Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine how positive and negative emotions fluctuate over time within one workday and to investigate the moderating effects of neuroticism and job satisfaction. Data were obtained from 201 Seoul citizens in Korea using the Day Reconstruction Method (Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade, Schwarz, & Stone, 2004). Data revealed that negative emotions increased over time; positive emotions did not show such a pattern. Job satisfaction correlated positively with average positive emotions and negatively with average negative emotions. Neuroticism correlated significantly and in opposite directions with average positive and negative emotions, but did not correlate significantly with the variability of emotions within a work day. Additionally, neuroticism had a significant moderating effect on the changing pattern of negative (but not positive) emotions over time, such that the negative emotions of workers with high levels of neuroticism increased more sharply than the negative emotions of workers with low levels of neuroticism. Contrary to expectation, job satisfaction did not moderate the pattern of positive or negative emotions at work. Changing patterns of negative emotions may be predictive of occupational accidents and diurnal patterns of positive emotions may be predictive of optimal concentration and efficiency at work. These patterns may also have implications for when we administer surveys in the workplace, when a boss should share bad news with his/her employees.
Highlights
The purpose of this study was to examine how positive and negative emotions fluctuate over time within one workday and to investigate the moderating effects of neuroticism and job satisfaction
We propose that a high level of job satisfaction can serve as a buffer for naturally occurring diurnal rhythms of emotions, such that individuals with a high level of job satisfaction will experience less of a decline in positive emotions and less of an increase in negative emotions throughout the workday
The number of hours worked in the focal day was not significantly related to job satisfaction, positive emotions, or negative emotions
Summary
The purpose of this study was to examine how positive and negative emotions fluctuate over time within one workday and to investigate the moderating effects of neuroticism and job satisfaction. Job affect is inherently dynamic (Judge, Hulin, & Dalal, in press), and the changing patterns of affective reactions may influence both overall feelings about one’s job and discrete behaviors at work (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) It is unclear how much emotions fluctuate within a workday and what are the antecedents and outcomes of those fluctuations. To investigate the dynamic patterns of affective reactions, researchers have pursued Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM) which permits momentary reports of emotions in one’s natural environment Despite this new technique, the rhythmicity of affect within the workday has been understudied (Stone, Schwartz, Schwarz, Schkade, Krueger, & Kahneman, 2006). Studies of mood cycles within days, requiring multiple measurements throughout the day, occur infrequently, and formal analysis of moods cycles with data collected in work
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