Knowledge complexity and team information processing: the mediating role of team learning goal orientation

Purpose

Drawing on job demands and resources theory and the challenge-hindrance stressor framework, this study aims to investigate the effect of team knowledge complexity on team information sharing and information searching and examine whether team learning goal orientation mediates these effects.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted two studies. Study 1 used a field survey study conducted among 374 employees positioned in 68 new product teams. Study 2 used a three-wave online survey study conducted among 208 leaders to investigate the teams they managed.

Findings

The findings of the two studies reveal that team knowledge complexity has a positive direct effect on team information sharing and information searching. Furthermore, team learning goal orientation mediates these two relationships.

Practical implications

The findings indicate that team knowledge complexity is generally beneficial for the team information process. Therefore, instead of fearing an increase in the knowledge complexity of the projects, organizations should dare to present challenge demands to team members to enhance their engagement in information processing. Organizations could also pay attention to team member selection during team composition processes. For example, selecting team members with a high level of learning goal orientation is helpful in facilitating team information processing.

Originality/value

Although previous studies have found that knowledge complexity is beneficial for team output, less is known about how knowledge complexity influences team processes. This study clarifies the relationships between team knowledge complexity, information sharing and information searching and examines team learning goal orientation as a vital mediator.

Emotion in teams: a scoping literature review

Purpose

The empirical findings of the roles of emotions in teams are mixed. This study, a scoping literature review, aims to synthesize extant research on the roles of emotions in work teams and offers future research directions.

Design/methodology/approach

Sixty-nine empirical studies from the past ten years (2012 to 2021) were identified and reviewed. The authors then analyzed these 69 papers based on their research design, focus and nomological network of emotions.

Findings

The authors found that there is a clear increasing research trend of studying emotions in a team setting. In the extant literature, team emotions were studied from three major perspectives: emotions, emotional management and emotion measurement. The authors also summarized findings into the nomological network of team emotions. Last but not least, future research directions regarding the research context, focus and design and analysis were recommended.

Originality/value

The role of emotions in teams has not been extensively reviewed or synthesized, and the empirical findings are mixed. This paper synthesized the role of emotions in teams and critical factors that affect emotions in teams. In particular, the research recommendations for critical human resource development scholars cover three aspects: research context advancement, research focus advancement and research design and analysis advancement.

The Formation of Positive Group Affective Tone: A Narrative Practice

This study uses a social construction perspective to examine how group affective tone develops. Longitudinal data were collected over 18 weeks from the weekly diaries of four teams with 24 university students. Narrative analysis revealed experiences of collectively shared patterns of affective states and the interaction contexts (i.e., affective events) that influenced group affective tone convergence. Emergent themes included topic selection, social support, and how effective team norms help members share positive emotions and moods. Social learning, positive emotional sharing, affective events, and behavioral regularities drive the narratives, leading to the emergence of a positive team affective tone.

Let’s Get Physical: Physical Activity as a Team Intervention at Work

The purpose of this article is to conceptualize a novel theoretical occurrence—team physical activity (PA)—and its relevance for researchers and organizations. By building a testable model of the consequences and contingencies of team PA, we integrate the science of teamwork with the scholarly domain of employee health and well-being. Hence, we clarify the construct of team PA, present a three-dimensional typology, and outline a model drawing on neuroscience, positive organizational behavior, and teams research. Our propositions and subsequent discussion proffer an outline of potential benefits for organizations when they increase the utility and frequency of team PA. We also suggest ways in which researchers can advance scholarship in this area.

Transactional leadership and success of international development projects (IDP): mediating effects of cooperative style to conflict resolution and team potency

Purpose

This study aims to examine the mediating role of cooperative style to conflict resolution and team potency in the relationship between transactional leadership style and the success of international development projects (IDP). The study draws on full range leadership theory and contextualizes transactional leadership style to the IDP environment.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire survey was administered to a convenience sample of 111 IDP managers in Benin. The data obtained from the survey were subjected to principal component analysis using the SPSS and confirmatory factor analysis using XLSTAT-PLSM. The research hypotheses are tested according to the partial least squares method.

