Affect Theory

Fundamentals

There are many theories about affect, or emotion, in psychology and sociology. Most focus on negative emotions (such as fear, anger, and sadness) rather than positive emotions (such as pleasure or excitement). Positive emotions are known to make people view the world more inclusively or broadly, see more options than otherwise, and cooperate more productively with others. Negative emotions tend to narrow people’s thinking whereas positive emotions tend to broaden it. Research on groups or teams accords little attention to import of emotions or feelings produced in the course of task interactions. The affect theory of social exchange explains why even mild everyday feelings of pleasure or excitement from task behaviors can have important effects on the ties of commitment people develop to groups or organizations. The emphasis is group level, affective ties rather than interpersonal ties with colleagues.

The affect theory interweaves three broadly applicable ideas:

• 1.
  When people accomplish a joint task, they feel good; when they have a joint task but do not accomplish it, they feel “bad.” Such emotions inevitably occur when people work with others.
• 2.
  If such experiences recur across time, people are likely to interpret their individual feelings as due in part to common group or organizational affiliations.
• 3.
  People thus attribute their individually felt emotions to the relevant social unit, which can be a small local group or the larger organization; this in turn leads to affective attachments to the group or organization. The domain of the affect theory is any group or organizational context in which two or more people interact with each other repeatedly in order to exchange things of value (information, knowledge, favors, services) and produce a collective result.

Smaller groups are typically nested in larger groups, and it is plausible that people will associate their feelings more with local, immediate groups than with larger and more distant ones. This is a potential problem for employers. If a work team generates positive affect among its members, they could associate their feelings with the team itself or the larger organization within which the team operates. The affect theory indicates that people attribute their feelings to the local or larger group to the degree that each is perceived as a source of control or efficacy for individuals in the group. If the task structure or content is developed and controlled locally, then the commitment to the local group may be stronger than to the larger organization, whereas if the task is designed and controlled by the larger organization, the attachment or commitment may be stronger to that organization than to the local group. The affect theory suggests some conditions under which organizations foster strong attachments to local units that undermine commitments to the larger organization. This commitment problem is especially difficult for decentralized organizations.

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