Institut für Bildung, Arbeit und Gesellschaft

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    Anger: The misunderstood and mismanaged workplace emotion
    (2025) Umbra, Robin; Fasbender, Ulrike
    Anger is a familiar yet often misunderstood and mismanaged emotion in organizational settings, commonly viewed as a purely negative force to be mitigated. This dissertation challenges such reductive perspectives by proposing a comprehensive reconceptualization of workplace anger as a potentially constructive emotion. It argues that, when properly understood and managed, anger can enhance employee productivity and well-being. Through a systematic examination of the antecedents, characteristics, and outcomes of anger in the workplace, this work introduces new theoretical frameworks and empirically validated strategies for harnessing anger’s positive potential. The dissertation is structured into three main sections that collectively advance the understanding of workplace anger. Chapter 1 establishes a foundational understanding by developing and validating a new State-Trait Anger Scale tailored for organizational research. This scale addresses limitations in existing measures by incorporating advanced psychometric techniques and a cross-cultural lens, revealing that workplace anger is influenced by both individual traits and situational factors, with significant variations across cultural contexts. A meta-analytic review follows, synthesizing the antecedents, concomitants, and consequences of workplace anger. The findings indicate that anger often arises from perceived negative workplace events and blame appraisals, which can primarily lead to destabilizing reactions. Chapter 2 advances the theoretical framework by introducing a novel perspective that links workplace anger to morality and perceived moral discrepancies. Through a series of empirical studies—including experience sampling, vignette experiments, and egocentric network analysis—this research demonstrates that anger frequently emerges from perceived transgressions of moral expectations in workplace interactions. The dissertation presents the Interaction Discrepancy Model, an innovative theoretical framework that integrates cognitive, social, and moral dimensions to better understand the dynamics of anger. This model elucidates how anger, a latent, morally and hedonically non-valanced construct, can motivate change-oriented behaviors aimed at rectifying moral discrepancies. Chapter 3 builds on these theoretical insights by developing practical strategies for constructive anger management in organizations. The research contrasts traditional mitigation-oriented strategies—such as suppression/rumination, avoidance, diffusion, and seeking social support—with constructive, approach-oriented strategies like confrontation and assertion. It shows that when anger is channeled appropriately through these constructive strategies, it can enhance both individual productivity and well-being. The empirical evidence further supports these findings, demonstrating that change-oriented strategies for managing anger are more effective in achieving work-related goals and maintaining well-being than mitigation-oriented approaches. This dissertation makes significant contributions to the fields of organizational psychology and organizational behavior by reconceptualizing workplace anger as a complex construct with both constructive and destructive potential. It introduces an empirically robust anger measurement tool that enhances research precision by addressing gaps in existing scales and incorporating advanced psychometric techniques. It also provides a meta-analytic overview of anger dynamics, offering a comprehensive synthesis of the antecedents, concomitants, and outcomes of anger in workplace settings. Furthermore, the dissertation offers theoretical advancements in the study of anger and emotions more broadly, integrating cognitive, social, and moral dimensions to provide a deeper understanding of emotional dynamics in organizational contexts. Additionally, it presents evidence-based strategies for practitioners to harness anger’s constructive potential, demonstrating how appropriate management of anger can lead to enhanced productivity and well-being. By challenging the conventional view of anger, this research opens new avenues for theory, practice, and future research, suggesting that anger, when understood and managed appropriately, can be a positive force in organizations.