Findings

The hypothesis test shows that transactional leadership has a direct and indirect positive influence (through team potency) on the success of IDP. Contrary to the cooperative style of conflict resolution, team potency plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between transactional leadership and the success of IDP. Also, considering the effect of the specific dimensions of transactional leadership on the success of IDP, only the “active management by exception” dimension influences directly and indirectly (through team potency) on the latter.

Practical implications

As a result, this research is of great value to IDP managers who are aware of the positive consequences associated with transactional leadership without knowing the role played by its dimensions. Indeed, it provides them with information necessary to identify the appropriate transactional leadership behaviors to improve the success of projects.

Originality/value

The relevance of this study is to consider team potency as intermediary mechanisms between transactional leadership and the success of IDP and examine the effect of the dimensions of transactional leadership on the success of IDP by integrating the mediating action of team potency. Besides, this research highlights a mechanism through which transactional leadership influences the success of IDPs and shows that the use of the construct of transactional leadership rather than its specific dimensions does not capture the specificities of the mechanism that links transactional leadership and its consequences.

A Multilevel Study of Group Affective Tone and Team Innovation: A Moderated Mediation Model

Drawing on broaden-and-build theory and threat-rigidity hypothesis, we theorized and tested a multilevel model to examine the moderating effects of transformational leadership (TFL) on the team-level process that links positive/negative group affective tone (PGAT/NGAT) to team innovation via information elaboration. Data were collected from 299 team members and 65 leaders from Taiwanese companies at two time points. The multilevel path analysis demonstrated support for a positive indirect effect of PGAT on team innovation via information elaboration and a negative indirect effect of NGAT on team innovation via information elaboration. The positive indirect effect of PGAT on team innovation via information elaboration was found to be stronger when TFL was high rather than low. However, TFL did not attenuate the negative effects of NGAT. Negative group affective tone was negatively related to information elaboration when TFL was high, whereas NGAT had no significant relationship with information elaboration when TFL was low. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Is Negative Group Affective Tone Always Bad For Team Creativity? Team Trait Learning Goal Orientation as the Boundary Condition

Although previous studies have found that positive group affective tone is generally good for team creativity, the reported effects of negative group affective tone (NGAT) are mixed. Drawing on the team goal orientation composition literature, we propose that team trait learning goal orientation (TTLGO; aggregated level of team members’ trait learning goal orientation) will moderate the relationship between NGAT and team creativity. Specifically, NGAT will be positively related to team creativity when TTLGO is high but becomes negative when TTLGO is low. We further theorize that team information exchange accounts for this moderating effect. Employing a multiple-source and time-lag design, we conducted two studies to test the hypotheses. In Study 1, we collected data from 270 information technology engineers working in 62 R&D teams in a software development company and examined the moderating effect of TTLGO on the NGAT-team creativity relationship. In Study 2, we replicated the findings of Study 1 and further tested the mediating role of team information exchange (i.e., Hypothesis 2) using data from 237 members of 43 diversified teams (e.g., R&D, advertising and marketing, technical services, and quality improvement). The results of these two studies support our hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications for group affect and creativity literature are further discussed.

The Effect of Leaders' Coaching Behaviors on Employee Learning Orientation: A Regulatory Focus Perspective

Although scholars have recognized leaders’ importance in facilitating employee learning, the potential role that leaders’ specific behaviors play in followers’ learning outcomes remains elusive. Based on the literature, we identified two styles of leaders’ coaching behaviors that may promote followers’ learning, namely encourage-to-explore behaviors and guide-to-learn behaviors. We expect that these two styles of coaching behaviors would have different relationships with employee learning orientation, moderated by employees’ regulatory focus. To test our hypotheses, we conducted two studies: an experimental study using scenarios of leader behavior with data collected from 124 undergraduate students (study 1), and a field study with data from 334 pairs of employees and their direct supervisors (study 2). Results showed that encourage-to-explore behaviors had a positive relationship with employee learning orientation, whereas guide-to-learn behaviors had an inverted U-shaped relationship with employee learning orientation. When employees had low levels of promotion regulatory focus, encourage-to-explore behaviors showed a positive correlation with employee learning orientation. However, when they had low levels of prevention regulatory focus, employee learning orientation increased as the guide-to-learn behaviors increased; this increased up to an intermediate level and then decreased. As such, this study provides novel theoretical and empirical insights into leadership and learning literature.

