Emotion Science Simplified: Authoritarian Leadership, Emotion Suppression Climate, and Team Performance
We Have Emotions but Can’t Show Them!
This article is based on the paper “We Have Emotions but Can’t Show Them! Authoritarian Leadership, Emotion Suppression Climate, and Team Performance” published in Human Relations (Chiang, Chen, Liu, Akutsu & Wang, 2021).
What happens to a team’s emotions when the boss rules with control, demands obedience, and leaves no room for challenge? The study, conducted across 227 work teams in three large Japanese organisations, shows that authoritarian leadership doesn’t just affect individuals it reshapes the emotional climate of the entire team.
The big idea
The more emotion suppression authoritarian leaders exercises, the stronger the team climate of emotion suppression, the higher the level of team emotional exhaustion, and the lower the team performance.
How authoritarian leadership works
Authoritarian leaders use authority to control, discipline, and make all decisions themselves. This style creates what researchers call an “emotion suppression climate” a shared team belief that showing emotions at work is inappropriate.
Under these conditions, people start hiding both positive and negative emotions. Joy, excitement, frustration, or fear are all pushed below the surface. The climate becomes one of silence.
The chain reaction
The research found a clear sequence:
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Authoritarian leadership → Emotion suppression climate
Teams under authoritarian leaders quickly learn to withhold their feelings. -
Emotion suppression climate → Team emotional exhaustion
When people must constantly suppress emotions, they become mentally and emotionally drained. -
Team emotional exhaustion → Lower performance
Exhausted teams lose motivation, find it harder to collaborate, and underperform.
The leader’s own role
Interestingly, the leader’s behaviour makes this worse. If the authoritarian leader also hides their own emotions, it strengthens the suppression climate. Teams then face even higher exhaustion and bigger drops in performance.
Numbers that stand out
- 252 leaders and 765 subordinates were surveyed, matched across 227 teams.
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Authoritarian leadership is far from rare:
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27% of Japanese leaders
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45% of Chinese leaders
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49% of French leaders
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24% of US leaders
show authoritarian traits.
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Why it matters
Leadership is not just about strategy and tasks. It shapes whether teams feel free to share emotions or forced to hide them. Suppression may look like “professionalism” on the surface, but it comes at a heavy cost: exhaustion and weaker results.
Practical lessons
- Check authoritarian tendencies. Making every decision, disciplining harshly, or punishing emotion harms teams in the long run.
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Don’t suppress your own emotions. Leaders who express their feelings even in an authoritarian context signal that expression is acceptable.
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Create safe release channels. Teams need outlets. Structured check-ins, space for sharing, or even informal rituals outside work can help prevent exhaustion.
