The ripple effect: How leader workplace anxiety shape follower job performance

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Shanshan Zhang¹  Lifan Chen¹  Lihua Zhang¹  Aaron McCune Stein² 

[1] School of Labor and Human Resources, Renmin University of China;Ipsos

关键词: Workplace anxiety;    cognitive interference;    Emotional exhaustion;    Epistemic motivation;    job performance;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2022.965365

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Although the dominant view in the literature suggests that work-related anxiety experienced by employees affects their behavior and performance, little research has focused on how and when leaders’ workplace anxiety affects their followers’ job performance. Drawing from Emotions as Social Information (EASI) theory, we propose dual mechanisms of cognitive interference and emotional exhaustion to explain the relationship between leader workplace anxiety and subordinate job performance. Specifically, cognitive interference is the mechanism which best explains the link between leader workplace anxiety and follower task performance, while emotional exhaustion is the mechanism which best explains the link between leader workplace anxiety and follower contextual performance. Additionally, we examine how follower epistemic motivation serves as a boundary condition for the effect of leader anxiety on follower performance outcomes. Results from a 2-wave study of 228 leader-follower dyads in a high-tech company mostly supported our theoretical model. We conclude the study with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

【 授权许可】

CC BY