Group Positive Affect and Beyond: An Integrative Review and Future Research Agenda

Group positive affect is defined as homogeneous positive affect among group members that emerges when working together. Considering that previous research has shown a significant relationship between group positive affect and a wide variety of group outcomes (e.g., behaviors, wellbeing, and performance), it is crucial to boost our knowledge about this construct in the work context. The main purpose is to review empirical research, to synthesize the findings and to provide research agenda about group positive affect, in order to better understand this construct. Through the PsycNET and Proquest Central databases, an integrative review was conducted to identify articles about group positive affect published between January 1990 and March 2019. A total of 44 articles were included and analyzed. Finding suggests that scholars have been more interested in understanding the outcomes of group positive affect and how to improve the productivity of groups than in knowing what the antecedents are. A summary conclusion is that group positive affect is related to leadership, job demands, job resources, diversity/similarity, group processes, and contextual factors, all of which influence the development of several outcomes and different types of wellbeing at the individual and group levels. However, with specific combinations of other conditions (e.g., group trust, negative affect, and interaction), high levels of group positive affect could cause harmful results. Conclusions shed light on group positive affect research and practice and might help Human Resources professionals to initiate empirically-based strategies related to recruitment, group design and leadership training.

How does benevolent leadership lead to work-family enrichment? The mediating role of positive group affective tone

Although researchers have confirmed the relationship between positive leadership styles and work-family enrichment, benevolent leadership has received little attention. Drawing from the concept of mood contagion, this study explores the underlying mechanism between benevolent leadership and work-family enrichment. Using a survey of 459 employees, across 36 supervisors and their work groups, and multilevel structural equation modelling, this study revealed that benevolent leadership is positively associated with work-family enrichment via cross-level paths. The results indicated that benevolent leadership is associated with positive group affective tone, which further predicts subordinates' work-family enrichment. Moreover, work engagement mediates the relationship between positive group affective tone and work-family enrichment. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Antecedentes Psicossociais e Organizacionais do Compartilhamento de Conhecimento no Ambiente de Trabalho

RESUMO Objetivo: este artigo propõe e avalia um modelo causal sobre compartilhamento de conhecimento entre pares no ambiente de trabalho. O modelo proposto, integrado à Teoria do Comportamento Planejado, inclui fatores psicossociais (liderança transformacional, identificação com o grupo de trabalho, e entendimento compartilhado) e organizacionais (oportunidades e formalização de processos de compartilhamento de conhecimento) como antecedentes das atitudes do indivíduo, de sua percepção sobre normas subjetivas associadas a seu grupo e seu supervisor direto, e de sua intenção e comportamento efetivo de compartilhamento de conhecimento. Métodos: o modelo foi testado estatisticamente com técnicas de modelagem de equações estruturais, a partir de dados fornecidos por 131 funcionários da área de atendimento ao cliente de uma grande empresa brasileira de telecomunicações. Resultados: os resultados indicam que os elementos psicossociais avaliados têm forte influência nas atitudes e práticas de compartilhamento de conhecimento entre pares. As hipóteses associadas ao controle comportamental não foram comprovadas. Além disso, a intenção de compartilhar conhecimento não parece ser afetada pelas normas subjetivas associadas ao supervisor direto do indivíduo, e sim apenas pelas relacionadas a seu grupo. Conclusões: a proximidade cognitiva entre os membros do grupo, refletida na percepção do indivíduo de entendimento compartilhado com seu grupo de trabalho, foi um elemento importante na formação de atitudes favoráveis ao compartilhamento de conhecimento. Adicionalmente, indivíduos com maior identificação com o seu grupo tenderam a ter atitudes mais positivas em relação ao compartilhamento de seus conhecimentos. Essa atitude tende a ser mais positiva quando o supervisor direto do indivíduo adota um estilo de liderança mais transformacional. A influência dos líderes parece se estender desde a formação de uma cultura de troca de conhecimento no grupo e difusão de princípios que estimulam essa troca, até a viabilização de oportunidades por meio de uma gestão ativa da difusão de conhecimento nas equipes.

