Go to main content
Harvard Business School
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Campaign
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions

Faculty & Research

  • HOME
  • FACULTY
  • RESEARCH
    • Global Research Centers
    • HBS Case Collection
    • HBS Case Development
    • Initiatives & Projects
    • Publications
    • Research Associate (RA) Positions
    • Research Services
    • Seminars & Conferences
    Close
  • FEATURED TOPICS
    • Business and Environment
    • Business History
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Finance
    • Globalization
    • Health Care
    • Human Behavior and Decision-Making
    • Leadership
    • Social Enterprise
    • Technology and Innovation
    Close
  • ACADEMIC UNITS
    • Accounting and Management
    • Business, Government and the International Economy
    • Entrepreneurial Management
    • Finance
    • General Management
    • Marketing
    • Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
    • Organizational Behavior
    • Strategy
    • Technology and Operations Management
    Close

Article | Research in Organizational Behavior | 2009

Implicit Affect in Organizations

by Sigal G. Barsade, Lakshmi Ramarajan and Drew Westen

  • Print
  • Email

Abstract

Our goal is to integrate the construct of implicit affect—affective processes activated or processed outside of conscious awareness that influence ongoing thought, behavior, and conscious emotional experience—into the field of organizational behavior. We begin by offering a definition and review of implicit processes, including implicit cognition, motivation and affect. We then draw upon recent empirical research in psychology and neuroscience to make the case for a three category framework of implicit affect: (1) implicit sources of affect (2) implicit experiencing of affect and (3) implicit regulation of affect. To demonstrate the use of this framework in organizational scholarship, we present illustrative examples from organizational behavior research that represent each category. Given the limited amount of research in the organizational domain, we focus on demonstrating how an implicit affect perspective might alter or extend theoretical perspectives about a variety of organizational phenomena. We then discuss methodological options and challenges for studying implicit affect within the organizational domain. In sum, we provide a theoretical and methodological roadmap as well as a call for action for understanding the role of implicit affective processes in organizational behavior.

Keywords: Framework; Business Processes; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Research; Behavior; Cognition and Thinking; Emotions; Motivation and Incentives; Perspective;

Format: Print Find at Harvard Read Now

Citation:

Barsade, Sigal G., Lakshmi Ramarajan, and Drew Westen. "Implicit Affect in Organizations." Research in Organizational Behavior 29 (2009).

About the Author

Photo
Lakshmi Ramarajan
Anna Spangler Nelson and Thomas C. Nelson Associate Professor of Business Administration
Organizational Behavior

View Profile »
View Publications »

 

More from the Author

  • Article | INSEAD Knowledge | December 8, 2017

    Why Many Women Social Entrepreneurs Avoid Commercial Models

    Matthew Lee, Stefan Dimitriadis, Lakshmi Ramarajan and Julie Battilana

    Citation:

    Lee, Matthew, Stefan Dimitriadis, Lakshmi Ramarajan, and Julie Battilana. "Why Many Women Social Entrepreneurs Avoid Commercial Models." INSEAD Knowledge (December 8, 2017).  View Details
    CiteView Details Read Now Related
  • Article | Academy of Management Journal | December 2017

    Discordant vs. Harmonious Selves: The Effects of Identity Conflict and Enhancement on Sales Performance in Employee-Customer Interactions

    Lakshmi Ramarajan, Nancy Rothbard and Steffanie Wilk

    Across multiple studies, we examine how identity conflict and enhancement within people affect performance in tasks that involve interactions between people through two mechanisms: role-immersion, operationalized as intrinsic motivation, and role-taking, operationalized as perspective-taking. In Study 1, a longitudinal field study of customer service representatives (n=763) who simultaneously identify with multiple brands they represent to customers, we examine the relationships among identity conflict and enhancement, on the one hand, and objective sales performance, on the other. We find independent effects for identity conflict and enhancement on intrinsic motivation, perspective-taking, and performance, such that identity conflict negatively and enhancement positively affect all three variables above and beyond average identification. Intrinsic motivation further mediates the relationships between identity conflict and enhancement on sales in a direction consistent with our theorizing. However, while significant, perspective-taking does not mediate these relationships in the expected direction, because it has a negative effect on sales. In Studies 2a and 2b, both experimental studies, we strengthen causal inference using an experimental moderation-of-process approach (Spencer, Zanna, & Fong, 2005) to constructively replicate and extend our findings. The paper demonstrates how multiple identities within people can have consequences for performance in tasks that involve interactions between people.

