This study examined the effects of vision content, delivery and organizational performance on perceptions of leader charisma and effectiveness. Subjects included 304 undergraduates who were presented videotaped speeches by a bogus CEO of a software company. A 2 × 2 × 2 design was employed in which message content (visionary/non-visionary), delivery (strong/weak), and organizational performance (high/low) were manipulated. A modified, 7-item version of Meindl and Ehrlich's (1988) Romance of Leadership Scale (RLS-D) served as a covariate. A MANCOVA analysis indicated significant effects of delivery, content, and organizational performance on both perceived leader charisma and effectiveness. The RLS-D was unrelated to either dependent variable as a covariate. The results suggest that strength of delivery is an especially important determinant of perceptions' of leader charisma and effectiveness. Although speech content and organizational performance cues likewise accounted for variance in these perceptions, their effects were at times offset by those of delivery.

Perceptions of leader charisma and effectiveness: The effects of vision content, delivery, and organizational performance

Leadership is a key predictor of employee, team, and organizational creativity and innovation. Research in this area holds great promise for the development of intriguing theory and impactful policy implications, but only if empirical studies are conducted rigorously. In the current paper, we report a comprehensive review of a large number of empirical studies (N = 195) exploring leadership and workplace creativity and innovation. Using this article cache, we conducted a number of systematic analyses and built narrative arguments documenting observed trends in five areas. First, we review and offer improved definitions of creativity and innovation. Second, we conduct a systematic review of the main effects of leadership upon creativity and innovation and the variables assumed to moderate these effects. Third, we conduct a systematic review of mediating variables. Fourth, we examine whether the study designs commonly employed are suitable to estimate the causal models central to the field. Fifth, we conduct a critical review of the creativity and innovation measures used, noting that most are sub-optimal. Within these sections, we present a number of taxonomies that organize extant research, highlight understudied areas, and serve as a guide for future variable selection. We conclude by highlighting key suggestions for future research that we hope will reorient the field and improve the rigour of future research such that we can build more reliable and useful theories and policy recommendations.

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Leadership, creativity, and innovation: A critical review and practical recommendations

Enjoyment is one of the most relevant and frequently experienced discrete emotions for both teachers and students in classroom learning contexts. Based on theories of emotion transmission between interaction partners, we propose a reciprocal effects model linking teachers’ and students’ enjoyment in class. The model suggests that there are positive reciprocal links between teachers’ and students’ enjoyment and that these links are mediated by teachers’ and students’ observations of each other’s classroom behaviors. The model was tested using 3-wave longitudinal data collected across the 1st 6 months of a school year from N = 69 teachers (78% female) and their 1,643 students from Grades 5 to 10 (57% female). A multilevel structural equation model confirmed our mediation hypotheses. Teacher enjoyment at the beginning of the school year (Time 1 [T1]) was positively related to student perceptions of teachers’ enthusiasm during teaching 4 weeks later (T2), which was positively related to student enjoyment at midterm (T3). Further, student enjoyment at T1 was positively related to teacher perceptions of their students’ engagement in class at T2, which was positively related to teacher enjoyment at T3. This study is the first to provide longitudinal evidence of reciprocal emotion transmission between teachers and students. Implications for future research and teacher training are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)

Emotion transmission in the classroom revisited: A reciprocal effects model of teacher and student enjoyment

The purpose of this article is to present a comprehensive 25-year review of the incorporation of levels of analysis into conceptual and empirical leadership research published within Leadership Quarterly throughout its history We assessed the population of Leadership Quarterly's research (790 research articles) on four key levels of analysis-based issues: (1) explicit statement of the focal level(s) of analysis; (2) appropriate measurement given level of constructs; (3) use of a multi-level data analysis technique; and, (4) alignment of theory and data Prior reviews regarding levels of analysis incorporation into leadership research have been limited to major research domains Results revealed that while both conceptual and empirical articles only explicitly state the focal level of analysis in approximately one-third of the articles, appropriate levels-based measurement and alignment between theory and data are relatively strong areas of achievement for the articles within Leadership Quarterly Multi-level data analysis techniques are used in less than one-fifth of all articles Although there is room for improvement, there is evidence that Leadership Quarterly is a premier outlet for levels-based leadership research Given the increasing complexity of organizational science with regard to groups, teams and collectives, Leadership Quarterly has an opportunity to model for organizational research on how to build and test complicated multi-level theories and models