Context and person-oriented leader in teams: a meta-analytical review

Purpose

The research studies the role of contextual moderating variables on the relationship between person-oriented leadership behaviors (POLBs) and team performance. The authors claim that the varying effect sizes between POLBs and team performance are large because of the context the team is functioning in. Therefore, based on the framework of Johns (2006), this paper aims to investigate the moderating role of the relevant demographic (leader gender), social (in-group collectivism and team size), task (skill differentiation) and methodological (common method bias and the rater of the team performance) contextual variables in the study.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors accumulated evidence from 48 independent primary studies (N team = 4,276) to run the meta-analytic analyses. The authors followed the procedures described by Schmidt and Hunter (2015). For the categorical moderators, the analyzes were aided by the Hunter–Schmidt meta-analysis programs (2.0) (Schmidt and Le, 2014), which is an interactive software using a random-effects model. In the analyzes for the continuous moderators, the authors used Lipsey and Wilson’s (2001) statistical package for the social sciences macros and run meta-regressions using a random-effects model with unrestricted maximum likelihood.

Findings

The results indicate that the relationship weakens when female leaders exhibit these behaviors and when the team size increases. On the other hand, in-group collectivism strengthens the relationship. The study also found that the common method bias and the assessment method of the team performance are significant moderators altering the relationship.

Practical implications

The study highlights the perceptual differences and biases based on leader gender. Acknowledging these biases may help practitioners to appreciate the female qualities in leadership and decrease the undervaluation of female effectiveness. To create high-performing teams, leaders in high in-group collectivist countries are expected to develop a family feeling in the team by showing their concern for personal issues and build close interpersonal relationships. Researchers should use multiple sources to assess the predictor and criterion variables and also opt for more objective assessment methods for team performance.

Originality/value

With this study, the authors follow a substantively different perspective compared to the past meta-analytic reviews on this relationship. Rather than testing the inquiry whether there is a relationship between the two variables, the authors specifically focus on the role of contextual moderating variables. Several researchers have acknowledged that contextual considerations are critical in leadership-team performance research. Nevertheless, the body of research remains to be not cohesive. Thus, the study answers a call in the leadership area for a more context-based and cohesive understanding of the effects of leadership on team performance.

Happy-Productive Teams and Work Units: A Systematic Review of the 'Happy-Productive Worker Thesis'

The happy-productive worker thesis (HPWT) assumes that happy employees perform better. Given the relevance of teams and work-units in organizations, our aim is to analyze the state of the art on happy-productive work-units (HPWU) through a systematic review and integrate existing research on different collective well-being constructs and collective performance. Research on HPWU (30 studies, 2001-2018) has developed through different constructs of well-being (hedonic: team satisfaction, group affect; and eudaimonic: team engagement) and diverse operationalizations of performance (self-rated team performance, leader-rated team performance, customers' satisfaction, and objective indicators), thus creating a disintegrated body of knowledge about HPWU. The theoretical frameworks to explain the HPWU relationship are attitude-behavior models, broaden-and-build theory, and the job-demands-resources model. Research models include a variety of antecedents, mediators, and moderating third variables. Most studies are cross-sectional, all propose a causal happy-productive relationship (not the reverse), and generally find positive significant relationships. Scarce but interesting time-lagged evidence supports a causal chain in which collective well-being leads to team performance (organizational citizenship behavior or team creativity), which then leads to objective work-unit performance. To conclude, we identify common issues and challenges across the studies on HPWU, and set out an agenda for future research.