    Keywords: Identity; Interpersonal Communication; Sales; Performance;

    Citation:

    Ramarajan, Lakshmi, Nancy Rothbard, and Steffanie Wilk. "Discordant vs. Harmonious Selves: The Effects of Identity Conflict and Enhancement on Sales Performance in Employee-Customer Interactions." Academy of Management Journal 60, no. 6 (December 2017): 2208–2238.  View Details
    CiteView DetailsFind at Harvard Register to Read Related
  • Article | Organization Science | September–October 2017

    Blurring the Boundaries: The Interplay of Gender and Local Communities in the Commercialization of Social Ventures

    Stefan Dimitriadis, Matthew Lee, Lakshmi Ramarajan and Julie Battilana

    This paper examines the critical role of gender in the commercialization of social ventures. We argue that cultural beliefs about what is perceived to be appropriate work for each gender influence how founders of social ventures incorporate commercial activity into their ventures. Specifically, we argue and show that although cultural beliefs that disassociate women from commercial activity may result in female social venture founders being less likely to use commercial activity than their male counterparts, these effects are moderated by cultural beliefs about gender and commercial activity within founders’ local communities. The presence of female business owners in the same community mitigates the role of founders’ gender on the use of commercial activity. We examine these issues through a novel sample of 584 social ventures in the United States. We constructively replicate and extend these findings with a supplemental analysis of a second sample, the full population of new nonprofit organizations founded during a two-year period in the United States (n = 31,160). By highlighting how gendered aspects of both the social and commercial sectors interact to shape the use of commercial activity by social venture founders, our findings contribute to research on hybrid organizations in the social sector, communities as a context for the enactment of gender, and the enactment of gender in entrepreneurship.

    Keywords: Social Enterprise; Gender; Local Range; Commercialization; Culture;

    Citation:

    Dimitriadis, Stefan, Matthew Lee, Lakshmi Ramarajan, and Julie Battilana. "Blurring the Boundaries: The Interplay of Gender and Local Communities in the Commercialization of Social Ventures." Organization Science 28, no. 5 (September–October 2017): 819–839. (Pre-published online, August 2017.)  View Details
    CiteView DetailsFind at Harvard Read Now Related
ǁ
Campus Map
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→ Map & Directions
→ More Contact Information
→ More Contact Information
→ More Contact Information
→ More Contact Information
  • HBS Facebook
  • Alumni Facebook
  • Executive Education Facebook
  • Michael Porter Facebook
  • Working Knowledge Facebook
  • HBS Twitter
  • Executive Education Twitter
  • HBS Alumni Twitter
  • Michael Porter Twitter
  • Recruiting Twitter
  • Rock Center Twitter
  • Working Knowledge Twitter
  • Jobs Twitter
  • HBS Youtube
  • Michael Porter Youtube
  • Executive Education Youtube
  • HBS Linkedin
  • Alumni Linkedin
  • Executive Education Linkedin
  • MBA Linkedin
  • Linkedin
  • HBS Google Plus
  • Executive Education Google Plus
  • HBS Instagram
  • Alumni Instagram
  • Executive Education Instagram
  • Michael Porter Instagram
  • HBS iTunes
  • Executive Education iTunes
  • HBS Tumblr
  • Executive Education Weibo
  • HBS Snapchat
  • Executive Education Wechat
  • →All Social Media
  • → All Social Media
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Terms of Use
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College