Mood and Emotions_Impact on Team Performance

8/4/2019 Mood and Emotions_Impact on Team Performance

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NASA Project ManagementChallenge 2007

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Mood and Emotions: Impact on TeamPerformance

Marco Sampietro

[email protected]

Project Management Challenge 2008 Reach Higher


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Agenda

Mood and Emotions: Definitions Impact of Mood and Emotions on Team

Performance

How to influence Mood and Emotions Conclusions


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Agenda


Performance



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Mood

A relatively lasting emotional or affective state. Mood is an internal, subjective state, but it often can

be inferred from posture and other observablebehaviors.

Moods are experiences that are longer and morediffuse, and lack awareness of the eliciting stimulus.

Moods can be created by stimuli of relatively lowintensity, or can be left behind by emotions that fade

so that the initial antecedent is no longer salient.

Definitions


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Emotion

A reaction to a stimulus that has a range of possibleconsequences and typically refer to discrete andintense but short-lived experiences.

A person's temporary internal state of being, whichhas a clear start and end, and it is an involuntary,subjective, physiological response to an object or asituation, based in or tied to physical state andsensory feelings.

Definitions


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Comparison between Mood and Emotion

Mood EmotionDuration Relatively long-term Relatively short-term

Time PatternGradual onset,

continuous, tonic

Rapid onset, episodic,

phasic

Intensity Relatively weak Relatively strong

CausationNot caused by specific

events

Caused by a specific

event

Function

Provides information

about current state of

self

Provides information

about current state of

situation

Directedness Unfocussed Takes specific object

Definitions


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Examples

Positive Mood & Negative EmotionsThe discrete event of encountering a malfunctioningphotocopier at 9:50 this morning while rushing toprepare for a 10:00 meeting may cause one to feel

frustration or anger for a short while, even if you arein cheerful mood. And so, for instance, one maysnap at a secretary while frustrated about thephotocopier.

Negative Mood & Positive EmotionsFinding 100$ on the ground, thus feeling happy fora while but being in black mood because ofcontinuous sentimental problems

Definitions


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Agenda


Performance



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The role of emotions

In decades past, workers were told to leave theiremotions at home and most complied.

There is little debate nowadays that organizational lifeis saturated with emotion.

People are emotional. Hebb once called humans themost emotional of animals.

Academics and practitioners alike have come to thecollective insight that emotion is a pervasive force in

the workplace that has the capacity to influence theorganization and its members in significant ways.

Impact on Team Performance


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The framework

Hard Skills:MethodologyToolsProcedures

TE

A

M

Mood & Emotions

Soft Skills:

LeadershipTeam ClimateMotivationCommunication

Conflict MgmtDecision Making

PE

R

F

O

RM

AN

C

E



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Leadership

LeadersEmotionalDisplay

Team

Sentiment

TeamPerformance

Inference

TeamPerformance

LeadersEmotionalIntelligence



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Leadership and Team Climate

A leader's emotional expressions may affectperformance by evoking affective reactions infollowers that may influence their performance.

Several studies have demonstrated that people thatwork together may converge emotionally over time.

Researches found that leaders' emotionalexpressions instilled congruent moods in followersand influenced their liking of the leader as well as

ratings of the leader's charisma and effectiveness. Emotional Contagion: leaders affect the groups

mood, both at individual and collective level.



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Motivation

Scholars attest that human emotions and mood arelikely to influence the processes underlyingmotivation.

Emotion constitutes an important source of influenceon human thought and behavior.

Mood and Emotions influence work motivation viatheir influence on judgment components (expectancy

judgments, util ity judgments, and progress

judgments) involved in conscious behavioral choices.



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Communication

Emotions can be useful in terms of directing attentionto pressing concerns and signalling what should be thefocus of attention.

Being able to provoke emotions while communicatingimproves the information retention and the ability torecall information.



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Conflict Management

Conflict is an emotionally defined and driven process.

Affective Relationship Conflictnegatively affectsgroup outcomes.

Studies found that induction of positve mood led tomore cooperative and to less competitive behavior innegotiation than either neutral or negative mood.

Positive emotional experience within the work teamfacilitated open discusssion of differences, which has

been found to facilitate constructive conflictmanagement.



