ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a new role for group leaders, the role of managing group emotion. This new leadership role suggests that individual group members are perceived as leaders by others when they provide direction and guidance during times of ambiguity, particularly when this guidance involves the display of appropriate emotional responses to unsettling events. An individual is perceived as a leader by making an interpretation of the emotional response that would best serve the group's needs, and then modeling that response for the other group members. By modeling an emotional response to the situation, the leader resolves ambiguity and provides the group with the direction needed for action. At they same time, this leadership action can increase group solidarity by creating both shared emotion and shared action within the group. The idea of leadership as the management of group emotion is not tied to one specific individual, but rather is a leadership action that can be performed by different group members at different times. The emergence and success of any individual as group leader is subject to several conditions, such as the group context, group norms, and individual skills and abilities.
