Women leaders often have to battle sexist stereotypes that label them as “too emotional” for effective leadership. However, a surprising new study shows that when they express calm, happy emotions, women are seen as more effective leaders than men. The effect is most pronounced for leaders in top positions in an organization.
The study, conducted by psychology professor Thomas Sy at UC Riverside and management professor Daan van Knippenberg at Drexel University, is the first to explore prototypes for the types of emotions leaders display and concludes that people use implicit theories about leadership emotions when evaluating the effectiveness of leadership. leaders.
Cognitive leadership prototypes, known as implicit theories of leadership, have been well studied. Research consistently shows that effective leaders are seen as intelligent, dynamic and charismatic, among other things. It is also believed that men possess more of these qualities than women.
It is well known that some types of emotional expression can reduce the perception of the effectiveness of leaders. Sy, an organizational psychologist who studies leadership, wondered if people also have implicit emotional prototypes or schemas that influence how they respond to leaders.
With van Knippenberg, he designed a series of studies in which respondents were asked to describe the types of emotions leaders feel and express. The results revealed six emotional schemas associated with leadership. Three of them – cheer, composure, pride – were associated with effective leadership. The other three – anger, fear, remorse – were associated with ineffective leadership.
“Every role has emotions that need to be expressed, including leaders. To be effective, leaders need to do emotional labor,” said Sy. “What was surprising in our study is that women were judged more effectively, and this can be explained by implicit theories about leadership emotions.”
Although men have more leeway to express negative emotions, Sy and van Knippenberg found that when women do not express negative emotions, they are considered more effective than men.
Implicit theories about leadership emotions had the most influence on the perception of leadership effectiveness for leaders at the highest levels of management. In addition, expressing negative emotions did not undermine the effectiveness of top leaders to the same extent as it did for low-ranking leaders. Low-ranking leaders, both men and women, were punished for expressing anger.
“When we have regular contact with a leader, such as our immediate boss or supervisor, we have enough first-hand information to evaluate their effectiveness,” Sy said. “But we usually have little contact with leaders at the highest levels and less information about them. That's why we tend to rely on schedules. Schedules are powerful. Even if there is no data, they determine our behavior.”
Implicit theories of leadership emotions influence the perception of effectiveness, with positive schemas associated with positive outcomes and negative schemas associated with negative outcomes.
“Previous research shows that a leader's emotions influence the performance of followers,” Sy said. “The leader's emotions are contagious, spread across the team and affect the effectiveness of the entire group.”
The findings should help leaders manage their emotions to maximize effectiveness, improve team member performance and satisfaction, and provide a roadmap for future leadership researchers.
