The role of leader interpersonal management in team pessimism regulation

Abstract

In this article, we examined the effect of team pessimism on team performance as well as its underlying mechanisms – collective efficacy and collective stress. We also explored how two different interpersonal emotion management (IEM) strategies by leaders moderate the above effects. Using field data from 80 teams, we found that team pessimism negatively predicted team performance via reduced collective efficacy and increased collective stress. In addition, problem-focused IEM strategies weakened the negative relationship between team pessimism and collective efficacy as well as the positive relationship between team pessimism and collective stress. On the contrary, emotion-focused IEM strategies strengthened these two relationships. The results showed detrimental effect of team pessimism on team functioning and potential double-edged sword effects of different IEM strategies.