Article summary with When leaders display emotion: how followers respond to negative emotional expressions of male and female leaders by Lewis - 2000

Topic

The topic of this article is: the consequences of negative emotional expressions by a chief executive officer on followers. Specifically, the consequences on emotional arousal in the follower and ratings of leader effectiveness are investigated.

Leadership and expression of emotions

Previous research has shown that some emotional traits are related to leadership effectiveness. For example, emotional balance and control, emotional intelligence, and showing an appropriate emotional expression can show self-confidence and integrity and reflect a leader’s ability to respond in an effective way.

The expression of positive emotions like enthusiasm and satisfaction can motivate followers. In this study, the authors looks at two negative emotions, namely sadness (which is a passive emotion), and anger (which is an active emotion). Followers can be emotionally influenced by the expression of a leader through emotional contagion: they cognitively process the emotional expression, sometimes they empathize or they respond based on prior emotional experiences, or they mimic the emotion that is expressed by the leader.

The hypothesized effects of sadness and anger on followers are based on the circumplex model of affect:

• A leader expressing sadness (passive negative emotion) versus no emotional expression will result in lower arousal (fatigue) and less positive arousal (enthusiasm).

• A leader expressing anger (active negative) versus no emotional expression will result in more negative activation (nervousness) and less low activation (relaxation).

Overall, it is hypothesized that the expression of emotion in general (in this case: anger or sadness) will be considered to represent poor judgment of the leader. Expressing sadness and anger is outside leader norm roles because it represents a lack of emotional control and a lack of self-confidence. So, it is hypothesized that CEO’s using negative emotions will be seen as less effective than leaders using neutral emotional expressions.

The role of gender and gender-stereotypes is important in the assessment of leaders who display emotions. Women are evaluated as less effective when exhibiting a more masculine style of expressions (here: anger). Men are evaluated as less effective when exhibiting a more feminine style of expressions (here: sadness). Specifically, the expression of non-gender endorsed emotion is proposed to result in lower leader effectiveness. So, it is hypothesized that:

• Female leaders who display anger are seen as less effective than female leaders who display neutral emotional expressions.

• Female leaders who display sadness are seen as less effective than female leaders who display neutral emotional expressions.

• Female leaders who display sadness are seen as more effective compared to those who display anger.

• Male leaders who display sadness are seen as less effective than male leaders who display neutral emotional expressions.

• Male leaders who display anger are seen as less effective then male leaders who display neutral emotional expressions.

• Male leaders who display anger are seen as more effective compared to those who display sadness. 

Methods

The design was a 2 (actor gender: male or female) x 3 (emotion: neutral, anger, or sadness) design. Each participant was shown a film clip in which a CEO level leader described a negative situation (a bad financial year) and displayed one of the emotions. The dependent variables were: follower affect (measured with the Job Affect Scale), the assessment of leader effectiveness and manipulation checks.

Results

When observing a leader displaying anger (active negative emotion), participants indeed experienced more negative activation (nervousness) and less low activation (relaxation) compared to sadness or a neutral emotional expression. When observing a leader displaying sadness (passive negative emotion), participants indeed experienced less positive arousal (enthusiasm) and lower arousal (fatigue) compared to anger or a neutral emotional expression.

Furthermore, a main effect of leader emotional tone on leader effectiveness ratings was found: leaders expressing neutral emotions were perceived as most effective, followed by anger. Leaders expressing sadness were perceived as the least effective.

Female leaders who display anger are indeed seen as less effective than female leaders who express neutral emotions. Female leaders who displayed sadness were indeed seen as less effective than female leaders who express neutral emotions. However, female leaders who display sadness are not seen as more effective than those who display anger. So, for female leaders: neutral > sad or anger.

Male leaders who display sadness are seen as less effective than male leaders who express neutral emotions. Male leaders who display sadness are also seen as less effective than male leaders who display anger. However, male leaders who display anger or neutral expressions are seen as more effective than male leaders who display sadness. So, for male leaders: neutral or anger > sadness.

Discussion

Anger may motivate to work towards improvement due to increased arousal, while sadness leads to passive acceptance due to decreased arousal. When a leader displays an emotion, it cues attributions and expectations: sadness suggests a stable cause of failure, while anger suggests an unstable, external cause.