Negotiating Positive Relational Identities in Organizations: Self-Narration as a Mechanism for Strategic Emotion Management in Interpersonal Interactions

Abstract

This paper explores the impact of emotions on identity. In organizational settings, displays of negative (e.g., anger or sadness) and positive (e.g., happiness or joy) emotions, whether authentic or feigned, can be counterproductive to negotiated task and relational outcomes (e.g., Allred, Mallozzi, Matsui, & Raia, 1997; Côté, 2005; Hochschild, 1983; Pillutla & Murnighan, 1996). Strategic response to counterproductive emotional displays will impact the responder’s experienced emotions and subsequent behavior (Kopelman, Gewurz, & Sacharin, 2008). We suggest that emotion management-strategic response and display of emotions-will not only lead to improved interdependent outcomes (Frank, 1988; Barry, 1999; Kopelman, Rosette, & Thompson, 2006; Kopelman, Gewurz, & Sacharin, 2008), but will also influence the social construction and re-construction of interpersonal relational identities. Adopting a framework that conceptualizes identity as narrative (Gergen, 1991; McAdams, 1985; Omer & Strenger, 1992; Spence, 1982), a relational identity (Sluss & Ashforth, 2007) is a negotiated shared narrative that emerges from both parties’ self-narration of the social interaction (see Figure 1). When relational threats such as counterproductive display of positive or negative emotions are strategically managed, people in interdependent role-relationships can co-create, renarrate, and maintain positive relational identities.