Although affects and emotions are frequently discussed in institutional and organizational research, they are rarely studied systematically and according to their overarching importance. To examine the crucial but subtle power of institutions, which is sometimes barely perceptible or taken for granted, we need to achieve a better understanding of the close intertwining of institutional rules, processes, and spaces with complex affective dynamics. In this article, therefore, we develop an analytical framework that allows us to examine the myriad affective dynamics that characterize institutions. First, this framework can help capture the multidimensionality of institutional affect and thus inform empirical studies of institutions. Second, our approach enables scholars and researchers to make visible those developments and agency that run counter to the official functions and self-understandings of institutions. As a first step, we propose a conceptual clarification of "institution" and "organization" that incorporates various social theoretical references that already suggest some dynamics of institutional affect. To further detail this perspective, we develop an analytical framework that focuses first on what we call the "guiding affects" of institutions, and second on the internal affective dynamics of institutions. The proposed framework offers a variety of points of connection to discussions of institutions in the cultural and social sciences.