EMOTIONAL MAN .1. THE EMOTIONAL MAN AND THE PROBLEM OF COLLECTIVE ACTION

The rational and normative man models have predominated in the social sciences. This paper proposes an emotional ‘man’ model as an alternative point of departure for analyses of individual, but also of collective and corporate, action. The overall argument is developed in two steps. First, the concepts of ‘pure’ and ‘constrained’ emotional ‘man’ are introduced and developed. Then an emotional interaction model addressing the theme of cooperation is presented. After engaging the cooperative interaction model of ‘love’ to highlight certain aspects of collective action, the author engages the concepts of ‘pure’ and ‘constrained’ emotional action to provide a new perspective on corporate actors. The conclusion proposes how the construction of a 3-dimensional - normative, emotional and rational - action model could be approached. © 1990, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.