Affective Match in Leadership: Leader Emotional Displays, Follower Positive Affect, and Follower Performance1

Leader emotions may play an important role in leadership effectiveness. Extending earlier research on leader emotional displays and leadership effectiveness, we propose that the affective match between follower positive affect (PA) and leaders’ emotional displays moderates the effectiveness of leade...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied social psychology 2008-04, Vol.38 (4), p.868-902
Main Authors: Damen, Frederic, Van Knippenberg, Barbara, Van Knippenberg, Daan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Emotions
Leadership
Managerial skills
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Summary:Leader emotions may play an important role in leadership effectiveness. Extending earlier research on leader emotional displays and leadership effectiveness, we propose that the affective match between follower positive affect (PA) and leaders’ emotional displays moderates the effectiveness of leader emotional displays. Leader display of emotions has more positive effects on follower behavior if the match between the valence of leader emotion and follower PA is strong rather than weak. Support for this hypothesis was found in 2 experiments. Congruency between leader emotional displays and follower PA determined follower task performance and extra‐role compliance. Results from the second experiment indicated that this effect is a due to affective aspects of leader behavior and not to the valence of message content.
ISSN:0021-9029
1559-1816
DOI:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2008.00330.x