During a widespread crisis, negative emotions don’t simply go away once the workday begins. Organizational scholars who study how emotions affect employees tend to assume that negative emotions equal negative outcomes. That isn’t always the case, according to new research from David Lebel, associate professor of business administration in the School of Business and director of the Berg Center for Ethics & Leadership.
Working with Pitt doctoral student Jordan Sanders and Jochen Menges at the University of Zurich, Lebel found that during one such crisis–the COVID 19 pandemic– only about half of the relationships examined between negative emotions and workplace outcomes were harmful. Many showed no effect, and some even showed positive effects.
Contact David Lebel: david.lebel@pitt.edu or (401) 862.5166
Their findings were reported in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology .
Leaders’ expressions of positive emotions such as compassion, hope and empathy during the COVID-19 pandemic moderated negative individual and organizational outcomes:
● CEO statements of concern and care for employees correlated with stronger stock price performance between February and March 2020
● Governors who expressed more empathy and confidence correlated with fewer COVID-19-related deaths.
● Employees appreciated their supervisor’s expressions of positive emotions during the pandemic, associated with increased job engagement and commitment.
When dealing with widespread negative emotions:
● Don’t broadcast organizational anxiety. Studies showed leader anxiety was associated with lower levels of perceived ethical leadership and reported levels of abusive supervision.
● Do share personal anxieties with team subordinates who express anxiety.
● Negative emotions may lead to short-term gains, but are damaging in the long run, leading to burnout or disengagement
● Corporate socially responsible human resources practices–such as offering flexible work–helped buffer negative effects of anxiety and helped employees interpret their work as more meaningful.
Leaders who acted with compassion, care and empathy were able to neutralize the negative effects of employees’ negative emotions. Particularly if a leader demonstrated a sense of compassion, for instance, sharing with employees, “‘I’m just as anxious as you are about COVID -19.’”
Lebel believes these findings hold beyond time-bound crises like a pandemic. “We are very much in a time of uncertainty, the general sentiment is negative,” he said, citing the recently released World Uncertainty Index.
Of course, in the moment, a leader’s negative emotions can potentially lead to a positive outcome, Lebel said. Fear of losing your job might make you work harder, but over the long term–anything over a month or several weeks–it backfires. “It was the strongest evidence in our paper: sustained negative emotions? We just can’t handle that.
“This is never about creating more fear, anxiety, or anger. It's already out there.”
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology
Meta-analysis
People
Beyond positivity: A review of the functional outcomes of negative emotions at work
26-Feb-2026