Leadership and the contagion of affective phenomena: a systematic review and mini meta‐analysis

We present a systematic review of literature examining leadership and the contagion of affective phenomena, namely emotion, mood and affect. Specifically, an inductive thematic analysis approach was adopted to synthesize the findings from published studies. In addition, a mini meta‐analysis was conducted to quantify reported effects. A rigorous search identified 25 studies that fulfilled the inclusion criteria for further review. Results highlighted important relationships between leadership and contagion aligned with six themes: charismatic and transformational leadership are conducive to contagion of leader and follower positive affective phenomena; greater contagion effects exists when there is congruence between leader and follower affective states; contagion of leader and follower affective phenomena is directly linked to leader effectiveness and performance; and, individual susceptibility to the contagion of affective phenomena can moderate these relationships. These findings have salient implications for conceptualization and measurement across multiple lines of inquiry and within numerous domains of application.