Effects of Emotion on the Process of Organizational Learning

Abstract

For decades a somewhat narrow interpretation of Max Weber’s emphasis on the rational nature of the bureaucratic organization (Albrow 1992; Putnam and Mumby 1993) has led organization theorists to keep their theorizing and research sterile-uncontaminated by the unsavory mention of emotion or affect. One of the reasons for avoiding affect is the long-standing philosophical tradition in which anything emotional is considered ‘passion’ and hence a threat to rationality. Traces of these deep-seated attitudes can still be found in the rationalistic currents of the literature on organizational behavior and organizational learning (Flam 1990a, b). Ashforth and Humphrey (1995) argued that rationalist thought has led to institutionalized mechanisms for regulating the experience and expression of emotion in the workplace, mechanisms such as neutralizing, buffering, prescribing, and normalizing emotion.