Emotion regulation requirements and affective forecasts regarding expected organizational changes

In organizational change processes, employees develop expectations of future events and make affective forecasts about their affective reactions to these events. When making such affective forecasts, people often project their current affect onto future events without considering the unique characteristics of the events. Although affective forecasts have been assessed in several applied settings, only a few studies have examined work contexts. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess whether employees making work-related affective forecasts also rely on current affect. Moreover, the study investigated whether employees whose work frequently requires regulation of their emotions are less likely to project their current work-related affect into the future. Cross-sectional data gathered from 1610 Austrian eldercare workers supported these assumptions. Employees relied heavily on current affect when making work-related affective forecasts. However, employees who reported that their work demanded high levels of emotion regulation exhibited a weaker relationship between current affect and predicted affect. We suggest that these findings have implications for understanding and managing organizational change processes.