| The current study is part of a growing area of interest in organizational behavior research: emotions in work groups. It provides a foundational investigation of the phenomenon of the social processing of positive and negative emotions among work group members. Social processing of emotion is defined as interactions combining the disclosure of an emotion from a worker to one or more coworkers and the interpersonal exchange that ensues. The main goals of the study are to identify (a) the functions that social processing interactions serve for individuals and groups, as well as (b) the nature of social processing interactions.;Semi-structured interviews about general and specific work experiences were undertaken with 34 human service participants who varied in personal and organizational characteristics. As primary data, the interviews generated 71 detailed incidents of client-evoked emotional incidents, including 55 incidents that included social processing among coworkers (18 positive and 37 negative in emotion valence). The data were coded and analyzed inductively regarding the role and nature of social processing interactions. For all analyses, positive and negative emotion examples were compared to identify patterns associated with different emotion types.;Three main sets of findings are presented. First, it is shown that social processing interactions serve the function of enhancing the emotional state and work capability of both individuals and other work group members. This is especially true in cases in which coworkers provided validation to the workers during the interaction, and in which the level of negativity expressed was deemed appropriate. Second, the major attributes of the client events, emotional disclosure and interpersonal exchange involved in social processing interactions are identified. Third, the common types of social processing interactions identified are: close colleague chat, specialist consultation, peer group chat, and work group consultation. The conditions influencing the pattern of interaction types include the level of opportunity associated with the group context and the level of motivation associated with the individual. Based on the findings, a theoretical model of the social processing of positive and negative emotions in work groups is presented, as well as implications for future research and practice. |
