Explaining Implicit and Explicit Affective Linkages in IT Teams: Facial Recognition, Emotional Intelligence, and Affective Tone

Over 80 percent of task work in organizations is performed by teams. Most teams operate in a more fluid, dynamic, and complex environment than in the past. As a result, a growing body of research is beginning to focus on how teams’ emotional well-being can benefit the effectiveness of workplace team efforts. These teams are required to be adaptive, to operate in ill-structured environments, and to rely on technology more than ever before. However, teams have become so ubiquitous that many organizations and managers take them for granted and assume they will be effective and productive. Because of the increased use of team work and the lack of sufficient organizational and managerial sufficient best practices for teams, more research is required. Team Emotional Intelligence (TEI) is a collective skill that has been shown to benefit team performance. However, measures for TEI are relatively new and have not been widely studied. Results show TEI is a viable skill that affects performance in IT teams. In technologyrich environments, the teams’ coordination can vary on levels of the expertise needed when TEI behaviors are employed. Cooperative norms play an important role in team interactions and influence TEI. Physiological measures of team emotional contagion and TEI, as well as psychometric measures of team affective tone results show causal affective linkages in the emotional convergence model. These results suggest that combined physiological and psychometric measures of team emotion behavior provide explanatory power for these linkages in teams during IS technology system use. These findings offer new insights into the emotional states of IS teams that may advance the understanding team behaviors for improved performance outcomes and contribute to the NeuroIS literature. ©2014 by Mary M. Dunaway All Rights Reserved Acknowledgements I wish to thank my dissertation committee members who were more than generous with their expertise and precious time. A special thanks to Dr. Fred D. Davis (chair) and Dr. Paul Cronan (co-chair), and my committee for their countless hours of reflecting, reading, encouraging, and most of all patience throughout the entire process. Thank you to Dr. PierreMajorique Léger and Dr. Kit Kacerik for serving on my committee. A special thanks to the Tech3Lab team, led by Dr. Pierre-Majorique who gave untiring support during recovery of my injury. I am grateful to the Walton College of Business for allowing me to conduct my research and providing assistance requested. A very special thanks goes to Walton College of Business, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Dr. Barbara Lofton for providing me the vision when my eyes could not see. Finally I would like to thank the University of Arkansas Graduate School and Dean Patricia Koski for encouraging and guiding me along the way. It was a difference maker! Dedication I dedicate my dissertation to the ancestors who have gone before me, my family, dear friends, and village warriors who have supported me through the entire journey. The journey to the PhD was a vision in my spirit that became reality. All great achievement requires time and commitment. The experiences have made me stronger and helped to shape who I am. I may have been born at night but not last night. The “fat lady” has sung.