Theoretical advances around social functions of emotion and talking about emotion at work

Abstract

Our aim in this book is to consider workplace emotion from a social functional perspective (Keltner and Gross, 1999; Keltner and Haidt, 1999; van Kleef, 2017) in relation to societal “talk about emotion” (see Solomon, 2003). Social functional accounts differentiate discrete emo-tions and provide a theoretical understanding of their consequences for goal-directed action. They are intended to explain behavior important to social relationships and ongoing interactions (Keltner and Gross, 1999). This framework has the benefit of examining what emotions do in social interaction rather than what they are (van Kleef, 2017). In contrast, the “talk about emotion” focuses on varying language practices (e.g., word choice, narratives and metaphors) and subsequent interpretations regard-ing emotions across cultures,1 and, in turn, how these perceptions influence the causes, expressions, and consequences of emotions (Solo-mon, 2003).