Defining Mood

Defining mood is a difficult task as the word is used colloquially to refer to emotions, attitudes, atmosphere, and feelings, and conversely all these words are also used frequently to describe mood.

The Oxford English Dictionary states that Mood is:

• a temporary state of mind or feeling,
• the atmosphere or pervading tone of something (the general mood),
• suggestive of a particular feeling or state of mind (usually modified by an emotion i.e. he was obviously in an angry/happy mood, or by a value she was in a good/bad mood).

We can usually pinpoint the source of an emotion; whereas moods come and go and we find it difficult to detect any source^[1]. The world (including the workplace) is also full of mood triggers and emotional triggers – further reinforcing the definition that mood is a temporary state.