Effects of leader emotions on subordinate perceptions and performance: The role of emotion type, prior interaction, and communication medium.

The current research reports findings from 2 studies assessing the relationship of emotion type, prior leader interaction, and media richness on a leader's emotions to influence subordinate perceptions and performance. Study 1 looked at emotion type (basic vs. blended) and nature of prior leader interaction (positive vs. negative vs. neutral) on perception of negative emotions and message comprehension of negative information conveyed in a leader's e-mail. Results revealed that emotion type and prior interaction interact to influence the perception of positive emotions, where a negative prior interaction followed by negative blended emotions resulted in the most accurate perceptions. Additionally, leader blended emotions increased comprehension for emotionally laden content. Study 2 looked at the effects of emotion type and media richness (rich/video vs. lean/e-mail) on perception of positive and negative emotions, comprehension of positive and negative information, and performance on a creative task. Results showed that emotion type influenced emotion perception, where basic emotions resulted in better accuracy for negative emotions while blended emotions resulted in better accuracy for positive emotions. Also, media richness did not impact perception of positive emotions but did for negative emotions with richer communication channel resulting in better accuracy. For message comprehension, emotion type and media interact to impact understanding for negative content, where highest comprehension was seen when message included blended negative emotions and delivered through a leaner medium (e.g., e-mail). Finally, hierarchical regressions provided initial evidence that emotion type, specifically blended emotions, positively contributes to performance quality. Implications for theory and practice are explored

Emotion Perception in Hadza Hunter-Gatherers

It has long been claimed that certain configurations of facial movements are universally recognized as emotional expressions because they evolved to signal emotional information in situations that posed fitness challenges for our hunting and gathering hominin ancestors. Experiments from the last decade have called this particular evolutionary hypothesis into doubt by studying emotion perception in a wider sample of small-scale societies with discovery-based research methods. We replicate these newer findings in the Hadza of Northern Tanzania; the Hadza are semi-nomadic hunters and gatherers who live in tight-knit social units and collect wild foods for a large portion of their diet, making them a particularly relevant population for testing evolutionary hypotheses about emotion. Across two studies, we found little evidence of universal emotion perception. Rather, our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that people infer emotional meaning in facial movements using emotion knowledge embrained by cultural learning

Tree canopy effect on grass and grass/legume mixtures in eastern Nebraska

A study to determine the feasibility of producing forage for grazing livestock under trees was conducted as a step toward evaluating the potential for silvopasture systems in the northern and central Great Plains. The effects of overstory leaf area index (LAI), percentage understory light transmittance (LT), and soil moisture (SM) on yield and crude protein (CP) of big bluestem [Andropogon gerardii Vitman; (BB)], smooth bromegrass [ Bromus inermis Leyss.; (SB)], and mixtures with birdsfoot trefoil [ Lotus corniculatus L.; (BFT)] were examined. The study was conducted in both Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvancia Marsh.) tree plantations, at the University of Nebraska Agriculture Research and Development Center near Mead, Nebraska. Thirty-six plots representing a wide range of canopy cover were selected at each location and seeded in April 2000 to BB, SB, or mixtures with BFT. Measurements of LAI, LT, and SM were taken throughout the 2001-growing season and plots were harvested in June and September 2001. Soil moisture generally did not explain much of the variability in yield or CP for BB, SB, or BFT. Cumulative LAI or LT averaged over the growing season was the best predictor of yield or CP, particularly under the pine. Yields of BB and SB increased as LAI decreased or LT increased. Conversely, the CP of BB and SB increased as LT decreased for both the June and September harvests. Both BB and SB maintain relatively high productivity under partial shading; however, BFT yields were low at LT levels below75%

