The leader affect revolution reloaded: Toward an integrative framework and a robust science

Abstract

Along with the affective revolution in organizational behavior research, leadership research has also experienced an affective revolution, resulting in a field of research on the intersection of affect and leadership. Based on the results of a review of 162 articles published in eight top-tier management and leadership journals over three decades (1990–2022), I identify a range of topics on the intersection of leadership and affect, and organize them under an integrative cognitive-affective-behavioral-trait (CAB-T) thematic framework. Although the field appears to be flourishing, it may have built on a shaky foundation, because most of the published empirical studies are flawed by critical issues such as endogeneity and poor research design. For example, only 12 out of 127 empirical articles are possibly without endogeneity issues; 3 out of 32 experiments and 2 out of 11 qualitative studies are considered rigorous against specified criteria. Based on the identified limitations, I provide a future research agenda for a robust field of leader affect research.