Angry leader with coercive power: Unpacking the effects on follower withdrawal through organizational dehumanization.

Abstract

Leaders often express anger as a way of social influence. While research on leader anger expression has predominantly focused on interpersonal inferences, little is known about whether leader anger expressions affect followers' inferences about the organization. Drawing on emotions as social information model, we investigate whether and when angry leaders induce followers' inferences about the organizations and the behavioral consequences of such inferences. Through an experiment (Study 1, N = 182) and 2 two-wave online surveys (Study 2, N = 179; Study 3, N = 288), we found that leader anger expression triggered followers' organizational dehumanization, which increased their withdrawal behavior. This mediated relationship was weakened when the leader's coercive power was low. Moreover, these effects were robust after controlling for abusive supervision and adding followers' affective reactions and inferences about leaders as alternative mediators. Theoretical contributions and practical implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).