Emotional Hijacking In The Workplace

The concept of emotional hijacking can explain several situations that can occur in the workplace environment. In the book “Emotional Intelligence” (Goleman, 1995), Goleman (1995) defines emotional hijacking as, “a center in the limbic brain proclaims an emergency, recruiting the rest of the brain to its urgent agenda” (Goleman, 1995, pg. 14). In essence the emotional part of the brain reacts to a particular situation and takes over the decision making process. Emotional hijacking can have wide ranging effects in the work place.

The article “Amygdala Hijack: Power of Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace” (Nanna, 2013), addresses one of the effects emotional hijacking. Nanna (2013) explains, “A leader's mood plays significant role in organization”