Although empathy is commonly viewed as a key element of strategic leadership, leaders' emotional reactions to competitors can also involve schadenfreude, the pleasure derived from a rival's failure, which starkly contrasts with genuine empathetic concern. This conceptual paper examines the underexplored phenomenon of schadenfreude in competitor-related emotions, seeking to explain how and why schadenfreude emerges in strategic leadership. In particular, we focus on the cognitive and emotional processes that underpin this response, highlighting the mechanisms through which leaders' perceptions of competitors' setbacks translate into competitive emotions.
The paper develops a conceptual model and a set of propositions, drawing on organizational identification and social comparison theory, to explain the mechanisms through which strategic leaders experience schadenfreude and how this emotion shapes their subsequent strategic behaviors.
The conceptual model suggests that strong organizational identification and downward comparisons with rivals give rise to schadenfreude, with organizational-based self-esteem linking these appraisals to the emotional experience. This response intensifies when rivals are perceived as high-status. Leader schadenfreude may result in three outcomes: increased unethical pro-organizational behavior, selective sharing with close colleagues and greater risk aversion in strategic decision-making.
Rather than being a mere reactive feeling, schadenfreude constitutes a functional part of leaders' mental models that filters competitive stimuli, enabling specific strategic interpretations and behaviors. This approach advances behavioral strategy and leadership theory by integrating the content (“what” leaders think and feel) with the process (“how” they interpret and act). This paper introduces an integration of organizational identification and social comparison theory to explain the emergence of schadenfreude, thereby extending the understanding of emotion emergence in relation to cognition and appraisal-based emotion theory through identity-relevant evaluations. Furthermore, we contribute to social comparison theory by explaining its capacity to explain the influence of upward and downward comparison on schadenfreude.
As much as we wish leaders should be empathetic to their rivals' misfortune, we highlight how the self-esteem needs of humans result in joyful emotional reactions to their rivals' misfortune. We may be unable to avoid the experience of schadenfreude in humans. However, by understanding such emotions and their impact, leaders can develop strategies to mitigate their negative effects and capitalize on the positive ones.
This study contributes to the literature on strategic leader emotions by examining the underexplored domain of competitor-related emotions. It extends strategic leadership research by highlighting the linkages between macro-level competitive assessments and micro-level emotional and behavioral responses. Additionally, it offers novel insights for the behavioral strategy literature by demonstrating how leaders' schadenfreude can shape strategic behavior.
