MoodTracker: Monitoring collective emotions in the workplace

Accurate and timely assessment of collective emotions in the workplace is a critical managerial task. However, perceptual, normative, and methodological challenges make it very difficult even for the most experienced organizational leaders. In this paper we present a MoodTracker - a technological solution that can help to overcome these challenges, and facilitate a continuous monitoring of the collective emotions in large groups in real-time. The MoodTracker is a program that runs on any PC device, and provides users with an interface for self-report of their affect. The device was tested in situ for four weeks, during which we received over 3000 emotion self-reports. Based on the usage data, we concluded that users had a positive attitude toward the MoodTracker and favorably evaluated its utility. From the collected data we were also able to establish some patterns of weekly and daily variations of employees´ emotions in the workplace. We discuss practical applications and suggest directions for future development.