Interteam Cooperation and Competition and Boundary Activities: The Cross-Level Mediation of Team Goal Orientations

Drawing on Dragoni’s cross-level model of state goal orientation, this research aims to examine the cross-level mediating effect of team goal orientation on the relationships between interteam cooperation and competition and three forms of boundary activities. Study 1 tested the proposed mediating relationships by collecting survey data from 249 members of 45 South Korean work teams. Additionally, we conducted a two-wave longitudinal study (Study 2) on 188 undergraduate students to replicate the relationships between three types of team goal orientation and their relevant forms of boundary activities. In Study 1, we found positive associations between interteam cooperation and team learning goal orientation, and between interteam competition and team performance-prove and performance-avoid goal orientations. Team learning and performance-prove goal orientations were positively related to boundary spanning and reinforcement. As predicted, team learning goal orientation had a stronger relationship with boundary spanning than team performance-prove goal orientation, whereas team performance-prove goal orientation had a stronger relationship with boundary reinforcement than team learning goal orientation. While team learning goal orientation mediated the relationship between interteam cooperation and boundary spanning and reinforcement, team performance-prove goal orientation mediated the relationship between interteam competition and boundary spanning and reinforcement. The results of Study 2 demonstrated the positive lagged effects of team performance-prove goal orientation on boundary reinforcement and of team performance-avoid goal orientation on boundary buffering.

Emotional Contagion and Group Affective Tone in the Student Cohort Model

OBJECTIVE. The student cohort model used by most occupational therapy programs can produce outcomes that are either adaptive or maladaptive as a result of the unique identities formed by student cohorts. The purpose of this study was to examine the cohort model through the lens of group-level affect and emotional contagion theory.

METHOD. The study used a cross-sectional survey design with 159 undergraduate health care cohort members (including occupational therapy assistant students) across 24 student cohorts. The survey consisted of three measures, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, the Emotional Contagion Scale, and the Emotional Expressivity Scale.

RESULTS. Data analysis showed that group affective convergence occurred along a continuum of positive affect. The results also showed that cohort members’ susceptibility to the emotion of anger strengthened the cohort’s emotional convergence.

CONCLUSION. Cohort identity may be influenced by the process of emotional contagion, creating a distinct group-level affect.

Goal orientations, absorptive capacity, and NPD team performance: evidence from China

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between different types of team goal orientations (team learning orientation, team prove orientation and team avoid orientation) and team performance in new product development (NPD) and how these relationships are mediated by team absorptive capacity.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected through two surveys from 71 NPD teams and analyzed by the confirmatory factor analysis, correlation and hierarchical regression analysis methods.

Findings

The authors find that both teams’ learning and prove orientations are positively related to their absorptive capacity, which leads to increasing team performance in NPD. Further, the authors find support for the mediating role of team absorptive capacity in connecting team learning orientation and team prove orientation with team performance in NPD.

Practical implications

For practitioners, this paper suggests that to benefit from their NPD team efforts, firms with innovative aspirations should consider their existing and desired access to external knowledge sources and particularly the extent to which they can successfully integrate external knowledge with their internal knowledge structure.

Originality/value

The explication of team absorptive capacity is as a key mechanism through which different goal orientations of NPD teams inform the ability to successfully develop new products. By integrating the concepts of team goal orientations, team absorptive capacity and team performance in NPD, the authors seek to gain a better understanding of why some firms are more likely to do better than others in NPD. Findings of this paper extend concept of the nomological network on how absorptive capacity may serve as a direct outcome of different goal orientations. This paper responds to how Chinese firms can increase their innovative performance by infusing their current knowledge bases with external knowledge and extends the literature on knowledge management and managerial ties on innovation.

Weakest Link Goal Orientations and Team Expertise: Implications for Team Performance

Using prior theory and research, we argue that a team member with a low learning goal or a high avoid orientation is detrimental for the expertise–performance relationship in team tasks. Results from a study of 82 teams showed that, after controlling for goal orientation team composition, expertise improved team performance only when teams did not have a weak link team member. In contrast, when teams had this weak link teammate, expertise did not improve performance, and in some cases damaged it. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Team Performance Archetypes: Toward a New Conceptualization of Team Performance Over Time

We examine the concept of team performance and propose a framework to understand patterns of change over time. Following a literature review on team performance (focusing on empirical articles published between 2007 and 2017) and drawing on Greek and Roman mythology, we identify five team performance trajectories: “Jupiter” (consistently high performing), “Neptune” (relatively steady, average performance), “Pluto” (low performing), “Icarus” (initially high performing, with a downward spiral), and “Odysseus” (initially low to midrange performing, with an upward spiral), which we refer to as “team performance archetypes.” We discuss how they might be used in conjunction with growth modeling methodology to help facilitate theory building and data collection/analysis with respect to team performance. In addition, we discuss the future research implications associated with using the archetypes to help conceptualize patterns of team performance over time.

