Chapter 1: Introducing Emotion Regulation in Organizations: A Field in Motion

In this chapter, we introduce Volume 20 of Research on Emotion in Organizations, which centers on how emotion regulation operates across roles, contexts, and life stages. We position emotion regulation as a central concern in organizational behavior research and synthesize recent theoretical developments. The chapter outlines the volume’s structure, progressing from individual-level perspectives to interpersonal, team, and lifespan approaches. Across these contributions, four key themes emerge: multilevel emotion regulation, flexibility in strategy use, intersections with identity, and lifespan development. Together, these themes illustrate the evolving depth and complexity of the field. We encourage researchers to adopt more context-sensitive, longitudinal, and ecologically valid approaches to studying emotion regulation in organizations. Practically, a deeper understanding of how emotion regulation unfolds in real time and across careers can inform leadership development, well-being interventions, and inclusive work design. This chapter offers an integrative framework to guide future research, reinforcing the importance of emotion regulation in shaping organizational life.