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3 - The Business of Emotions: Managing Feelings in the Work Setting
Delivery Mode: Individualized-Study
Prerequisite: Successful completion of a graduate level course.
Why The Business of Emotions? The word emotion can be defined as "any agitation or disturbance of mind, feeling, passion; any vehement or excited mental state" (Oxford English Dictionary). This course is an interdisciplinary study of emotions, focusing on their role in workplaces and marketplaces.
We all have emotions and we know of their importance in our lives, and yet it transpires that the nature, causes, and consequences of the emotions are among the least understood aspects of human experience. It is easier to express emotions than to describe them and, harder again to analyze them. Despite their apparent familiarity, emotions are an extremely subtle and complex topic, one that has been neglected by many social scientists and philosophers (Ben-Ze'ev, p. xiii).
We are far less able to analyze and understand feelings than we are to differentiate among complex abstract systems of thought. There are several reasons for this lack of understanding of emotions. First, emotions are usually seen as less important than cognitions or rationality. In part, this is due to the Enlightenment's passion for reason, but it is also due to the politics of gender, which has associated men with reason and women with emotion, and which has seen reason as superior to emotion.
Second, emotions are remarkably difficult to study "in the field": you can not see them or touch them; they usually appear in clusters rather than individually, and they metamorphose-for example, fear grows into anger, love warps into jealousy.
Third, because emotions pervade both the body and the mind, their study necessitates an interdisciplinary approach combining natural and human sciences, which is difficult to accomplish.
Finally, while we do not believe that we are expert chemists because we inhale oxygen, there is a tendency for lay people to think that their own experience of emotion makes them experts on their own nature. This is not the case.
This course is an attempt to correct this lack of understanding of emotions by discussing the nature, causes, and impact of emotions on our lives. It focuses on the "business" of emotions, because it is in the production and marketing of commodities and services that some interesting-and ominous-things are happening in relation to emotions.
By the end of the course, you should have well-developed answers to the following questions.
1. What are emotions?
2. How do emotions affect us in commerce?
3. What does it matter how emotions affect us?
Unit 1: Emotions' "Subtlety"
Unit 2: Emotions and the Body
Unit 3: Commercializing Emotions
Unit 4: Moralizing Emotions
Students' progress through courses typically depends on their motivation, interest, and study time. These variables tend to change over the length of the course. Students progress in spurts of activity interspersed with rest. This said, here are some guidelines to inform the planning of your study schedule. The following suggested study schedule divides your course work into four main blocks. They assume a course duration of 6 months.
Remember: these are suggestions and guidlines. If your circumstances make them unrealistic, talk to your instructor to work out a more workable schedule.
Weeks 1-6
Unit 1 is an introduction to emotions and their 'subtlety'. Assignment 1 is based on the first stage of an 'analytical' reading (a term explained at the beginning of Unit 1). There is a lot to read here, but note that, at this stage, we do not expect a very 'deep' reading. There is some merit in being disciplined and submitting this assignment quickly, for that will give you a good grasp of the book as a whole.
Week 6 Submit Assignment 1.
Weeks 7-12
Unit 2 examines emotions and the body, an area that receives little attention in Ben-Ze'ev's book. Assignment 2 examines your understanding of the limbic brain, and how it mediates between inside and outside the body. It is the most socio-bio-chemical of the assignments.
Week 12 Submit Assignment 2.
Weeks 13-18
Unit 3 is concerned with emotions in work and marketplaces. Again, approach it from the requirements of the appropriate assignment, Assignment 2, which invites you to think about the relationship between the emotional lives of those who consume brands and the emotional lives of those who produce them. This unit and assignment are challenging in their own way, but they seem more straightforward (less theoretically nuanced) than the rest.
Week 18 Submit Assignment 3.
Weeks 19-24
Unit 4 critiques the implicit morality embedded in contemporary Western emotions, as characterized and defended in the course text The Subtlety of Emotions. It is our opportunity to talk back to the text. The tone is critical and argumentative. It is intended to unsettle and to leave you with further questions. Assignment 4, the last assignment, is the most philosophically challenging and also most liberating, in that you have wide discretion.
Week 24 Submit Assignment 4.
To receive credit for MAIS 615, you must complete the four written assignments and achieve a final mark of at least 60 per cent. The Master of Arts-Integrated Studies grading system is available online at the MAIS home page. Please note that it is your responsibility to maintain your program status.
Any student who receives a grade of "F" in one course, or a grade of "C" in more than one course, may be required to withdraw from the program.
| Course Activity | Weighting |
| Assignment 1 | 25% |
| Assignment 2 | 25% |
| Assignment 3 | 25% |
| Assignment 4 | 25% |
| Total | 100% |
The course materials for MAIS 615 The Business of Emotions are listed below. If any of these materials are missing, please contact the Course Materials Production Department by phone 1-800-788-9041 or e-mail cmat@athabascau.ca.
There is now no Audio component. We no longer use the play 'Hamlet'.
Course Guide: The Course Guide provides you with specific information about how to proceed through the course. Please pay particular attention to the suggested course study schedule. The "Study Guide" section of this manual is the backbone of the course, providing a road map for the readings. It is divided into four units. The "Assignment File" includes instructions for completing the course assignments.
Reading File: The Reading File is a collection of carefully selected articles or book chapters that provide background and analysis of questions and issues engaged in this course. These articles are required reading for this course. The "Study Guide" commentaries will direct you to each article in the Reading File at the appropriate time.
Digital Reading File: The Digital Reading File links to required and supplementary readings that are available online. It also links to supplementary readings held in the AU Library collection. You may access the Digital Reading File from the course home page or the Library home page.
Course Conference Home Page: Many courses in the Master of Arts-Integrated Studies program have an online conferencing requirement. From the MAIS home page (http:www.athabascau.ca/mais), select "Conferences." Log in and the next screen will bring up links to the program courses in which you are registered, for which there is an online conferencing component.
Forms: The forms you will need to submit assignments or notify the University of a change in your status as a student.