Research on workplace emotions has typically focused on the emotion itself, rather than the motivation behind it. However, Deanna Geddes and her colleague believe that understanding “why” is a vital piece of this research. 

After reviewing existing literature, they created a comprehensive list that categorizes various reasons for strategic emotion expression in the workplace, spanning personal/interpersonal motives, organizational rules and socio-cultural emotionologies. Many motivations can exist simultaneously in the same situation, sometimes conflicting, but one typically dominates in the end.