The power of perceiving: exploring the associations between empathic accuracy and leader-member exchange
本研究让49对领导者与下属进行引发正负情绪的讨论，发现领导者在消极话题讨论中的共情准确性与下属对领导-成员交换质量的评价正相关，在积极话题中则不显著。对研究职场情绪和领导力的学者有参考价值。
Emotion theories across psychological disciplines (social, organizational, and clinical) posit that the accurate perception of others’ emotions facilitates the achievement of various relational, performance and wellbeing related outcomes. In the organizational psychology domain, scholars have traditionally assessed this ability through the use of static, individualistic, maximum performance-based tests. Such approaches, however, overlook the dynamic, social context in which emotions are expressed and perceived. To address this limitation, we implemented the Unstructured Dyadic Interaction Paradigm, a protocol typically used in the study of romantic relationships. This protocol captures how empathic accuracy (EA) – the ability to accurately perceive the feelings of an interaction partner – manifests in real interactions. In our study, 49 leader-follower dyads participated in discussions designed to elicit negative and positive emotions and completed measures of EA and Leader-Member Exchange (LMX). Leader EA was positively associated with follower ratings of LMX quality during the negative discussion scenario, but not during the positive discussion scenario. Our findings contribute to the emotions and leadership literatures by addressing a previous theory-methods misfit, offering first evidence of the importance of EA in the work context, and by pointing to potential boundary conditions of this ability.