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

Abstract

Transformational leadership has consistently been argued to enhance diverse team outcomes, yet related research has generated ambiguous findings. We suggest that effectiveness is enhanced in interprofessional teams when transformational leaders engender dynamics that are characterized by interprofessional motivation and openness Corresponding author:Rebecca Mitchell, Newcastle Business School, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, New South Wales 2308, Australia. Email: rebecca.mitchell@newcastle.edu.au 521645H UM0010.1177/0018726714521645Human RelationsMitchell et al. research-article2014 1096Human Relations 67 (9) to diversity. Drawing on the mood-as-information perspective, we argue that negative affective tone moderates the impact of these mediators on team effectiveness. Further, we suggest that this moderating role is such that conditions of high negative affect enhance the mediating role of interprofessional motivation, while low negative affect strengthens the mediating role of openness to diversity. In order to investigate these divergent effects, the current study develops a model of leadership and interprofessional team effectiveness through two pathways reflecting the parallel mediating effects of interprofessional motivation and openness to diversity, and a moderating role for negative affect. Findings from a survey-based study of 75 healthcare teams support the utility of this model. Keywords emotion in organizations, group communication, healthcare organizations, identity, leadershipTeams have been demonstrated to collaboratively direct a broader range of skills toward the completion of multifaceted and complicated tasks, which has led to their increased utilization across industries and countries (Mathieu et al., 2008). Interprofessional teams, which comprise different healthcare professions collaborating on service delivery and decision making, have been the focus of significant organizational investment, and can be beneficial for patients, staff and organizations (Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, 2008). However, a number of studies suggest that interprofessional teams do not necessarily perform effectively (Hudson, 2002) and this has prompted research into factors capable of enhancing their dynamics toward the achievement of valued outcomes (Mitchell et al., 2011).Transformational leadership, defined as a style of leadership that transforms followers to rise above their self-interest and challenges them to move beyond their current assumptions (Bass and Riggio, 2006;Pieterse et al., 2010), has been identified as providing significant potential returns for teams, particularly diverse teams (Mathieu et al., 2008). However, recent ambiguous findings suggest that this effect is not straightforward and have motivated research into the investigation of complex moderated and mediated pathways (Van Knippenberg et al., 2004). Investigating more complex models of transformational leadership potentially allows greater understanding of the mechanisms through which, and circumstances ...

Managing Inclusiveness and Diversity in Teams: How Leader Inclusiveness Affects Performance through Status and Team Identity

“…This research suggests that there are significant professionally based factors promoting and restraining interprofessional collaboration (Currie & Suhomlinova, ) and has led to a gradual increase in research focused on interprofessional teamwork over the past three decades (Richter, Dawson & West, 2011; Thylefors, ). An area of emerging value in this work is leadership and the influence of leaders in interprofessional team performance (Mitchell, Boyle, Parker, Giles, Joyce, & Chiang, ).…”

Well, I feel differently: The importance of considering affective patterns in groups

“…Particularly, transformational leadership increases group learning goal orientation, which increases group positive affect, while decreasing group avoidance goal orientation, which increases group negative affect. Partially supporting these results, Mitchell et al () found that group negative affective tone can block the impact of openness to diversity on group effectiveness, while it may strengthen the drive to collaborate across professional boundaries. Overall, this newer work has added to previous work on convergent group affect by helping to build a more nuanced nomological network of distinct group affective tones.…”

Inspirational leadership, positive mood, and team innovation: A moderated mediation investigation into the pivotal role of professional salience

“…While negative mood signals a problematic situation and leads to a more cautious and considered interpretation of information (Mitchell et al, 2014), positive moods typically signify that all is going well and the situation is not challenging or problematic (Forgas & Koch, 2013), which encourages more flexible thinking (Baas, De Dreu, & Nijstad, 2008;Bless & Fiedler, 2006;Kaufmann, 2003;Schwarz & Clore, 2003). In addition to this broadened focus on external attention and more expansive, global exploration of information (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005;Gasper & Clore, 2002), positive mood is also associated with lower internal error monitoring as individuals are less concerned or troubled by their own errors (Pourtois, Vanlessen, Bakic, & Paul, 2017;Vanlessen, De Raedt, Koster, & Pourtois, 2016).…”

“…For example, inspirational leadership styles have been found to elicit enthusiasm and optimism (Ashkanasy & Tse, 2000;Tims, Bakker, & Xanthopoulou, 2011), and positive mood has been found to increase task performance in teams led by such leaders (Tsai, Chen, & Cheng, 2009). Therefore, deservedly, mood and emotion have received attention in the leadership literature (e.g., Mitchell et al, 2014;Sy, Côté, & Saavedra, 2005). Despite this strong research focus, the impact of leader, rather than follower, mood has tended to dominate extant research, leading to calls for greater attention to the impact of follower mood on the path between leadership and team outcomes (Glasø, Skogstad, Notelaers, & Einarsen, 2017;van Knippenberg & van Kleef, 2016).…”