How do you really feel? Effect of leaders' perceived emotional sincerity on followers' trust

Arran Caza, Gang Zhang, Lu Wang, Yuntao Bai*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

46 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We extend research on leadership and emotions by addressing two previously under-researched areas. Prior research has focused primarily on the valence of leaders' displayed emotion and on followers' affective reactions to those displays. In contrast, we examined followers' cognitive reactions to the perceived sincerity of leaders' displayed emotion. Study 1 found that American workers' trust in a leader was related to their perceptions of that leader's emotional sincerity. Study 2 replicated these results among Chinese workers, and further indicated the mechanisms through which perceived emotional sincerity influenced trust and showed how trust influenced performance. The findings demonstrate the importance of including emotional sincerity in studies of leader affect, and suggest the value of adding a cognitive perspective to the current focus on followers' affective reactions to their leaders' emotions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)518-531
Number of pages14
JournalLeadership Quarterly
Volume26
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2015
Externally publishedYes

Cite this