Emotional communication is everything: a rich but often underappreciated influence in our working lives, enhancing or impeding occupational success, forging meaningful bonds among coworkers, and shaping the moral character of our workplaces. And a successful organizer must understand how to create and manage employees’ feelings, whether they be pride, fear, joy, shame, affection or resentment.
In a presentation at Bellarmine University this coming Wednesday, October 5, Dr. Vincent Waldron will draw upon two decades of research to chronicle the emotional performances of employees from a broad cross-section of occupations. Sharing emotional narratives collected from funeral directors and factory workers, prison guards and preachers, secretaries and stockbrokers, Dr. Waldron argues that recent economic failures can be attributed in part to the suppression by organizations of such emotions as guilt and fear—a circumstance that fostered excessive risk-taking and unethical conduct. Ultimately taking a positive approach, however, Dr. Waldron recognizes that emotional communication is a humanizing and vitalizing dimension of life in complex organizations.
The discussion is free and open to the public, and will begin at 7 p.m. in the School of Communication, Room SC203.
Dr. Waldron is a professor of communication studies at Arizona State University, where he is also the associate director of the Social and Behavioral Sciences division. He is the author of four books on communication, and currently chairs the Interpersonal Communication division of the National Communication Association (NCA). For more information about Dr. Waldron, visit his webpage: https://webapp4.asu.edu/directory/person/54045.
Contact the author at leecopywriting@gmail.com or www.leecopywriting.com.
Photo: Courtesy Vincent Waldron
