Tweet you right back: Follower anxiety predicts leader anxiety in social media interactions during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Psychogios, Alexandros and Gruda, Dritjon and Adegboyega, Ojo (2023) Tweet you right back: Follower anxiety predicts leader anxiety in social media interactions during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. PLOS ONE, 18 (2). ISSN 1932-6203

[img]
Preview
Text
Psychogios Gruda Adegboyega - Twwen you Right Back - PlosOne.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (646kB)

Abstract

Recent research has shown that organizational leaders’ tweets can influence their employees’ anxiety. In this study, we turn the table and examine whether the same can be said about followers’ tweets. Based on emotional contagion and a dataset of 108 leaders and 178 followers across 50 organizations, we infer and track state- and trait-anxiety scores of participants over 316 days, including pre- and post the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and crisis. We show that although leaders traditionally possess greater authority and power than their followers, followers have the power to influence their leaders’ state anxiety. In addition, this influence is particularly strong in the case of less trait anxious leaders. Overall, this study provides strong evidence of a bidirectional emotional contagion effect between leaders and followers in a social media context.

Item Type: Article
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279164
Dates:
DateEvent
31 January 2023Accepted
9 February 2023Published Online
Uncontrolled Keywords: anxiety, leadership, followership, bidirectionality, emotional contagion, machine learning
Subjects: CAH04 - psychology > CAH04-01 - psychology > CAH04-01-02 - applied psychology
CAH17 - business and management > CAH17-01 - business and management > CAH17-01-04 - management studies
CAH17 - business and management > CAH17-01 - business and management > CAH17-01-05 - human resource management
Divisions: Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences > Birmingham City Business School
Depositing User: Alexandros Psychogios
Date Deposited: 15 Feb 2023 11:49
Last Modified: 22 Mar 2023 11:48
URI: https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/14186

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Research

In this section...