Updating the State-of-The-Practice of Emotions in Management Education: The Integrated Emotions Exercise

Abstract

An experiential exercise is presented to align emotions education and practice with state-of-the-art emotions research. Starting with a contextualization of how emotions have been used in management education and practice, a disconnect is revealed between these domains and current research. In particular, academic applications have often embraced the emotions approach espoused by advocates of emotional intelligence and emotional labor, resulting in emotions being seen as something to be cognitized and controlled. However, the literature has begun to reveal the disadvantages of this approach. The purpose of this exercise is to integrate current scholarly research into education and practice by having students examine the advantages and disadvantages of cognitizing and controlling emotions. The conceptual foundation for the exercise is laid out, followed by its presentation and illustration. It is argued that emotions should be integrated along with other means of discourse as a natural element of communications. Among the results of the exercise, students report enhanced facility at recognizing when they can express emotions more openly. The article closes with a discussion of a number of micro and macro variables that can assist students in deploying emotions as a basis for learning.

Keywords: Emotions, Experiential Exercise, Affect, Emotional Intelligence, Emotional Labor

JEL Classification: D83, J24, I21, M53, N30