Empathic Anger and Emotional Contagion: Exploring the Interplay of Affective States and Emotion Regulation Strategies among Service Sector Employees in Pakistan

Abstract Purpose – The primary aim of this study is to determine the effects that empathic anger can have on driving emotional contagion within workplace environments while also examining the mediating role that is played by the negative and positive affect. It further attempts to investigate how emotion regulation strategies moderate the relationship between affective states and emotional contagion. Design/approach/method – A purposeful judgmental sampling design was used to get responses from 564 working professionals in the service sector in Lahore, Islamabad, and Rawalpindi, Pakistan, who were asked to fill out an online research questionnaire. Findings – The findings of this study demonstrate that empathic anger plays a significant role in driving emotional contagion, with negative affect acting as a key mediator between them. The findings further reveal that while negative affect amplifies emotional contagion, positive affect does not exert a direct influence. Additionally, emotion regulation strategies serve as moderators, mitigating the impact of negative affect on emotional contagion while also diminishing the suppressive impact of positive affect. Value/contributions – This study adds to our knowledge of emotional contagion by looking at how moral emotions, especially empathic anger, affect the way people feel at work. The study gives a complex look at how emotions spread within organizations by examining the role of negative affect as a mediator and the effect of emotion regulation strategies as a moderator. The findings offer practical insights for managers aiming to cultivate emotionally intelligent workplaces, highlighting the importance of hiring employees with strong emotion regulation skills. Additionally, this study adds to the body of research on affective events theory by including moral emotions within the framework. This makes the research on affectivity at work more complete. Keywords. Empathic anger, emotional contagion, negative affect, positive affect, emotional regulation strategies Paper type. Research paper