report more comfort in expressing emotions. Finally, women are better at reading nonverbal and paralinguistic cues than are men.62      What explains these differences? Three possible answers have been suggested. One explanation is the different ways men and women have been socialized.63              Men are taught to be tough and brave; and showing emo-                tion is inconsistent with this image. Women, on the other                hand, are socialized to be nurturing. This may account for                the perception that women are generally warmer and                friendlier than men. For instance, women are expected to express more positive emo- tions on the job (shown bysmiling) than men, and they do.64 A second explanation is that women may have more innate ability to read others and present their emo- tions than do men.65 Third, women may have a greater need for social approval and, thus, a higher propensity to show positive emotions such as happiness. EXTERNAL CONSTRAINTS ON EMOTIONS An emotion that is acceptable on the athletic playing field may be totally unac- ceptable when exhibited at the workplace. Similarly, what's appropriate in one country is often inappropriate in another. These facts illustrate the role that ex- ternal constraints play in shaping displayed emotions.      Every organization defines boundaries that identify what emotions are ac- ceptable and the degree to which they can be expressed. The same applies in dif- ferent cultures. In this section, we look at organizational and cultural influences on emotions. Organization Influences  If you can't smile and appear happy, you're unlikely to have much of a career working at a Disney amusement park. And a manual produced by McDonald's states that its counter personnel "must display traits such as sincerity, enthusiasm, confidence, and a sense of humor."66      There is no single emotional "set" sought by all organizations. However, at least in the United States, the evidence indicates that there's a bias against nega- tive and intense emotions. Expressions of negative emotions such as fear, anxi- ety, and anger tend to be unacceptable except under fairly specific conditions.67 For instance, one such condition might be a high-status member of a group con- veying impatience with a low-status member.68 Moreover, expressions of intense emotion, whether negative or positive, tend to be typically unacceptable because they're seen as undermining routine task performance.69 Again, there are excep- tional conditions in which this isn't true-for example, a brief grieving over the sudden death of a company's CEO or the celebration of a record year of profits. But for the most part, consistent with the myth of rationality, well-managed or- ganizations are expected to be essentially emotion free. Cultural Influences Cultural norms in the United States dictate that employ- ees in service organizations should smile and act friendly when interacting with customers.70 But this norm doesn't apply worldwide. In Israel, smiling by super- market cashiers is seen as a sign of inexperience, so cashiers are encouraged to look somber.71 In Moslem cultures, smiling is frequently taken as a sign of sexual attraction, so women are socialized not to smile at men.72      The foregoing examples illustrate the need to consider cultural factors as influ- encing what is or isn't considered as emotionally appropriate.73 What's acceptable in one culture may seem extremely unusual or even dysfunctional in another. And cultures differ in terms of the interpretation they give to emotions.     Home     © Prentice-Hall, Inc. A Pearson Education Company