Understanding affect in the workplace via social media

We investigate the landscape of affective expression of employees at a large Fortune 500 software corporation via an internal microblogging tool. We present three analyses of emotional expression among employees, based on literature in organizational behavior: its relationship to (1) exogenous/lifestyle and endogenous workplace factors, (2) geography and (3) organizational structure. We find that employees tend to make significant accommodations in affect expression when interacting with others over the organizational hierarchy. We also find that positive affect is expressed through interpersonal communications that connect disparate geographic regions. Our findings have implications for enabling emotional reflection of employees and for management in that they can help uncover emotional patterns associated with episodes of high and low productivity, allowing organizations to improve employee engagement and promote positive attitudes.