Managerial interpersonal emotion regulation during negative and positive affective events

Abstract The managerial emotion regulation process in the social setting of managerial work is still not fully understood. The extant conceptualization of using affective events, through affective events theory, as the antecedent in the process is imprecise and static in nature. In this article, we conceptualize managerial emotion regulation as a dynamic process, which is shaped by the interaction between affective event valence (negative and positive), event origin, and managerial motives to regulate emotion. Focusing on the affective events that generate emotion in managerial work, we theorize on the process of managerial emotion regulation in two emotional display contexts—during negative events and during positive events associated with the interpersonal effects on employees as observers and within‐person effects on managers themselves as actors. Our theorization contributes to the literature, both by extending and by challenging the extant conceptualization of managerial emotion regulation.