Pride: Implications for Leader Behaviors and Effectiveness

Abstract

Although scholars have increasingly recognized the role of affect in leadership processes, research to date has mostly focused on generalized affect rather than discrete emotions. In the current study, we focus on the emotion of pride. Specifically, we conduct two field studies to examine leaders’ experiences of authentic and hubristic pride and their relations with leadership behaviors. In Study 1, a field study of leader-follower dyads, leader trait authentic and hubristic pride have positive and negative impacts on leadership effectiveness, respectively, and these effects occur via their use of effective (i.e., consideration, initiating structure) and ineffective (i.e., abusive supervision) leadership behaviors. In Study 2, a daily diary study with organizational leaders, we find that on days when leaders experience more authentic pride than usual, they are also more likely to engage in effective leadership behaviors than usual, and on days when leaders experience more hubristic pride than usual, they are also more likely to engage in abusive behaviors toward their subordinates than usual. We also found some evidence of cross-level moderating effects, such that those higher (vs. lower) on trait pride, generally exhibited stronger within-person relationships between pride and leadership behaviors. Overall, this work highlights the importance of pride for leadership processes and the utility of studies examining discrete emotional experiences within organizational settings.