Unravelling the Emotional Experience Among Staff: Negative Work Events in Higher Education

This study delves into the complex interplay between negative work events and employees’ emotional encounters within the higher education sector. Employing a qualitative research design, the study investigates how negative work events impact the non-academic staff’s emotional experiences. Using a Kansei Engineering approach, specifically the KJ method, the study engages non-academic staff spanning various grades in Malaysian public universities (N = 28). The data analysis utilises affinity diagrams and ATLAS.ti software version 23 for comprehensive content analysis, amalgamating qualitative data analysis with advanced analytical techniques. This combined approach aims to provide insights into prevalent negative work events and their associated emotional responses among nonacademic staff. Distinct categories of negative work events are identified, including interpersonal, taskrelated, infrastructure, organisational policies, and career development events. Interpersonal events emerge as the most frequent, followed by task-related, infrastructure, organisational policy, and career development events. This study also unveils a spectrum of distinct negative emotions triggered by these negative work events, encompassing anger, sadness, frustration, fatigue, shame, jealousy, fear, guilt, and distress. These emotions together create a comprehensive emotional framework for understanding the impact of the identified negative work events. Practical implications highlight the importance of fostering positive workplace relationships, transparent policies, optimising workloads, clarifying roles, providing sound infrastructure, and promoting career development. The study concludes by outlining future research prospects, including individual differences, intervention effectiveness, longitudinal perspectives, and cross-cultural variations. Ultimately, this study enriches the understanding of employees’ emotional experiences and offers valuable insights to foster a positive work environment within the higher education sector. It is imperative for higher education management to prioritise fostering positive workplace relationships, transparent policies, optimised workloads, clear roles, sound infrastructure, and career development opportunities to enhance employees’ emotional experiences and promote a positive work environment.