How Leader Appraisal Translates into Follower Appraisal: A Social Contagion Perspective

We develop and test an empirical model that investigates how a leader’s stressor appraisals are mirrored by her followers, and how this in turn influences their job satisfaction. We base our theoretical model on the challenge-hindrance model of stress and employ emotional contagion theory to show that stressor appraisals of workload can be contagious between leaders and followers. We furthermore predict that followers who have a well-functioning, close relationship with their leaders as measured by Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) experience more contagion of stressor appraisals than those who do not. Our results (n = 536 financial managers) largely support our hypotheses, albeit not in the direction we hypothesized. Structural equation models reveal that a leader’s challenge as well as hindrance appraisals are both amplifying followers’ hindrance appraisals and mitigating their challenge appraisals. Our results also illustrate that this effect is more pronounced in relationships characterized by high levels of LMX. Theoretical and practical implications of our study are discussed.