Anxious to Perform: Compositional Effects of Negative Task-Related Emotions in Teams

We investigated how team composition, in terms of members’ emotions about the team tasks ahead, predicts performance on these team tasks. In 45 student teams, a higher average level of anxiety and happiness, but not anger, about the team assignments predicted higher team grades 6 weeks later. We exp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Small group research 2024-08, Vol.55 (4), p.531-559
Main Authors: Heerdink, Marc W., Homan, Astrid C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anger
Anxiety
Emotions
Happiness
Negative emotions
Task performance
Teams
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Summary:We investigated how team composition, in terms of members’ emotions about the team tasks ahead, predicts performance on these team tasks. In 45 student teams, a higher average level of anxiety and happiness, but not anger, about the team assignments predicted higher team grades 6 weeks later. We explored potential mediating team processes. These findings contribute to the literature on team affect, which has so far struggled to identify benefits of negative affect in teams: task-related anxiety is linked to better performance of real-world teams. This highlights the importance of studying compositional effects of individual affective states in teams.
ISSN:1046-4964
1552-8278
DOI:10.1177/10464964241228547