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The Impact of Negative Mood on Team Performance
Peter J Jordan
Griffith Business School, Griffith University, Nathan Campus, Nathan QLD
Sandra A Lawrence
Griffith Business School, Department of Management, Griffith University, Brisbane QLD
Abstract
Although organisations often implement team-based structures to improve performance, such restructuring does not automatically ameliorate poor performance. The study in this article explores the relationship between team members' negative mood and team processes (social cohesion, workload sharing, team conflict) to determine if negative mood has a detrimental effect on team performance via team processes.
Two hundred and forty one participants completed surveys and were involved in an independently rated performance task that was completed over eight weeks. Negative mood was found to influence team processes and as a consequence, team performance. The results, however, were not uniformly negative. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Keywords
mood, team performance, conflict, social cohesion, workload sharing
Article Text
In this article we explored the relationship between negative mood and team processes to unravel their effect on team performance. In particular, we examined the impact of negative mood on conflict in teams, team social cohesion, and team workload sharing. We expected to find that mood, and in this case negative mood, influences team processes and as a consequence, team performance. Our findings broadly support these predictions. The data, however, also show that negative mood does not consistently have a negative impact on team performance. The results suggest that negative mood can contribute to performance through increased task conflict. The implications of our study highlight the importance of managing mood in the workplace. Managers need to be aware of the importance of managing not only ambient mood produced in teams, but also the moods team members may bring with them to work.
Over the last couple of decades a significant number of organisations have restructured their operations around workgroups or teams to take advantage of the performance potential teams are able to produce (Beyerlein, Johnson & Beyerlein 1997). Although there is general agreement that the introduction of teams contributes to improved performance (Wheelan 1999), teamwork does not automatically ameliorate poor performance. Several explanations have been given for negative team performance outcomes, including groupthink (eg Kerr & Tindale 2004), member perceptions of social loafing (eg Mulvey & Klein 1998) and poor goal setting (eg Wegge & Kleinbeck 1996).
In a comprehensive review of the team effectiveness literature, Tannenbaum, Beard and Salas (1992) argue that team performance is not only predicated on organisational and situational contextual characteristics (eg organisational climate, reward systems) and effective team processes (eg coordination, communication, conflict resolution), but also on effective input characteristics (individual characteristics, work structure, team characteristics, task characteristics) and the interaction between these characteristics. They also argue that the various input characteristics all impact on team processes (see also Wheelan 1999). Indeed, researchers have identified, for example, that team performance is affected by such factors as organisational culture (Ashforth 1985), stages of team development (Gersick 1991; Tuckman 1965), length of tenure of the team (Pelled 1996), team diversity (Simons, Pelled & Smith 1999; Swezey, Meltzer & Salas 1994) and individual difference variables (Barrick, Stewart, Neubert & Mount 1998; Stewart, Fulmer & Barrick 2005).
Models of team performance, whether proposed by Tannenbaum et al (1992), Gersick (1991) or Tuckman (1965), all essentially argue that high team performance results from the interaction between team members (ie the processes used within the team) and the working relationships established in the team. We argue that despite this extensive research, there is one area that has received less attention, the effect of the moods team members experience on team interactions and team performance.
In this paper, we explore the relationship between team member negative mood and team performance, and the role team processes play in mediating this relationship. While research has shown a broad range of team processes contribute to team performance, in this study we look at three team processes; the use of conflict in teams (Jehn, Northcraft & Neale 1999), team social cohesion (Lieberman, Yalom & Miles 1973), and workload sharing (Barrick et al 1998) as significant contributors to team performance (Tannenbaum et al 1992). In line with the broad argument developed by Yang and Mossholder (2004), we anticipate that the negative mood individuals bring into a team will influence the emotions experienced by these individuals during team interactions and how they contribute to team processes. This will have a subsequent negative impact on the overall performance of that team.
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