Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jun 24:13:917287.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.917287. eCollection 2022.

The Impact of Emotional Leadership on Subordinates' Job Performance: Mediation of Positive Emotions and Moderation of Susceptibility to Positive Emotions

Jin Wan  1   2 , Kun Ting Pan  1 , Yuan Peng  3 , Ling Qiang Meng  4
Affiliations

The Impact of Emotional Leadership on Subordinates' Job Performance: Mediation of Positive Emotions and Moderation of Susceptibility to Positive Emotions

Jin Wan et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Employees' emotions have an important effect on their job performance, thus leaders can influence subordinates' emotions through emotional contagion and emotional appeal and ultimately affect their job performance. Based on the affective events theory, this study examines the impact of emotional leadership on the subordinates' job performance, the mediating role of subordinates' positive emotions, and the moderating role of susceptibility to positive emotion. Hierarchical regression analysis of 362 valid questionnaires showed that: (1) emotional leadership has a significant positive effect on subordinates' job performance; (2) subordinates' positive emotion partially mediated the relationship between emotional leadership and subordinates' job performance; (3) subordinates' susceptibility to positive emotion positively moderated the relationship between emotional leadership and positive emotions, i.e., the higher the subordinates' susceptibility to positive emotion, the greater the effect of emotional leadership on their positive emotions. This study validates affective events theory, deepens the understanding of the influence mechanism and boundary conditions of emotional leadership on subordinates' job performance, and provides some references for employee performance management.

Keywords: affective events theory; emotional leadership; job performance; positive emotions; susceptibility to positive emotions.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Research model.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The moderating effect of emotional susceptibility.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Aftab J., Sarwar H., Amin A., Kiran A. (2021). Does CSR mediate the nexus of ethical leadership and employee's job performance? Evidence from North Italy SMEs. Soc. Responsib. J. 18, 154–177. 10.1108/SRJ-09-2020-0393 - DOI
    1. Baral R., Sampath P. (2019). Exploring the moderating effect of susceptibility to emotional contagion in the crossover of work-family conflict in supervisor-subordinate dyads in India. Pers. Rev. 48, 1336–1356. 10.1108/PR-05-2017-0139 - DOI
    1. Bauer J. A., Spector P. E. (2015). Discrete negative emotions and counterproductive work behavior. Hum. Perform. 28, 307–331. 10.1080/08959285.2015.1021040 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bhullar B. (2012). Relationship between mood and susceptibility to emotional contagion: is positive mood more contagious?. N. Am. J. Psychol. 14, 517–529. Available online at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282652183_Relationship_between_...
    1. Brief A. P., Weiss H. M. (2002). Organizational behavior: Affect in the workplace. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 53, 279–307. 10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135156 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources