and the surrounding culture affect how that control is discussed and conceived.