Transformational leadership influence on unit performance

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of mediation and moderation mechanisms between firm-level effects of transformational leadership (TFL) on unit-level performance across levels.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used surveys to collect data from 800 senior managers at the firm level and 1,377 unit managers from 800 units of 100 firms from semiconductors, optoelectronics, computer electronics, and telecommunications industries. The industries were chosen because these firms focus on expanding their businesses and encourage extensive knowledge sharing among the firms and at all levels within the organizations.

Findings

In this study, the authors theorized that firm-level effects of TFL on unit-level performance across levels were positively related to unit-level performance. Unit-level knowledge sharing mediates the positive relationship between firm-level TFL and unit-level performance. A cross-level interaction effect of firm-level TFL and unit-level absorptive capacity showed that a positive unit-level absorptive capacity enhanced firm-level influence of TFL on unit-level knowledge sharing. Unit-level absorptive capacity moderates the positive relationship between unit-level knowledge sharing and unit-level performance.

Originality/value

First, the authors attempt to integrate the leadership and knowledge management research by exploring the critical mediator of unit-level knowledge sharing in explaining the effects of firm-level TFL on employees’ performance at the unit level. This approach is important because it extends the research areas of the two fields, and also clarifies issues regarding how and why TFL at the top of the organization positively impacts the performance of employees at a lower level of the organizational hierarchy. Second, the effectiveness of firm-level TFL depends on the absorptive capacity of each unit. The importance of absorptive capacity and the consequences of leadership behaviors have been emphasized in studies.

Leadership Intellectual Stimulation and Team Learning: the Mediating Role of Team Positive Affect

This study investigates how leadership intellectual stimulation relates to team positive affect and team learning. We explore the role of positive affect as mediator between leadership intellectual stimulation and team learning. Using a cross-sectional sample of 562 employees, nested within 130 teams from 44 small and medium size organizations, we implemented Structural Equation Model analysis at the team level. Results provides evidence of the strong influence that intellectual stimulation have on team learning and team positive affect, as well as the potential of positive affect for stimulate team learning. Team positive affect serves as partial mediator between intellectual stimulation and team learning, contributing to explain significant additional variance. Leadership intellectual stimulation is a relevant team social resource that provides support for team learning. As well, positive affect contributes significantly to improve learning among teams. This suggests the importance of developing leadership behaviors that encourage learning and team positive affect, which contributes to team learning and hence to performance.

Transformational Leadership and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Test of Underlying Mechanisms

Based on social exchange theory, we examined and contrasted attitudinal mediators (affective organizational commitment, job satisfaction) and relational mediators (trust in leader, leader-member exchange; LMX) of the positive relationship between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Hypotheses were tested using meta-analytic path models with correlations from published meta-analyses (761 samples with 227,419 individuals overall). When testing single-mediator models, results supported our expectations that each of the mediators explained the relationship between transformational leadership and OCB. When testing a multi-mediator model, LMX was the strongest mediator. When testing a model with a latent attitudinal mechanism and a latent relational mechanism, the relational mechanism was the stronger mediator of the relationship between transformational leadership and OCB. Our findings help to better understand the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between transformational leadership and OCB.

Never Too Much? The Curvilinear Relationship Between Empowering Leadership and Task Performance

Although empowering leadership is generally considered to be a desirable leadership approach, its effectiveness has been questioned and the response is mixed. Integrating the “Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing” effect and dual task processing, this study examines the relationship between empowering leadership and task performance. Specifically, we suggest a curvilinear relationship between empowering leadership and employee task performance. Further, applying a leadership contingency perspective, we propose that the curvilinear relationship between empowering leadership and employee task performance is moderated by employee learning orientation. Using survey data from 137 supervisor–subordinate dyads, our results show that the inverted U-shaped relationship between empowering leadership and employee task performance is moderated by employee learning orientation. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.