How do shared emotions among group members influence group effectiveness? The role of broadening -and -building interactions.

Abstract

This research explores how positive emotions shared among group members influence group effectiveness, and how broadening-and-building interactions mediate this relationship. Literatures on emotions have focused primarily on individual emotions. Moreover, prior research has neither conceptually specified nor empirically tested the causal mechanisms that explain how and why group emotions influence group outcomes. I sought to fill this gap by introducing broadening-and-building interactions as a group level mechanism. Drawing from the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (Fredrickson, 1998) at the individual level, I proposed that groups that shared an emotion of joy would exhibit more frequent broadening-and-building interactions (i.e., building on each other's ideas, morale-building communication and active affirmation) than groups that shared neutral emotions. In turn, broadening-and-building interactions were expected to enhance group creativity, members' satisfaction with the group and member learning but decrease groups' decision quality. To test the hypotheses, I conducted an experiment with 72 workgroups with multi-method measures (survey, observation, objective performance rating). The results showed that broadening-and-building interactions were indeed the key mechanism that explained the relationship between a group emotion of joy and group effectiveness. An analysis of variance indicated that groups experiencing a shared emotion of joy showed more frequent broadening-and-building interactions than groups experiencing neutral emotions. Regression analyses demonstrated that broadening-and-building interactions, in turn, increased group creativity and members' satisfaction with the group but decreased group decision-making performance. The results showed that positive group emotions, through broadening-and-building interactions, did not always lead to positive outcomes and resulted in negative outcomes as well, depending on the type of group tasks. Mediation analyses confirmed the overall proposed sequence of relations: a group emotion of joy → broadening-and-building interactions → group effectiveness. I discuss the discrepancies between observed and self-reported broadening-and-building interactions and the theoretical contributions of the research to group, individual emotions, and group emotions literatures, as well as the practical implications for organizations. Future research directions are specified with a focus on group member interactions as a mechanism associated with different discrete emotions (i.e., a group emotion of anxiety) and on the optimal balance between positivity and negativity in group emotions and member interactions.