It’s not just business: Frequency and intensity of basic emotions at work and triggered events

Abstract

Drawing on Affective Events Theory, Event System Theory, and Appraisal Theory, we examine how six discrete emotions arise in daily work. A total of 102 employees provided 1,499 diary entries describing salient events and rating their valence, strength, and emotional impact. Happiness emerged as the most frequent and intense emotion, whereas fear and disgust appeared less often yet could still be powerful. The interaction event valence-event strength predicted every emotion except fear, for which only strength mattered. Gender had minimal effects on intensity but did shape reporting frequency. The analysis also clarifies which event categories typically trigger each emotion—for example, goal attainment for happiness, injustice perceptions for anger, or safety concerns for fear—providing a fine-grained map of affective antecedents. Overall, the findings refine theory by showing that workplace affect extends beyond a simple positive-negative divide. Organizations may shape emotional climates by fostering positive, strong events and mitigating negative, high-impact ones.