Authors Sigal Barsade, a Wharton management professor who studies the influence of affect or emotions on the workplace, and Donald Gibson of Fairfield University’s Dolan School of Business, examined how employees’ moods and overall dispositions have an impact on job performance, decision-making, creativity, teamwork and leadership. Leaders’ displays of emotions, they noted, influence followers through emotional contagion: “Positive, upbeat emotions of the leader are emulated by followers, resulting in positive outcomes.”

Published in the Harvard Business School blog on 11/04/09