Affective Match: Leader Emotional Displays, Follower Positive Affect, and Follower Performance

Leader emotions may play an important role in leadership effectiveness. Extending this 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 two experiments. The 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 due to the affective aspects of leader behavior and not to the valence of the content of the message.Emotions;Leadership Effectiveness;Positive Affect

Leader Affective Displays and Attributions of Charisma: The Role of Arousal

Research suggests that leader displays of positive affect are conducive to attributions of charisma. We qualify and extend this conclusion by arguing that this mainly holds for displays of positive affect that are associated with high levels of arousal. Results of a scenario experiment and a survey support this hypothesis, and show that besides the transfer of positive feelings per se, it is the transfer of arousal that mediates the relationship between leader affective displays and attributions of charisma.Arousal;Charisma;Leader Affect;Positive Feelings

Taking the Lead: The Role of Affect in Leadership Effectiveness

Frederic Damen was born on January 31, 1976 in Eindhoven. He received his secondary education diploma from the ‘Rythovius College’ in Eersel in 1994. He studied Psychology from 1994-1999 in Utrecht and graduated in Social Psychology. After his studies he worked as a management trainee for the Dutch government (Economic Affairs & Financial Affairs), lived and worked for two years in Italy and started his PhD-project on the role of emotions in leadership in 2003. The present research was conducted at the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) of the Erasmus University Rotterdam between January 2003 and December 2006. Frederic currently works as a business consultant for Atos Consulting.Goed leiderschap is van groot belang voor het overleven en de groei van organisaties. Het is daarom cruciaal om te begrijpen wat een leider effectief maakt. Vanuit psychologisch perspectief, zou leiderschap als een sociaal proces aangemerkt kunnen worden, waarbij het motiveren van volgers tot het behalen van goede prestaties wellicht de essentie van effectief leiderschap is. In dit motivatieproces, speelt affect -zowel van de leider als van de volger- een belangrijke rol die nog niet goed wordt begrepen. Belangrijke thema’s die daarbij nauwelijks aandacht hebben gekregen in de wetenschappelijke leiderschapsliteratuur zijn: de valentie van affect, de arousal dimensie van affect en -verrassend genoeg- de rol van de volger in het bepalen van effectief leiderschap. In deze dissertatie worden emoties als sociaal functioneel beschouwd. Affect en emoties worden daarom als zeer invloedrijk gezien in de interacties tussen leiders en volgers. In de studie naar emotionele expressies van leiders en affectieve kenmerken van volgers, heb ik positief en negatief affect en hoge en lage arousal behorend bij dit affect centraal gesteld. In zes empirische studies, rapporteer ik wat de effecten zijn van valentie en arousal op het charisma en de effectiviteit van de leider vanuit het perspectief van de leider én de volger. Deze dissertatie behandelt derhalve vooral de rol van affect en emotie in leiderschap en voegt daarmee belangrijke inzichten toe aan het begrip rondom effectief leiderschap. Aangezien emoties altijd in meer of mindere mate aanwezig zijn op de werkvloer en in de leider-volger interactie, heeft dit proefschrift ook sterke praktische implicaties. In het bijzonder worden aanbevelingen voor crisis- en interim management gegeven en wordt er tevens extra stilgestaan bij het managen van belangrijke veranderingen in organisaties.Good leadership is of great importance for the survival and growth of organizations. It is therefore crucial to understand what makes a leader effective. From a psychological point of view, effective leadership can be seen as a social process in which the essence may well be to motivate followers to perform well. In this process, affect -both of the leader and the follower- may play a pivotal role. This role, however, is still poorly understood and important topics that lack attention in scientific literature, are: valence of affect, the activation dimension of affect, and -surprisingly- the follower’s role in determining effective leadership. In this dissertation, emotions are seen as socially functional. Affect and emotions are therefore regarded as very influential in interactions between leaders and followers. In studying displays of leader affect and the affective characteristics of followers, I focused on positive and negative affect and high and low activation accompanying this affect. In six empirical studies, I report the effects of valence and activation on leader charisma and leader effectiveness from the perspective of the leader and the follower. This dissertation thus gives central attention to affect and emotions in leadership processes and adds to the understanding of effective leadership. Since emotions are omnipresent in the workplace and in the leader-follower interactions, the results of the present research also have strong practical implications. Especially the implications for crisis- and interim management, and the management of significant changes in organizations have been given extra attention in this dissertation