Understanding the lived experience of employees from the antecedents of the phenomenon of emotional contagion during the COVID-19 pandemic

The aim of this study is to understand the employees' lived experience of the antecedents of the phenomenon of emotional contagion during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran. In this research, qualitative method and phenomenological strategy were used to understand the experiences of employees. The participants of this research include the employees of public organizations. Data were collected through 40 semi-structured interviews. By analyzing the data using the Colaizzi analysis method, three main themes and twelve sub-themes were identified as antecedents of emotional contagion during the COVID-19 pandemic from the employees' perspective. The main themes are: individual factors (extroversion, emotional dysregulation, lack of mindfulness, openness to experience, agreeableness and empathy), interpersonal factors (intimacy between people, interpersonal interactions, task interdependence) and organizational factors (emotional atmosphere in the organization, cultural values and beliefs, structural components). The findings of this research showed that in addition to soft concepts such as extroversion and openness to experience, hard concepts such as structural components also play a role in the formation of the phenomenon of emotional contagion in the organization. Understanding the antecedents of emotional contagion in the organization helps managers to adopt appropriate coping strategies for managing emotions in the workplace.