Be yourself no matter what they say? The consequences of authentic and inauthentic leader emotional displays for their well-being

• Applicant: Professorin Hadar Nesher Shoshan, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 563168850

Leader well-being is critical to organizations, yet often neglected in research (Kaluza et al., 2020). Due to leaders' specific characteristics, the processes affecting their well-being might differ from those of employees. Leaders are constantly being watched by their followers (Burch et al., 2013), making every emotional display meaningful. Thus, how leaders regulate their emotional displays (i.e., emotional labor) is important. I developed a conceptual model in which leader (in)authentic displays toward followers, conceptualized as emotional labor, predict their well-being via an intrapersonal resource-related and interpersonal social exchange path. I suggest the evaluation of the appropriateness of the (in)authentic display as a moderator that may influence the consequences of (in)authentic emotional displays. For example, when a follower evaluates their leader’s behavior as inappropriately authentic negative consequences may occur. I conceptualize leader well-being as dynamic and multidimensional with indicators of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being (Sonnentag et al., 2023) and address short-term fluctuations and reciprocal relationships. Additionally, I examine longer-term changes in leader well-being and the effects of disagreement between leaders and followers about the appropriateness of emotional displays. Theoretically, I draw on two established theories to explain the processes that link leaders’ (in)authentic displays to well-being. The conservation of resources theory (COR; Hobfoll, 2001) for the intrapersonal path, and social exchange theory (SET; Cropanzano et al., 2017) for the interpersonal path. I propose a dual-path model in which exhaustion as a marker of resource depletion (based on COR) and follower perception of exchange quality (based on SET) explain the within-person short-term and the between-person longer-term well-being consequences of leader emotional labor toward followers. I include the evaluation of appropriateness (from both the leader's and the follower's perspectives) as moderators that may clarify when leader authentic display is beneficial, and when it is harmful to well-being. I plan two within-person experimental vignette studies with leaders and followers, one experiment with leader participants in which emotional labor and appropriateness will be manipulated, and one event-sampling study with leaders and followers as participants, which includes testing reciprocal relationships and a longer-term follow-up. These studies aim to address three goals. First, to establish causality and reversed causality regarding the effects of (in)authentic leader emotional displays on their well-being; Second, to enhance ecological validity and test critical moderators and mediators and, third to test the dynamics of leader well-being, including short- and longer-term effects.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants