LEADING WITH THE “RIGHT” EMOTION: EXAMINING THE ROLE OF CONTEXT ON IMPLICIT THEORIES OF LEADER EMOTION

Abstract

Implicit Theories of Leader Emotions (ITLEs) are defined as an individual’s schemas about the emotional traits and behaviors characterized by leaders (Sy & Van Knippenberg, 2021) and initial research suggests that followers expect typical leaders to behave positively, promoting positive emotions such as Calm, Cheer and Pride over negative emotions such as Anger, Fear and Remorse. However, connectionist models of implicit theories argue that expectations about leaders demonstrate both stability over time and flexibility across varying contexts, suggesting that followers can hold and apply different prototypes or schemas across different situations. As such, the current research seeks to replicate prior work and explore the role of context in ITLEs. Study 1 replicated prior research, demonstrating a positive bias in ITLEs outside of any explicit context. Studies 2 and 3 examined the role of contextual features on ITLE ratings, examining situational valence, leader industry and leader gender. Findings demonstrate that emotion related aspects of the situation (i.e., situational valence) but not industry context or leader gender, influence ITLE ratings. Specifically, positive situations elicited higher positive emotion and lower negative emotion prototypes than negative situations while the opposite was true of negative situations. Given that implicit theories influence follower evaluations of and attitudes towards leaders, this research critically expands the ITLE literature, enhancing our understanding of follower expectations of leader emotions in various contexts.