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Mood states often bias judgments in a moodconsistent manner:

People in positive moods make more positive judgments, whereas people in negative moods make

more negative judgments.

Decision Making

Positive Moods Negative Moods

Creativity Attention to details

Integrative Thinking Detection of errors andproblems

Inductive Reasoning Careful information processing



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Agenda

Mood and Emotions: Definitions

Impact of Mood and Emotions on TeamPerformance



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How to Influence Mood and Emotions

Environmental Conditions

Managerial Activities

MOOD &

EMOTIONS

Influencing Mood and Emotions


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Managerial Activities: Leaders Control of

Emotional Display

A leader's emotional expressions can be thought ofas success or failure feedback that may influencefol lowers' inferences regarding their ownperformance.

Research has documented a positive relationshipbetween leader posit ive mood and groupperformance, based on these findings a leader'sdisplays of happiness can be expected to inspirebetter performance than displays of anger.



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Managerial Activities: Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence: the ability to perceiveemotions, to access and generate emotions so as toassist thought, to understand emotions and emotionalknowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so asto promote emotional and intellectual growth.

Leaders who are high on emotional intelligence will bebetter able to improve team performance by managingtheir own and their collaborators mood and emotions.



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Giving feedbacks after goal achievement or specialefforts triggers positive emotions.

Celebrating important events (project end, newcontract etc.) permits to link challenging activities with

positive emotions thus improving commitment.

Managerial Activities: Feedbacks and

Celebrations



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Managerial Activities: Monitoring and

Improving Team Climate

The creation of a playfull psychological safeatmosphere that foster trust, friendliness, andopeness may help to induce positive moods andemotions that will instigate organizational spontaneity,creativity, innovation, and productivity.

Group emotion results as from the combination of thegroups affective composition and the affective contextin which the group is behaving.

One should try to create settings that have contextualqualities of being playful, safe and challenging alltogether; that is creating an affective context.



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Managerial Activities: Humor

Humor has been shown to be a powerful tool inhelping to manage such disruptive negative emotionsas anger and anxiety/tension.

Humor can also elevate ones mood from the depthsof the daily sources of depression we alloccasionally suffer from.

Humor is especially effective in substituting a positiveemotion for a negative one.

Humor lowers tension and improves divergentthinking, and, especially in the outcome of laughing,helps in reducing the negative effects of stress.



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Environment: Lighting and Colours

Bright light stimulates us, while low levels ofillumination quiet our senses.

Insufficient lighting is linked to emotional stress andto physical ailments.

Light, especially natural light, has been shown toenhance the performance of people while working.

A bright room with light colors is preferred over aroom with dark colors.

A dim space with low contrasts might contribute tofeelings of relaxation; a bright space with sparklecould be stimulating.



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Environment: Air Quality and Odors

A number of studies have suggested that odorsaffect mood and attitudes.

It has been suggested that pleasant odors evokehappiness and surprise and that unpleasant odors

evoke disgust and anger. Office air is typically highly filtered and de-

humidified.

The latent scents from various cleaners and theoutgassing of many synthetic products fill the air withwhat the brain perceives as dangerous smellingchemicals, and that creates a lot of subliminalanxiety in workers.



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Environment: Temperature and Humidity

High heat and high levels of humidity can createproblems because of difficulties in controlling bodyheat. This can lead to increased levels of stress andlower work efficiency.

Temperature also tends to influence social behaviorssuch as aggression. High room temperature caneasily lead to nervousness, tension, and negativeemotional reactions.



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NASA Project ManagementChallenge 2007 27/29

Environment: Ergonomics

Companies can encourage team productivity andinnovation, as well as positive mood and emotions, byproviding staff members with comfortable, attractiveareas for team meetings, as well as individual workstations that can be tailored to personal needs and

preferences.

When people are working at improperly designedworkstations, muscle fatigue, eyestrain, headaches,and other discomforts can become factors that

negatively influence mood.



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Agenda

Mood and Emotions: Definitions

Impact of Mood and Emotions on TeamPerformance



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Conclusions

Mood and emotions are well debated in the privatelife but their impacts on individual and teamperformance are underestimated.

Mood and emotions could be shaped even inside thecompanys boudaries.

Managerial behaviours and work environment can beleveraged as tools to change mood and triggeremotions.

Conclusions

Mood and Emotions_Impact on Team Performance

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