Recent studies in workplace learning and sociology of work have emphasized the need to better understand how emotions and emotional agency at work are expressed in daily work and how they shape interaction in work communities. Emotional agency, meaning an ability to recognize and influence one’s own and others’ emotions, has been conceptualized as embedded in the socio-cultural environment and practices of a workplace. In this study, we analyse emotions and emotional agency at work from the perspective of trust. Trust and distrust involve expectations and evaluations of others’ intentions and behaviour and profoundly shape communication practices at work. By analysing emotion diaries kept by employees in four different work organizations, we identify emotions and forms of emotional agency displayed in the vertical (i.e., employee-supervisor) and horizontal (i.e., between colleagues) trust relationships at work. In employee-supervisor relationships, emotions indicating trust or distrust were commonly reported in connection with professional recognition, whereas in horizontal relationships, emotions were most often mentioned in the context of sharing information or emotions. Our results show that the forms of emotional agency are different in vertical and horizontal trust relationships at work. While there was less space to affect emotions in vertical relationships, sharing and influencing emotions was common in horizontal relationships. Our study illustrates how emotional agency, as a resource fostered in the work community, can help overcome breaches of trust and positively affect employees’ sense of belonging and learning at work. Responsibility for promoting emotional agency at work lies primarily with the organization’s management and supervisors.
Vanhanen et al. (Sat,) studied this question.