Group affective tone: A review and future research directions

Abstract

Similarity in the experience of state affect is a common phenomenon for work team members and has been shown to have important consequences on team behavior and performance. We provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of research on group affective tone, including the development of group affective tone through affective convergence mechanisms, the conceptualization and operationalization of group affective tone, and the theoretical and practical consequences of positive and negative affective tones for group behavior and group performance. Finally, we highlight some emerging research directions that may provide promising avenues for future understanding of the complexity inherent in the formation and influence of state group affect.

Positive affective tone and team performance: The moderating role of collective emotional skills

“…Examples of the processes of affect convergence include emotional contagion (e.g., Hatfield, Rapson, & Cacioppo, 1994), behavioural entrainment (Kelly, 1988), empathy (De Vignemont & Singer, 2006), attractionselection-attrition (Schneider, 1987;George, 1990), socialisation to group affective norms (Morrison, 1993), as well as exposure to common affective events (Westman, 2002). These processes generally encourage the development of a consistent group affective tone (for a full review see Collins, Lawrence, Troth, & Jordan, 2013). Studies on affective convergence at the dyadic level suggest that these processes of convergence are quite robust (e.g., Laird et al, 1994;SonnbyBorgström, Jönsson, & Svensson, 2008) and can occur immediately and automatically (Hess & Blairy, 2001).…”

How transformational leadership shapes team proactivity: The mediating role of positive affective tone and the moderating role of team task variety.

“…Such stability may be shaped by bottom-up processes such that team members will have similar affective experiences due to emotion contagion or behavioral entrainment in social interactions (Barsade & Gibson, 1998;Bartel & Saavedra, 2000;Totterdell, Kellett, Teuchmann, & Briner, 1998). Alternatively, such stability may be shaped by top-down processes such that team members will have similar affective experiences due to the attraction-selection-attrition process (i.e., retain members who have Transformational Leadership and Team Proactivity 6 similar affective reactions) or socialization (i.e., new members assimilate their affective reactions to the group norm) (Collins, Lawrence, Troth, & Jordan, 2013), which results in the emergence of positive affective similarity in work groups in a positive spiral (Walter & Bruch, 2008).…”

Creative participation: Collective sentiment in online co-creation communities

“…This results in fewer ideas, and in turn, fewer useful ideas. M a n u s c r i p t 13 Moreover, affect is directly linked to individual creativity. While no research exists on the relationship between sentiment and creativity, we can draw on emotion research to understand how affective factors can influence creativity.…”

“…In line with prior research [e.g., 72], we argue that individual sentiment may be influenced by having direct or indirect contact with employees who are acting as moderators. In general, sentiments can be affected via two pathways: primitive emotional contagion and entrainment of behaviors [13]. The assumption of emotional contagion is that the affective expression of an individual can elicit similar affective reactions from the receivers.…”