When is it good to feel bad? How sadness and fear differ in their effects on routine development

Introduction: This study follows recent calls to explore the emotional foundations of routine development. Routine development forms a nexus between stability and change and is thus crucial for studying organizational decision-making and organizational change. Individuals and teams going through organizational change often experience sadness and fear. Methods: We conducted a laboratory experiment with 84 teams to study the effect of sadness and fear on routine development. Results and discussion: In the sadness condition, we observed positive effects on repetitiveness, speed, reliability, and attentiveness in action. Teams experiencing fear reacted better to ‘performance traps’ in which pre-established routines are ineffective. Our findings show how the behaviors elicited by sadness and fear might ultimately affect team behavior, and therefore managerial practices.