74 The Influences of Leaders’ Negative Implicit Followership Theories on Employees’Work Behaviors: A DualPathway Model Third, our study helps clarify how two processes—an emotional process and an empowerment/work-cognition process—fuel the trickle-down effect and spillover effect of leaders’ assumptions on different organizational stakeholders. With regard to the emotional process, we find that through abusive supervision and negative mood, leaders’ NIFTs indirectly influence employees’ service performance (the trickle-down effect) but do not influence their altruistic behavior toward colleagues. With regard to the empowerment/ work-cognition process, we find that through LMX and psychological empowerment, leaders’ NIFTs indirectly influence both employees’ service performance (the trickle-down effect) and altruistic behavior toward colleagues (the spillover effect). These findings imply that employees cannot respond to customers’ and colleagues’ needs if the employees believe that they lack the autonomy and competence necessary to solve customers’ and colleagues’ problems. In short, leaders’ NIFTs may have broader effects on organizational stakeholders through the empowerment/work-cognition process than through the emotional process. Previous studies on leaders’ IFTs focus on exploring the vertical leadership process between supervisors and subordinates (e.g., Sy, 2010; Whiteley et al., 2012), but do not explore the horizontal or broad influences of leaders’ IFTs on the parties with whom employees often interact. As leadership literature has appealed to researchers to pay attention to the trickle-down effect and spillover effect of leadership on a variety of parties (e.g., Chen et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2019; Chi et al., 2018; Masterson, 2001), our theoretical model and relevant findings not only respond to this appeal but also provide empirical evidence that advances the field’s understanding of these effects and related issues. 5.2 Practical Implications Frontline service employees may face numerous challenges when delivering service to different kinds of customers. Although adequate training and work experience can help employees respond to customers’ needs and address service problems, the support from direct supervisors remains critical. Most managers should agree with the idea that management styles reflect leaders’ implicit assumptions about followers. However, managers may not be able to sense their own IFTs and understand how their IFTs influence subordinates and the given organizations as a whole. Our study finds that leaders’ NIFTs result in at least two distinct negative effects on employees: an increase in employees’ negative mood and a decrease in their perceptions of psychological empowerment. Serious or prolonged negative affective states have an adverse effect on employees’ emotional
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