When leaders display emotion: how followers respond to negative emotional expression of male and female leaders

A leader's emotional display is proposed to affect his or her audience. In this study, observing a male or female leader express negative emotion was proposed to influence the observer's affective state and assessment of the leader's effectiveness. In a laboratory study, a leader's specific negative emotional tone impacted the affective state of participants in the study. Negative emotional display had a significant and negative main effect on pa rticipant assessment of leader effectiveness compared to a more neutral emo tional display. Further, a significant interaction between leader gender an d emotion was found. Male leaders received lower effectiveness ratings when expressing sadness compared to neutrality, while female leaders received l ower ratings when expressing either sadness or anger. Copyright (C) 2000 Jo hn Wiley & Sons, Ltd.