How Do Happy Leaders Enhance Team Success? The Mediating Roles of Transformational Leadership, Group Affective Tone, and Team Processes1

Abstract

Extending previous research regarding the relationship between leader positive moods and team performance, the present study examined 2 mediating mechanisms that explain the leader positive moods-team performance linkage: transformational leadership, and positive group affective tone. Data were collected from 85 sales teams (85 team leaders, 365 team members). Structural equation modeling analyses were performed to test the hypotheses. The results showed that leader positive moods not only directly enhanced team performance, but also indirectly led to improved team performance through the explicit mediating process (i.e., transformational leadership) and the implicit mediating process (i.e., positive group affective tone). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.j asp_767 1421..1454In recent years, research interests pertaining to how leader positive moods influence team members' feelings and behaviors have grown rapidly (e.g.,

Catching Leaders’ Mood: Contagion Effects in Teams

“…For instance, George and Bettenhausen [55] found that leader positive mood was positively related to work group sales performance. Likewise, Chi and colleagues [7] found that leaders' positive mood was positively associated with sales teams' performance. Particularly in settings such as the present study, where I framed the task as fun and where it was conducted in an enjoyable setting, positive mood has been shown to be beneficial [45,56].…”

“…Group affective tone is different from team members' individual mood because it focuses on consistent reactions within a group and is a homogeneous feeling state that result from comparison with other team members [9]. In contrast to an earlier field study [7], the present study examines the mediational effect of group affective tone in a laboratory study, with strong control over potential third variables that might interfere with the research questions. Moreover, the present study--in addition to team performance and goal commitment-takes potency into account when examining group affective tone as a mediator.…”

“…A leader in a positive mood is able to increase team members' self-esteem, which has been found to be one of the core predictors of goal commitment [64]. Leaders in a positive mood are likely to focus on positive aspects of the team task and convey pleasant feelings, which makes team members believe that the team goal is important and valuable, thus increasing the team members' goal commitment [7]. Analogous to the considerations about the team leaders' mood-potency relationship, positive leader mood signals optimism about task completion and gives team members the impression of being on the right track.…”

“…Building on earlier research on contagion effects [3,[6][7][8], the present study examines the mediating role of group affective tone [9]. Group affective tone is different from team members' individual mood because it focuses on consistent reactions within a group and is a homogeneous feeling state that result from comparison with other team members [9].…”

Transformation through tension: The moderating impact of negative affect on transformational leadership in teams

“…We focus on mood, consequent to evidence of its crucial role in work settings (George and Jones, 1996), and conceptualize team negative affective tone as a negative mood state that team members experience or feel while in a team (Chi et al, 2011). When there is significant homogeneity across members in terms of negative affect, negative group affective tone is considered to be a meaningful construct at the team level of analysis (George, 1996).…”