John Paul (J.P.) Stephens, associate professor of organizational behavior at Weatherhead and the Theodore M. and Catherine C. Alfred Professor in Management, recently co-authored a paper with Yossi Srour and Avi Carmeli, both from Tel Aviv University. The paper focuses on how the relationship quality between CEOs and (Board) Chairpersons matters to them and those around them.
The research team used both surveys and interviews to learn about these top managers' emotional carrying capacity, or how much they were able to express more emotions overall, express both positive and negative emotions, and do so in a constructive manner. They found that this capacity was positively tied to employees' sharing more knowledge with each other and, ultimately, firm performance.
“My big takeaway is that CEOs and Chairpersons are quite mindful of the quality of their interpersonal relationship, and how they express emotions publicly and privately, and they believe such emotional expressions impact the broader firm,” said Stephens.
The paper was recently published in the Journal of Management Studies.