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Available at: Career Development International Vol. 14 No. 3, 2009 pp. 204-22

Interest in and research about affect in organizations have expanded dramatically in recent years. This article reviews what we know about affect in organizations, focusing on how employees' moods, emotions, and dispositional affect influence critical organizational outcomes such as job performance, decision making, creativity, turnover, prosocial behavior, teamwork, negotiation, and leadership. This review highlights pervasive and consistent effects, showing the importance of affect in shaping a wide variety of organizational behaviors, the knowledge of which is critical for researchers, managers, and employees.

Researchers at Monash University have found physical differences in the brains of people who respond emotionally to others' feelings, compared to those who respond more rationally, in a study published in the journal NeuroImage. The work, led by Robert Eres from the University's School of Psychological Sciences, pinpointed correlations between grey matter density and cognitive and affective empathy.

In a remarkable demonstration of the curative power of memory, scientists have established that artificial reactivation of memories stored during a positive experience can suppress the effects of stress-induced depression. The research shows how positive and negative memories interact in mood disorders, and provides a specific brain circuit for future clinical interventions.

"You think that stress is bad, but research shows that in moderation and with the proper resources, not all stress is bad," said Elisabeth Conradt, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Utah. The difference between bad and good stress, some experts argue, is all in how we view the situation.