The Experimental Study Of The Relationship Between Group Emotion And Group Creativity

This research explores how positive emotions shared among group members influence group effectiveness, and how broadening-and-building interactions mediate this relationship. Prior research has neither conceptually specified nor empirically tested the causal mechanisms that explain how and why group emotions influence group outcomes. This research 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), this research proposed that group members that shared an emotion of joy would exhibit more frequent broadening-and-building interactions (i.e., building on ideas, morale-building communication and active affirmation) than those 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, this research 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. 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. Mediation analyses confirmed the overall proposed sequence of relations: a group emotion of joy broadening-and-building interactions group effectiveness. This research discuss the theoretical contributions of the research to group, individual emotions, and group emotions literatures, as well as the future research directions.