The importance of followers' emotions in effective leadership

Abstract

Within the framework of Affective Events Theory (AET) this study examines emotional experiences as a potential mediator between followers’ perceptions of supportive leadership and their experiences of job engagement and intention to leave the organisation, respectively. The results showed that the relationships between supportive leadership and job engagement, as well as turnover intentions, were fully mediated by the followers’ positive emotional experiences. Negative emotional experiences yielded insignificant mediation effects, a finding that may be explained by characteristics of the leadership style studied. The present study substantiates that followers’ emotions bridge the ‘gap’ between leader behaviour and follower attitudinal outcomes and, hence, supports the notion that followers’ emotions are essential in the study of effective leadership.