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The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts EMOTION REGULATION IN RESPONSE TO NEGATIVE INTERPERSONAL EVENTS AT WORK A Dissertation in Psychology by Robert C. Melloy, Jr. © 2018 Robert C. Melloy, Jr. Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2018 ii The dissertation of Robert C. Melloy, Jr. was reviewed and approved* by the following: Alicia Grandey Professor of Psychology Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Susan Mohammed Professor of Psychology James LeBreton Professor of Psychology D. Lance Ferris Professor of Management Michigan State University Melvin M. Mark Professor of Psychology Head of the Department of Psychology *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. iii ABSTRACT To better understand how employees manage their emotions during and following negative interpersonal events (NIEs), I propose that employees flexibly regulate themselves using multiple strategies. I also propose that the choice of strategy combinations is driven by characteristics of the situation (emotional intensity, typicality, controllability, responsibility), and that strategy combinations differ in terms of their influence on employee performance and well- being. Using multilevel latent profile analysis at the event level with faculty and staff in a high- stress work context, results indicate six profiles of emotion regulation that are distinguished by a primary use of engagement or disengagement strategies, or a mix of both. Higher negative emotional intensity, controllability, and responsibility were associated with using disengagement regulation profiles, while lower typicality was associated with engagement profiles. Employees had higher supervisor-rated job performance when using multiple engagement strategies compared to using single engagement or disengagement strategies, but lower job performance self-efficacy when they did not regulate. Employees retaliated the most during times they used multiple strategies or did not regulate. The six profiles differed in terms of experienced physical symptoms but not beyond event negative emotional intensity. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for theory and practice. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. vi List of Figures ...........................................................................................................................vii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. viii Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 Theoretical Background: Emotion Regulation at Work ............................................................ 6 Emotion Regulation Model.................................................................................................. 7 Emotion Regulation at Work: Emotional Labor ................................................................... 9 The Limitations of Examining Person-level Tendencies for Emotion Regulation at Work . 10 Situational Emotion Regulation Strategies at Work ........................................................... 11 Work Event Characteristics and Situational Emotion Regulation ....................................... 14 Negative Emotional Intensity......................................................................................... 16 Typicality. ..................................................................................................................... 17 Controllability. .............................................................................................................. 18 Responsibility. ............................................................................................................... 19 Situational Emotion Regulation and Employee Outcomes ................................................. 21 Job performance and self-efficacy. ................................................................................ 22 Retaliation. .................................................................................................................... 24 Employee Well-being. ....................................................................................................... 26 Physical symptoms. ....................................................................................................... 26 Chapter 2: Method .................................................................................................................... 29 Data Collection Procedure and Sample .................................................................................. 29 Initial Survey. .................................................................................................................... 29 Event-level Surveys. .......................................................................................................... 30 Employee Event-Level Measures (Behavioral Incident Write-Ups) ....................................... 31 Workplace emotion regulation strategies. .......................................................................... 31 Performance Self-Efficacy. ................................................................................................ 32 Retaliation......................................................................................................................... 33 Physical Symptoms. ........................................................................................................... 33 Supervisor Event-Level Measures (Behavioral Incident Reports) .......................................... 34 Event characteristics. ......................................................................................................... 34 Employee job performance. ............................................................................................... 34 Retaliation. ........................................................................................................................ 35 Analytical Strategy ................................................................................................................ 35 Chapter 3: Results ..................................................................................................................... 38 Profile Enumeration .............................................................................................................. 39 Profile Validation .................................................................................................................. 41 Event Characteristics Predicting Profile Use.......................................................................... 41 Profile Differences in Performance and Well-Being .............................................................. 43 Supplementary Analyses ....................................................................................................... 45 Chapter 4: Discussion ............................................................................................................... 47 Overview of Findings ............................................................................................................ 47 Event Characteristics Predicting Profile Use. ..................................................................... 48 Profile Differences in Performance and Well-Being. ......................................................... 50 v Supervisor-Rated Job performance. ............................................................................... 50 Employee-Rated Performance Self-Efficacy. .................................................................. 51 Retribution. ................................................................................................................... 51 Physical Symptoms. ....................................................................................................... 52 Theoretical Implications ........................................................................................................ 52 Practical Implications ............................................................................................................ 55 Limitations and Future Directions ......................................................................................... 56 Chapter 5: Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 59 References ................................................................................................................................ 60 Appendix A: Tables .................................................................................................................. 75 Appendix B: Figures ................................................................................................................. 81 vi List of Tables TABLE 1: Descriptive Statistics and Event-Level Correlations for Study Variables...................75 TABLE 2: Fit Statistics for Profile Structures...............................................................................77 TABLE 3: Descriptive Information Per Latent Profile..................................................................78 TABLE 4: Three Step Results for Profile Antecedents Using R3Step..........................................79