Updating the state-of-the-practice of emotions in management education: The integrated emotions exercise

What is it about?

An experiential exercise is presented to align emotions education and practice with state-of-the-art emotions research. Starting with a contextualisation 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 labour, resulting in emotions being seen as something to be cognitised 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 asking students to examine the advantages and disadvantages of cognitising 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 reported enhanced ability to recognise when they can express emotions more openly. The article ends with a discussion of a number of micro and macro variables that can assist students in deploying emotions as a basis for learning.

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