NTERNATIONAL R EVIEW OF I NDUSTRIAL AND O RGANIZATIONAL P SYCHOLOGY 2005 the other hand, are important for encoding patterns of stimulus–response

234 I NTERNATIONAL R EVIEW OF I NDUSTRIAL AND O RGANIZATIONAL P SYCHOLOGY 2005 the other hand, are important for encoding patterns of stimulus–response

relationships that underlie the perception of affective stimuli.

Emotion regulation According to Mayer and Salovey (1997), emotion regulation in organizations

involves active modification of prepotent responses, as well as the active use of emotional responses to guide strategic behavioral decisions. Data from both animal and human studies indicate that the orbitofrontal cortex and the ventromedial frontal cortex are integral to the regulation of both the emotion generated in response to affective stimuli, and adaptive social cog- nitive and behavioral changes that are made in response to affective stimuli (Beauregard et al., 2001; Ochsner, Bunge, Gross & Gabrieli, 2002; Rolls, 1999).

The ability to deploy the appropriate means of regulation deliberatively requires the ability to determine the motivational relevance of an object (be it

a place, person, object, or thought), and studies confirm that this is the function of the orbitofrontal and ventromedial frontal cortices (Beauregard et al., 2001; Rolls, 1999). Neuroimaging studies support the role of the orbital and ventromedial frontal cortices in the information-processing of the motivational value of external stimuli (Francis et al., 1999). Orbitofrontal activation has been found during the perception of both primary reinforcers, including pleasantly experienced touches, odours, and tastes (Francis et al., 1999), and secondary reinforcers including happy and fearful faces (Morris et al., 1998), negatively valenced words (Beauregard et al., 1997), and visual mental images of aversive scenes (Shin et al., 1997). Similarly, ventromedial frontal activation has been recorded for negative photographs (Canli, Des- mond, Zhou, Glover, & Gabrieli, 1998), anxiety elicited by anticipation of electric shock (Drevets, Videen, Price, & Preskorn, 1992), and the experience of sad personal memories and viewing of photos of sad faces (Drevets et al., 1992).

Beyond computing the significance of external stimuli based on the demands of the current situation, the orbital and ventromedial frontal cortices are also important for acting on the basis of these computations (Bechara, Tranel, & Damasio, 2000). In general, lesions in these two domains impair the ability to change stimulus–reinforcement associations and cause the perseveration of behavioral responses that are manifestly maladaptive (as indicated by signals emitted from the anterior cingulate cortex, see Savage, 2002). This inability to use information about the current value of stimuli to inhibit the perseverance of maladaptive, emotion-motivated responses can have serious consequences for socio-emotional functioning. Various kinds of maladaptive behaviors have been reported following orbital and ventro- medial frontal lesions, including apathy, violence, and the exhibition of

235 socially inappropriate behavior and language (see, e.g., Damasio, 1994; Saver

E MOTION IN O RGANIZATIONS

& Damasio, 1991). In summary, the neural mechanisms underlying the perception of affective events and the regulation of emotional responses play a critical role in the impact of emotions on individuals who work in organizations. The amygdalae and basal ganglia function to encode negative and positive affective events, while the orbitofrontal and ventromedial cortices moderate the experience and expressionof emotioninthe workplace. Lesionstudies demonstrate the functional importance of these brain regions for strategic interpersonal and workplace functioning. As such, the importance of these basic functions as the foundation of emotion cannot be underestimated. In the next section, we consider the impact of emotion on cognitive functioning.

Cognitive Processing Effects

Affect influences both the content of cognition, and the strategies that people use to process information. Moreover, and following our discussion of neurobiology above, positive and negative mood have different effects on the content processes of cognition.

Content effects The content effects of mood have received much attention in affect and

cognition research (Forgas & Bower, 1987). The primary finding in this research relates to mood congruence; if an individual is in a positive mood, his or her evaluation of situational cues is optimistic or positive, and corre- sponding judgements and decisions are also more positive. For example, whenina positive mood, observers form more positive impression s of people (Forgas & Bower, 1987; Forgas, Bower, & Krantz, 1984), and make more optimistic risk assessments (Lerner & Keltner, 2000). When in a negative mood, on the other hand, observers are more likely to make more pessimistic risk assessments (Mittal & Ross, 1998), and to evaluate other people and situations more negatively (Forgas & Bower, 1987). A number of cognitive theories of affect congruence have been proposed. With attention to implications for organizational outcomes, we focus on two of the most influential of these theories: (1) affect-priming theory (Bower, 1981), and (2) the affect-as-information model (Schwarz & Clore, 1983).

AFFECT-PRIMING THEORY

The affect-priming account of mood-congruent content effects is based on an associative network model of mental representation (Bower, 1981; Isen, Shalker, Clark, & Karp, 1978). Fundamental to this model is the assumption that affective and cognitive representations are linked in an associative semantic network. Within this framework, thought occurs via the spreading

236 I NTERNATIONAL R EVIEW OF I NDUSTRIAL AND O RGANIZATIONAL P SYCHOLOGY 2005 activation of nodes within the network. A consequence of this is that activa-

tion of affective nodes can spread to non-affective cognitive nodes through associative connections (Forgas, 2002). Hence, affect can infuse judgements by facilitating or priming access to related cognitive categories (Bower, 1981; Isen, 1987). As such, judgement and decision processes that rely on recall processes may be influenced by affect, such that affect-congruent memories and concepts are more accessible and, hence, more likely to be relied upon in the decision-making process than information that is associated with an incongruent mood. Consequently, when in a positive mood, people tend to

be more optimistic, entrepreneurial, and to take more risks because situa- tional cues are interpreted on the basis of positive rather than negative experiences. In a negative mood, however, people tend to be more cautious intheir decisions, because the negative features of a situationare more easily recognized.

AFFECT-AS-INFORMATION

Mood may also have direct informational effects, serving as a heuristic cue from which to make evaluative judgements. When presented with a judge- mental target, instead of deriving a response from a constructive, elaborate information search, people may simply ask themselves, ‘how do I feel about it?’ and base their judgements on this affective response (Schwarz, 1990). According to this affect-as-information model, mood serves as a shortcut or anin formative cue about the target. As such, mood canfacilitate strategic decision-making in conditions of uncertainty, where information is ambiguous or incomplete.

Information-processing effects In addition to these informational and content effects of mood described by

the affect-priming and affect-as-information accounts, affect also influences information-processing strategies. Generally, positive moods elicit a top- down, less systematic, and more heuristic processing strategy, often leading to greater flexibility and creativity (Bodenhausen, 1993; Fiedler, 1988; Hertel & Fiedler, 1994; Isen, 1987). Negative moods, on the other hand, facilitate more vigilant, focused, detail-oriented, and elaborative information-proces- sing styles (Schwarz, 1990; Schwarz & Bless, 1991). These different general processing styles have more recently been termed ‘assimilative’ and ‘accom- modative’, respectively (Fiedler & Bless, 2001). Assimilation, associated here with positive affect, a processing style whereby people rely on internal knowledge structures and routine, and schematic knowledge to deal with environmental opportunities and threats quickly and efficiently. Assimilative processing is also associated with less susceptibility to informational anchors that may bias situational assessments and inhibit consideration of alternative explanations for events (Isen, 1987).

237 The influence of individuals’ affective states on the content and

E MOTION IN O RGANIZATIONS

information-processing of judgements and decisions has important implica- tions for organizational functioning. As we mentioned previously, Isen has demonstrated that positive affect predicts greater creativity and cognitive flexibility (Isen & Daubman, 1984; Isen, Daubman, & Nowicki, 1987; Isen, Johnson, Mertz, & Robinson, 1985). Isen (2002) also argues that pos- itive mood is connected to a reduced number of self-related, task-irrelevant cognitions; and consequently facilitates task involvement and attention to task demands. As such, positive mood has potential to enhance performance on tasks for which creativity and cognitive flexibility are required, such as product design and innovation. On the other hand, George (1990) and Staw and Barsade (1993) provide evidence to suggest that employees in a negative affective state are ‘sadder-but-wiser’. People ina n egative affective state demonstrate a tendency to be more vigilant in their monitoring of environ- mental stimuli (Forgas, 1995), less susceptible to persuasion (Forgas & East, 2003) and bias (Forgas & George, 2001), and more realistic in their prob- ability estimates (Alloy, Abramson, & Viscusi, 1981). As such, while positive mood may be beneficial for tasks that utilize divergent thinking, negative mood may facilitate performance on tasks for which accuracy, vigilance, critical thinking, and attention to detail are critical. In conclusion, it appears that both positive and negative affect have important consequences for workplace cognition, and may enhance or detract from individual perform- ance depending on the nature of the task.

Moderators of affect congruence While there is much empirical support for both content and processing

effects of moods, there are many instances in which affect infusion does not occur, and neither the affect-priming nor the affect-as-information accounts can explain such instances (Forgas, 1995). Furthermore, there are several cases in which the mood congruence literature and the mood and information-processing literature make opposite predictions for the outcome of mood on cognition and behavior (Forgas, 1995). In response to this discrepancy, Forgas proposed the Affect Infusion Model (AIM: 1995) to explain the individual, situational, and task differences that moderate the impact of mood and emotions on cognition and behavior, via their impact onprocessing strategy.

The primary assumptionof this model is process mediation: the nature and extent of mood effects depends on the information-processing strategy used for a particular task. Generally, the more elaborate and constructive is the processing strategy, the greater the affect infusion. The second assumption of the AIM is effort minimization: People should adopt the least effortful pro- cessing strategy capable of producing a response, all other things being equal. The AIM proposes four different processing strategies that vary along two