Taking on responsibility: should managers expect unreserved enthusiasm?
A promotion or a new assignment often comes with an expected response: appearing pleased and ready to move forward. The managerial question is more precise: should satisfaction accompanied by regret be interpreted as insufficient commitment?
What the literature establishes
Jeff T. Larsen, A. Peter McGraw and John T. Cacioppo (2001, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) show that people can report happiness and sadness simultaneously in certain situations. Their research includes experiences in which an event involves both a gain and a loss. It establishes the possibility of mixed emotions, not their prevalence when people take on new responsibilities.
Two dimensions that do not tell the whole story
James A. Russell (1980, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) proposes a model in which affective states are organised by pleasantness or unpleasantness and level of activation. This framework distinguishes, for example, a pleasant, calm state from a pleasant, highly activated one. Read alongside research on mixed emotions, it suggests caution about reducing a response to an overall enthusiasm score: that simplification can conceal different experiences.
The premature conclusion
One might conclude that an ambivalent response necessarily indicates a more clear-sighted understanding of the new role. The cited studies establish this no more than they justify equating that response with a lack of motivation. For a manager, the task is to distinguish what the person feels, what they anticipate and what they actually agree to take responsibility for. (our executive and employee training programmes)
The limits of the evidence and of routine conversations
These studies do not test the effect of a managerial conversation on success in a new role. They draw in part on subjective descriptions of affective states, which do not constitute a measure of professional commitment. In practice, simply asking “Are you pleased?” risks closing down the conversation without clarifying resources, constraints or responsibilities.
A practical check in Sion
Within SHR's “Emotional Intelligence” programme, an exercise to test in Sion is to examine conversations about taking on new responsibilities in hydropower, healthcare, viticulture or alpine tourism, without assuming emotional differences between these sectors. For one month, ask separately what the new assignment offers, what it means leaving behind and what concrete support would help, without requiring disclosure of personal emotions. Then measure the proportion of conversations that result in defined support, a named person responsible and a follow-up date, and check on that date whether the support was provided. This indicator checks a support practice, not a level of emotional intelligence or a causal effect on performance. To go further: explore the Emotional Intelligence training in Sion in the canton of Valais, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
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