COGNITIVE ASYMMETRY IN EMPLOYEE AFFECTIVE REACTIONS TO LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS

This paper is predicated on the idea that leaders shape affective events, such as positive “uplifts ” or negative “hassles, ” that determine employees ’ attitudes and behaviors in the workplace. In this paper, this notion is addressed in a model based on two related theories. First, based on Affective Events Theory (AET), it is argued that effective leaders ameliorate employees ’ hassles by providing frequent emotional uplifts. The resulting positive affective states lead to more positive employee attitudes and behaviors. The second theoretical underpinning of the model is the Asymmetry Effect of emotion. Consistent with this theory, I suggest that employees are more likely to recall negative hassles than positive uplifts. Within this framework, it is argued that leaders need to exercise their ‘emotional intelligence ’ to generate uplifts to overcome the hassles that employees often tend to remember vividly. In a qualitative study evidence that these processes exist in the workplace was found. Leader behaviors were sources of positive or negative emotional responses in employees; employees recalled more negative incidents than positive incidents, and they recalled them more intensely and in more detail than positive incidents. Key words: leadership, affective events, asymmetry effec