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Abstract
A leader’s anger expression is frequently observed in the workplace, prompting increasing scholarly attention in the past decade to the effects of leader anger expressions. However, research has yielded mixed findings regarding whether a leader’s anger expression damages or contributes to leader effectiveness, suggesting the existence of important moderators. A limited number of studies have identified important moderators by focusing on followers’ characteristics; this seems to indicate that followers’ interpretation of a leader’s anger is key to understanding the complexity in how leader anger expression influences leader effectiveness. Extending this line of inquiry, the thesis proposes a model that highlights two previously overlooked moderators that may influence followers’ interpretation of leader anger expressions: followers’ implicit theories of personality and cultural contexts.
Chapter 1 introduces an overarching framework of the model. Chapter 2 reviews extant literature on leader anger expressions. Chapter 3 presents findings of two studies that investigated the moderating effect of followers’ implicit theories of personality (i.e., entity versus incremental theory) on the relationship between a leader’s anger expression and leader effectiveness. In Study 1, results show that a leader’s anger expression lowered
leader effectiveness among followers who endorsed an entity theory of personality, but did not influence leader effectiveness among followers who endorsed an incremental theory of personality. The difference was transmitted through motivation- and trait-focused inferences. However, the findings of Study 2 were not consistent with Study 1. Chapter 4 reports findings from two studies that examined the moderating effect of culture on the relationship between a leader’s anger expression and leader effectiveness. Results from both studies show that a leader’s anger expression lowered leader effectiveness among followers from a culture low in vertical collectivism, but did not change leader effectiveness among followers from cultures high in vertical collectivism. The cultural difference was transmitted through motivation-focused inferences. Chapter 5 concludes with theoretical contributions, practical implications, and future research directions.