Emotion Perception in Hadza Hunter Gatherers

Do configurations of facial movements like widened eyes and a gasping mouth carry the same emotional meaning across societies? Relatively few studies have addressed this question in small-scale human societies using discovery oriented methods. To help fill this gap, we examined emotion perception in members of the Hadza hunters and gatherers. Hadza perceivers, when asked to provide their own labels for posed configurations of facial movements, neither produced the emotion terms that have been proposed as universal; nor did many of their labels refer to internal experiences. Instead, Hadza individuals, when compared to a US sample, frequently labeled facial poses with action terms. When Hadza participants were provided with descriptive scenarios that contained information about the situation and were tasked with choosing the best-matching configuration of facial movements, they again were less likely to choose the configurations proposed as universal when compared to a US sample; they performed well above chance on affect perception, however, matching pleasant and unpleasant situation descriptions to facial configurations portraying pleasant and unpleasant states, respectively. We discuss these findings with reference to prominent evolutionary approaches to understanding emotion: a classical view of emotion that proposes facial expressions are evidence of innate, adaptive responses to recurring fitness challenges in our hunter-gatherer past and a constructionist view that proposes domain general evolved capacities, combined with emotion knowledge enbrained by cultural evolution, to produce perceptions of emotion

Emotion Perception in Hadza Hunter Gatherers

Do configurations of facial movements like widened eyes and a gasping mouth carry the same emotional meaning across societies? Relatively few studies have addressed this question in small-scale human societies using discovery oriented methods. To help fill this gap, we examined emotion perception in members of the Hadza hunters and gatherers. Hadza perceivers, when asked to provide their own labels for posed configurations of facial movements, neither produced the emotion terms that have been proposed as universal; nor did many of their labels refer to internal experiences. Instead, Hadza individuals, when compared to a US sample, frequently labeled facial poses with action terms. When Hadza participants were provided with descriptive scenarios that contained information about the situation and were tasked with choosing the best-matching configuration of facial movements, they again were less likely to choose the configurations proposed as universal when compared to a US sample; they performed well above chance on affect perception, however, matching pleasant and unpleasant situation descriptions to facial configurations portraying pleasant and unpleasant states, respectively. We discuss these findings with reference to prominent evolutionary approaches to understanding emotion: a classical view of emotion that proposes facial expressions are evidence of innate, adaptive responses to recurring fitness challenges in our hunter-gatherer past and a constructionist view that proposes domain general evolved capacities, combined with emotion knowledge enbrained by cultural evolution, to produce perceptions of emotion

Collectivistic leadership and George C. Marshall : A historiometric analysis of career events

Many of the prevailing approaches to understanding leadership assume that leadership operates as an individual-level phenomenon, inwhich one person takes on the role of a leader. However, a number of recently developed leadership models now describe leadership as a shared process. These collectivistic theories present leadership as a dynamic process in which a leader may selectively utilize the skills of followers and distribute elements of the leadership role among these followers as the situation demands. In this study, we conduct an investigation into the viability of core elements of the collectivistic theories through a historiometric analysis of events from the career of a notable leader, George C. Marshall. One hundred and two events from Marshall\u27s career were identified from historical biographies and were then content coded and analyzed with regard to the components of a collectivistic leadership model. The results of this historiometric analysis indicated that there are key antecedents to collectivistic leadership and that the use of this form of leadership can result in positive team outcomes

Testing the Babble Hypothesis: Speaking Time Predicts Leader Emergence in Small Groups

The large, positive correlation between speaking time and leader emergence is well-established. As such, some authors have argued for a ``babble hypothesis\u27\u27 of leadership, suggesting that only the quantity of speaking, not its quality, determines leader emergence. However, previous tests of this notion may have been problematic. Some studies have asserted a causal effect of speaking time on leader emergence based on experimental studies, but have limited participant communication, access to reliable information, or both. Other studies have used more ecologically valid designs, but have not always controlled for relevant participant traits or roles, suggesting potential endogeneity effects. Testing the babble hypothesis thus requires a study that is both ecologically valid and supports strong inference. The current study fills that gap and finds that speaking time retains its direct effect on leader emergence when accounting for intelligence, personality, gender, and the endogeneity of speaking time