Expression of anger, sadness and fear enhances leadership effectiveness

Abstract

The notion that an effective leader requires emotional intelligence has been widely researched by many researchers and theorist alike, and emotional intelligence has in fact been shown to contribute to leadership effectiveness. However, existing literature on leadership emotional expression is skewed towards advocating the beneficial effects of expressing positive emotions. Negative emotions, are deemed to be almost taboo and typically advised to be inhibited. In this review, we address the gap by offering viable strategies demonstrating how leadership effectiveness is enhanced when leaders express negative emotions in appropriate situations. Modifying Van Kleef (2009) Emotions As Social Information (EASI) model, we propose the Negative Emotions As Transmitter (NEAT) model – tailored to explain the mechanism behind negative emotional expression and desirable outcomes. This model demonstrates how a leader’s negative emotional expressions communicate instrumental information about a leader’s goals, intentions and attitudes to influence followers’ affect, behavior and cognition, contributing to both subjective and objective dimensions of leadership effectiveness. Specifically, this review focuses on three discrete negative emotions – anger, sadness and fear – examining how expression of these emotions communicates important information from leaders to followers. This review also discusses context, gender and culture in moderating the relationship between negative emotional expression and leadership effectiveness. The research then spawned the conceptualization of a framework: Strategic Affective Impression Management, illustrating the benefits of capitalizing on strategic negative emotional expression for enhanced leadership effectiveness.