Mapping the Association of Emotional Contagion to Leaders, Colleagues, and Clients: Implications for Leadership

Abstract

This article investigates emotional contagion in workplaces by proposing an expanded approach that simultaneously considers contagion both absorbed by (i.e., contagion absorbed) and issued toward (i.e., contagion infected) others, namely, within-individual bidirectional contagion. Furthermore, it explores the differential association of contagion to leaders, colleagues, and clients, namely, a holistic mapping. Participants (N = 694) from six organizations were asked how frequently they both absorbed and transmitted four basic emotions from or to others, and whether the emotional experience occurred with regard to their leaders, colleagues, and clients. The findings reveal that positive and negative emotions considered for within-individual bidirectional contagion were more frequently experienced with colleagues followed by clients, whereas leaders were the least associated with emotional contagion. The relevance of a holistic mapping of emotional contagion in work settings and its implications for leadership are discussed.

Keywords:

• clients
• colleagues
• emotional contagion
• holistic mapping
• leaders

Notes

1. The results on the 42 ANOVAs on independent samples with post hoc tests referring to the differences among the mean values of each variable for each of the six organizations are available upon request to the first author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Laura Petitta

Laura Petitta is a PhD faculty member in work and organizational psychology at the Faculty of Medicine and Psychology of the Sapienza University of Rome, and Professor of Training and Organization Development. She has conducted applied research aimed at developing coaching, psychosocial training, and goal-setting systems, with main regard to the role of organizational culture and emotions at work. She is a member of international networks and leads cross-cultural research applied to Italian and international contexts. Since 1995 she has conducted organizational consultancy and has contributed to develop several assessment tools aimed at designing organizational development interventions. She can be reached at [email protected].

Shahnaz Naughton

Shahnaz Naughton is a PhD faculty member in organizational change management at the College of Business of Victoria University of Melbourne. She teaches strategic organizational behavior, management, and leadership development in MBA and Executive programs. She has 20 years of experience as a consultant internationally working across public- and private-sector organizations on major projects in leading transformational and culture change. She can be reached at [email protected].