Affective Events Theory

Affective Events Theory (AET) is a model developed by organizational psychologists Howard M. Weiss (Purdue University) and Russell Cropanzano (University of Arizona) to identify how emotions and moods influence job performance and job satisfaction. The model increases understanding of links between employees and their emotional reaction to things that happen to them at work.

Work events modeled include hassles, tasks, autonomy, job demands, emotional labor and uplifting actions. These work events affect employees positively or negatively. Employee mood predisposes the intensity of their reaction. This emotional response intensity therefore affects job performance and satisfaction.

Furthermore, other employment variables like effort, leaving, deviance, commitment, and citizenship, are affected.

AET is described in more detail in multiple references.Handbook of Psychology, by Donald K. Freedheim et al, pp 268-269, John Wiley and Sons, 2003, ISBN 0471392634] Understanding Cross-Cultural Negotiation: A Model Integrating Affective Events Theory and Communication Accommodation Theory by Mona White et al, in Emotions in Organizational Behavior, Routledge, 2006, ISBN 0805861785] [Affective Events-Emotions Matrix: A Classification of Work Events and Associated Emotions, by John Baush and Cynthia D. Fisher, in Emotions in the Workplace: Research, Theory, and Practice, by Neal M. Ashkanasy et al, Quorum/Greenwood, 2000, ISBN 1567203647]

References