Abstract

This study aimed to investigate antecedents of employees` affective experiences, concentrating on the role of personality(extraversion and neuroticism) and perceptions of the work situation. We used in-depth interviews (N=24) and survey (N=392) methods to collect data, explored the antecedents of affective experiences in workplace, and tested research hypotheses. From the interview data, we identified four important categories of work situations(organizational constraints, role stressors, relationship, and treatment by organization), and developed self-report scales consisting of eleven factors belonging to four categories. Correlation and regression analysis results, using four composite of work situations and two personality variables, showed that most of the six predictors have significant influences on the affective experiences. Furthermore, interactions of extraversion with perceptions of relationships and treatment by organization were also significant. As expected, high extraverts were more susceptible to perceptions of their relationships for passion experiences, and more susceptible to perceptions of being treated by organization for anger experiences. From these results, we discussed the role of individual differences and perceptions of the work situation, and suggested future research questions.