Leaders’ emotional outbursts, surface acting and emotional exhaustion: The moderating effect of co-worker emotional support

Abstract

Leaders often accompany negative feedback with emotional displays of anger and frustration during organizational crises. These emotional displays can have detrimental effects on the followers’ emotional well-being. Our study examines the effect of such emotional outbursts through the construct of follower-inferred negative intention. We examine the relation between follower-inferred negative emotion and emotional exhaustion through surface acting and whether co-worker emotional support moderates the relationships. Survey data was collected from 367 Indian employees, all of whom were essential workers during the COVID-19 crisis. The authors found that follower-inferred negative intention from the leader’s emotional outbursts increased the follower’s emotional exhaustion both directly and indirectly through surface acting. The association between surface acting and emotional exhaustion was weaker for increased values of co-worker emotional support. Integrating Emotion-As-Social-Influence and Conservation of Resource theories, the present study investigates the inferred and received intention by the followers from the leader’s emotional displays.