A 25-year perspective on levels of analysis in leadership research

We propose that the experience and expression of emotional complexity, including the simultaneous and sequential experience of emotional complexity, can be beneficial for leaders’ ability to lead change. Using the social functions of emotions perspective, we suggest that the primary function of emotional complexity is to increase cognitive flexibility. Specifically, we present a model that explains how, when, and why emotional complexity is functional for leaders at the individual and interpersonal levels of analysis. At the individual level, leaders who experience emotional complexity are more cognitively flexible and, thus, make more adaptive decisions. We further propose that not all leaders will experience such benefits from emotional complexity; individual differences of neuroticism and openness to experience will moderate the leader emotional complexity–cognitive flexibility relationship. Extending our analysis to the interpersonal level, we propose that when followers observe leaders expressing emo...

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Feeling Mixed, Ambivalent, and in Flux: The Social Functions of Emotional Complexity for Leaders

Previous studies have found mixed results regarding the influence of positive and negative leader affect on follower performance. We propose that both leader happiness and leader sadness can be beneficial for follower performance contingent on whether the task concerns creative or analytical performance. This proposition was put to the test in two experiments in which leader affective display was manipulated and the performance of (student) participants was assessed. The results supported our hypothesis that a leader's displays of happiness enhance follower creative performance, whereas a leader's displays of sadness enhance follower analytical performance. Contrasting these findings with evidence for a subjective rating of leadership effectiveness, in line with an implicit leadership theory interpretation, leaders were perceived as more effective when displaying happiness rather than sadness irrespective of task type. The second study showed that the effects of leader affective displays on followers' creative performance and perceived leadership effectiveness are mediated by follower positive affect, indicating that emotional contagion partly underlies these effects.

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How leader displays of happiness and sadness influence follower performance: Emotional contagion and creative versus analytical performance

textThe aim of this dissertation is to uncover the relationship between leader affective displays and leadership effectiveness. Five empirical studies were conducted to test the influence of several leader affective displays on different follower outcomes that indicate leadership effectiveness. 
The results showed that leader happy displays enhance followers’ creative performance, whereas leader sad displays enhance followers’ analytical performance. In addition, a leader displaying happiness is rated as more effective than a leader displaying sadness, independent of followers’ performance. Moreover, increased follower happiness mediated the effects of leader happy displays on followers’ creative performance and followers’ ratings of their leader’s effectiveness indicating that emotional contagion processes play a role. Another line of research demonstrated that a leader displaying sadness yields more long-term focused decisions than a leader with a happy, angry or an affective neutral display. This effect is mediated by follower sadness, thus driven by emotional contagion. Furthermore, leader sad displays increase followers’ long-term decisions particularly for followers who have a chronic tendency to experience negative affect. The final study revealed that sad leader displays combined with pro-self leader instructions enhanced followers’ unethical behaviors. When leaders display happiness, anger, or no affect (neutral), followers’ unethical behaviors are not influenced differently by the pro-self or the pro-social leader instructions. 
All studies together provide a solid base for the main ways in which leader affect influences leadership effectiveness. Leader happy, sad and angry displays differently influence followers’ performance, decisions, unethical behaviors and ratings of their leader’s effectiveness. Consequently, leaders who display the kind of affect that is most optimal within a certain context will be the most effective leaders.

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Leader Affect and Leadership Effectiveness - How leader affective displays influence follower outcomes

Whilst the body of research on the impacts of suicide bereavement interventions continues to grow, there is little understanding of the impact over time. This study measured changes in suicidality, levels of loneliness and grief reactions over time between those receiving support from a community-based suicide bereavement service (StandBy) compared with those that did not receive this support. Data were collected through an online survey with participation at baseline being varying times post loss, and three-months post-baseline (StandBy n = 174, Comparison n = 322). Statistical analysis included linear mixed-effects modelling for repeated measures. Results were consistent with earlier studies showing the positive impact of StandBy on participants' grief responses, loneliness and suicidality, specifically within the first 12 months after their loss. However, these outcomes were not retained over time, with the exception of suicidality. Further longitudinal studies consisting of more than two time-points and a greater period between time-points is warranted.

Victoria Visser

Papers

How leader displays of happiness and sadness influence follower performance: Emotional contagion and creative versus analytical performance

Leader Affect and Leadership Effectiveness - How leader affective displays influence follower outcomes

A Longitudinal Study of the Impact of a Suicide Bereavement Service on People Bereaved by Suicide.