Outcomes of school administrators’ emotion management: A review of evidence in Asian countries

No single study has attempted to examine school leaders’ emotions with an outcome-related (e.g., leadership effectiveness, commitment, job satisfaction, well-being) perspective through a particular focus on Asia. Thus, through a review of empirical evidence, this study aims at analyzing the knowledge base on the outcomes of school leaders’ emotions from 2002 to 2019. This study adopted a topographical analysis approach (e.g. regional classification, types of research, topics, school level) and a narrative synthesis approach (development of a conceptual framework by categorizing the literature into codes) to situate and narratively discuss Asian-context evidence through an Asian socio-cultural lens. Based on our inclusion and exclusion criteria, we analyzed 32 articles in Asian countries on school leaders’ emotions. A total of 44 outcome variables were classified under six emotion-related constructs such as; school leaders’ emotional intelligence, empathy, positive-negative affectivity, emotional expressions, burnout, and emotionally manipulative and supportive behaviors. The results showed that school leaders’ positive emotions and emotional competencies have a positive influence on the outcome variables which are essential for the well-being and performance of school administrators, teachers, and students. Cultural and gendered differences were also discussed in this study.