Title: The interdependence between the emotions of team members: relationships with job
outcomes
Authors: Ellen Delvaux, Batja Mesquita, Jan Van Raes & Norbert Vanbeselaere
Affiliation: Center for Social and Cultural Psychology, KULeuven, Belgium
Many studies on group emotions either define emotions at the aggregate level, as when they
average the emotions of all group members, or at the level of the individual, as when they ask
an individual how he/she feels as a group member. In the current study, we examined the
relationship between group emotions at the individual and aggregate levels. In a professional
mental health organization, 88 employees distributed over 15 different teams filled out a
questionnaire regarding the emotions they had as an individual as well as as a team member,
and regarding job outcomes. In addition to individual patterns of emotions, a team profile was
calculated for each employee separately by averaging the other team members’ team
emotions. This team profile (calculated by ommitting the individual’s own score) predicted
the emotions that an individual reported as a team member, thereby providing support for a
relationship between an individual’s emotions as a team member and the emotions of the team
members around him/her.
Moreover, emotional fit was calculated by correlating the individual’s team emotions with the
team profile. Emotional fit can be seen as a measure of the congruence of an individual’s team
emotions with those of their colleagues. Fit turned out negatively associated with negative
personal emotions.
Finally, we explored the association between, on the one hand, team emotion profile and an
individual’s emotional fit with the team and, on the other hand, job outcomes. Both fit and
team emotion profile predicted job outcomes as reported.