Effect of the negative emotional expressions by leaders on employees' promotive voices - perceptive from EASI

Using the model of emotion as social information as an analytical framework, this study surveyed 215 leader-employee partnerships at Chinese enterprises and discovered that leaders' negative emotional expressions significantly undermined employees' promotive voices. The negative effect was evident in employees' trust and liking of leaders. Accordingly, leaders should avoid expressing or try to transform negative emotions in management and realize the importance of the trust and liking between them and employees. Future studies may examine the interactions between inferential processes and affective reactions, collect data from multiple time points, and investigate employees' prohibitive voices.