Empathetic Leadership: How Leader Emotional Support and Understanding Influences Follower Performance

Kock, Ned; Mayfield, Milton; Mayfield, Jacqueline; Sexton, Shaun; Garza, Lina M. De La

doi:10.1177/1548051818806290

Cited by 83 publications

(143 citation statements)

References 147 publications

(178 reference statements)

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“…Indeed, prior work has suggested that individuals with lower need for cognition are more likely to focus on extraneous, peripheral information during interactions (e.g., Cacioppo et al., 1986; Ras et al., 2015; Ting, 2012), which suggests that leaders with lower need for cognition may be more readily distracted by the information that is being conveyed and its meaning when they are the targets of venting receipt. Thus, although organizational scholars and practitioners have described listening and providing support as a valued and necessary daily leader activity (e.g., Drucker, 2004; Kock, Mayfield, Mayfield, Sexton, & De La Garza, 2019; Lloyd, Boer, Keller, & Voelpel, 2015), our findings suggest that doing so can be challenging for certain leaders.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 65%

When lending an ear turns into mistreatment: An episodic examination of leader mistreatment in response to venting at work

Rosen

Gabriel

Lee

et al. 2020

Personnel Psychology

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Venting—an emotion‐focused form of coping involving the discharge of negative feelings to others—is common in organizational settings. Venting may benefit the self via the release of negative emotion, or by acting as a catalyst for changes to problematic work situations. Nonetheless, venting might have unintended consequences via its influence on those who are the recipients of venting from others. In light of this idea, we provide a theoretical explanation for how leaders in particular are affected by venting receipt at work. Drawing from the transactional model of stress, we theorize that venting tends to be appraised as a threat, which triggers negative emotion that, in turn, potentiates deviant action tendencies (i.e., interpersonal mistreatment). Yet, our theory suggests that not all leaders necessarily experience venting in the same way. Specifically, leaders with higher need for cognition are less influenced by surface‐level cues associated with others’ emotional expressions and find challenging interpersonal situations to be less aversive, thereby attenuating the deleterious effects of receipt of venting. In an experience sampling study of 112 managers across 10 consecutive workdays, we find support for our theoretical model. Altogether, our findings provide insight into the costs incurred when leaders lend an ear to those who vent, which can result in negative downstream consequences.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 65%

When lending an ear turns into mistreatment: An episodic examination of leader mistreatment in response to venting at work

Rosen

Gabriel

Lee

et al. 2020

Personnel Psychology

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“…For example, a study of 257 respondents from the southwest United States confirmed that empathetic leadership has a positive relationship with employees' job satisfaction. Further, empathic leadership unlike laissez-faire leadership promotes innovation and employee performance (Kock, Mayfield, Mayfield, Sexton, & De La Garza, 2019). Similarly, Skinner and Spurgeon (2005) studied Australian managers to confirm a relationship between empathy and transformational leadership styles.…”

Section: Leadership Styles and Workplace Bullyingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons from Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiments: Leadership’s Deliberate Indifference Exacerbates Workplace Bullying in Higher Education

Hollis

2019

JSPTE

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Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to apply Albert Bandura’s findings of the Bobo Doll experiments to organizational behavior and workplace bullying in higher education. The Bandura social psychological experiments confirm that people who see aggression also need to witness an intervention to aggression to learn that the organization does not welcome aggression in their work environment. Background: By applying the Bandura experiment, the researcher shows how leadership can intervene to stop organizational aggression and abuse. Without leadership intervention, workplace bullying continues in higher education. Methodology: The researcher used a data set of 730 higher education professionals. The central research question: RQ Which personnel, bullied or not bullied, are more likely to report that no intervention was demonstrated in the organization’s response to reports of workplace bullying on campus? A chi-square analysis was used to examine if organizational inaction was more likely to lead to workplace bullying. Contribution: The application of the Bobo Doll experiments confirms that workplace aggression is either curtailed or proliferates based on leadership’s intervention to stop aggression in higher education. This social psychology approach contributes to the literature on workplace bullying in higher education about the need for leadership to intervene and stop bullying behaviors. Findings: Those who reported organizational apathy, that is the “organization did nothing” were more likely to face workplace bullying in higher education at a statistically significant level, .05 level (χ2 (1, n = 522) = 5.293, P = 0.021). These findings align with Bandura’s theoretical approach that an intervention is needed to curtail aggression and workplace bullying. Recommendations for Practitioners: Organizational leadership should consider 360 evaluations, ombudsmen, and faculty oversight committees to collect data and intervene in workplace bullying problems on campus. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers can further examine how leadership engagement and intervention can curtail costly and corrosive workplace bullying in higher education. Impact on Society: These findings confirm that workplace bullying will not just disappear if left unattended. Empirical data confirms that leadership apathy, or deliberate indifference, to interventions only enable aggression and bullying in the workplace. Future Research: Future research projects can include qualitative approaches to discover what values encourage leaders to intervene in workplace bullying.

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“…improvements in terms of social distancing, hygiene, and pandemic preparedness; or conversely, may resist changes that render work environments less comfortable, ergonomic, or convivial. Methods to support the psychological resilience of employees can be critical, such as internal counseling services and support groups, team-building and consultation activities, regular demonstration of management's attentiveness to staff concerns and welfare, and leadership that evidences empathy and supportiveness [Kock et al, 2018]. Again, specialist KIBS provide advice in many of these areas.…”

Section: Relating To New Demands Concerningmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of the Coronacrisis on KIBS Sector

Miles

Belousova

Chichkanov

et al. 2021

Foresight and STI Governance

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Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) are problem-solvers for other organizations. The coronacrisis affects KIBS directly, but also means that their clients are confronting new problems. How are KIBS addressing these two sets of challenges? This paper draws on material available in the trade and industry press, on official reports and statistics, and the early academic studies addressing these themes. We find that KIBS have been active (alongside other organizations) in providing a substantial range of services aimed at helping their clients (and others) deal with various contingencies thrown up by the crisis. Not least among these is the need to conform to shifting regulatory frameworks, and requirements for longer-term resilience. KIBS themselves have had to adapt their working practices considerably, to reduce face-to-face interaction with clients and within teams collaborating on projects. Adaptation is easier for those whose tasks that are relatively standardized and codified, and it remains to be seen how far a shift to such activities - and away from the traditional office-based venues of activity - is retained as firms recover from the crisis. KIBS are liable to play an important role in this recovery from the crisis, and policymakers can mobilize their services. Some KIBS are liable to be critical for rendering economies more resilient in the face of future pandemics and we argue that these firms are also important for confronting the mounting climate crisis.

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Empathetic Leadership: How Leader Emotional Support and Understanding Influences Follower Performance

Cited by 83 publications

References 147 publications

When lending an ear turns into mistreatment: An episodic examination of leader mistreatment in response to venting at work

When lending an ear turns into mistreatment: An episodic examination of leader mistreatment in response to venting at work

Lessons from Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiments: Leadership’s Deliberate Indifference Exacerbates Workplace Bullying in Higher Education

The Impact of the Coronacrisis on KIBS Sector

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