Due to the complexity of many organizations, workplace experiences often elicit mixed emotions from employees, and it’s often assumed that mixed emotions are bad for workers and companies," said Christina Ting Fong, of the University of Washington Business School and lead author of the study.
But an unusual or complex environment that elicits mixed emotions could cause a person to draw upon their creative thinking abilities, Fong said. Primarily happy or sad workers, or those who lack an emotional response, might not have this increased sensitivity for recognizing unusual associations.
"Rather than assuming ambivalence will lead to negative results for the organization, managers should recognize that emotional ambivalence can have positive consequences that can be leveraged for organizational success," Fong said.
I, and my employers, are most pleased to be informed of this. I have been the Chairman of Ambivalence at my day job since 1992. The beauty of ambivalence, but not elaborated on in this article, is that no one knows whether I agree or not with my superiors, who are never ambivalent. Those I’m responsible for never know whether they are in my good graces or not, as I don’t care. Therefore, this ambivalence allows me to dish out my usual grumpiness without any regard to whether or not they might be bothered by it as they don’t know if I’m happy or upset, since I am a little of both usually.
I love ambivalence. It’s so much more fun than black and white.
