Leader emotion as a catalyst of effective leader communication of visions, value-laden messages, and goals

• Published in: Organizational behavior and human decision processes 2013-09, Vol.122 (1), p.53-68
• Main Authors: Venus, Merlijn, Stam, Daan, van Knippenberg, Daan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Communication; Decision making; Emotion; Emotions; Employee management relations; End state; Goals; Leaders; Leadership; Organizational behavior; Organizational behaviour; Prevention; Promotion; Regulatory focus; Sight; Studies; Values; Vision; Visionary leadership
• ISSN: 0749-5978; 1095-9920
• DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2013.03.009

•We examine how leader emotion contributes to leader persuasive communication of desired end states.•Leader emotion primes follower regulatory focus, which makes followers receptive to a congruent desired end state.•Promotion (prevention) visions are more effective when leaders show displays of enthusiasm (agitation).•Openness (conservation) value messages are more effective when leaders show displays of enthusiasm (agitation).•Maximal (minimal) goal communication is more effective when leaders show displays of enthusiasm (agitation). Despite the importance that effective leader communication of visions, value-laden messages, and goals seems to have in leadership, we know very little about which leader behavior is conducive to effective persuasive communication of desired end states. The current research highlights leader emotion as useful for leaders to make followers receptive to leaders’ communicated end state. Across four experiments we found that follower performance was highest when there was a match between leader emotion and end state in terms of implied regulatory focus (promotion vs. prevention). Three of these experiments tested the proposed underlying mechanism of this pattern and found that leader enthusiasm (agitation) primed followers with promotion (prevention) focus, which in turn generated high follower performance when leaders communicated end states that sustained this focus, that is, when visions appealed to promotion (prevention); persuasive messages contained openness (conservatism) values; and when goals were defined as maximal (minimal) goals.