More than just an angry face: A critical review and theoretical expansion of research on leader anger expression

Abstract

Stories about angry bosses in the workplace are relatively common. Have you ever wondered what causes their anger and how the expressed anger impacts the workplace? Our review of 58 studies on leader anger expression provides an overview of research findings on this phenomenon. The review demonstrates significant research progress in understanding leader anger expression, including its causes, consequences, mechanisms, and boundary conditions. However, the review also reveals that the current approaches to leader anger expression are quite static, which creates the need for a dynamic approach to examining leader anger expression. Integrating a range of theories, we suggest three ways of building dynamic models of leader anger expression, considering its temporal dimension, the dynamics between its mechanisms, and the complexity of emotional episodes in which anger is expressed. Our research contributes to the existing literature by being the first to take stock of leader anger expression research to date and propose a dynamic approach to understanding this phenomenon.