How and Why Does Leader Anger Expression Influence Employees’ Deviant Innovation? Ability-Based Mianzi Stress and Workplace Anxiety Explanations of the Curvilinear Moderated Relations

Abstract

Leader anger expression affects leadership effectiveness and employees’ work status. Based on the theory of emotion as social information, we theorized a serial curvilinear mediated moderation model that links leader anger expression to deviant innovation under weak versus strong supervisor’s organizational embodiment. The results of our field of 289 employees showed that the mediated relationship between leader anger expression and deviant innovation was non-linear. Moreover, this non-linear mediated relationship was moderated by supervisor’s organizational embodiment such that, under strong supervisor’s organizational embodiment, the indirect effect via ability-based Mianzi stress and workplace anxiety was positive at high levels of leader anger expression, while, under conditions of supervisor’s organizational embodiment, the indirect effect via ability-based Mianzi stress was insignificant at low levels of leader anger expression, the indirect effect via workplace anxiety was negative as low levels of leader anger expression and positive at intermediate to high levels. We discussed the theoretical and practical implications for current and future leader anger expression research.