Full Length Article
Emotions running high: Examining the effects of supervisor and subordinate emotional stability on emotional exhaustion

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2019.103885Get rights and content
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Highlights

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    Leader-follower personality congruence on follower emotional exhaustion.

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    Polynomial regression analyses on two multisource field samples.

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    Exhaustion was highest when both leader and follower emotional stability were low.

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    Follower personality was a stronger driver of the effects than leader personality.

Abstract

We sought to better understand the impact of leader emotional stability on follower burnout. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we examined the emotional exhaustion consequences of supervisor-subordinate emotional stability congruence. Study 1 consisted of 299 light construction and maintenance workers and their supervisors. Study 2 was comprised of 294 workers at a city permits office and their supervisors. As hypothesized, both samples revealed that the highest levels of subordinate emotional exhaustion occurred when both supervisor and subordinate emotional stability were low. Our polynomial regression results suggest that the effects of leader and follower emotional stability are not simply a matter of similarity; subordinates low in emotional stability are disproportionately and negatively impacted by a low-emotional stability leader.

Keywords

Personality congruence
Leader personality
Emotional stability
Emotional exhaustion
Conservation of resources

Cited by (0)

1

This author wrote the large majority of the manuscript and lead the project.

2

This author wrote portions of the paper and was involved with the data analysis.

3

This author was involved in data collection, analysis, and revision process.

4

This author sourced the data and conceived of the rough idea for the study.

© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.