How emotional climate in teams affects workplace effectiveness in individualistic and collectivistic contexts

Despite a prolific research literature on the question of what makes teams effective, the literature is still limited on the role that team level emotions play in this process. In this article, we argue that the construct of workgroup emotional climate (WEC) provides a useful perspective from which to examine this matter. Following a discussion of the importance of considering emotions in organizational studies generally and team research, specifically, we draw on evidence of cultural differences in emotional experience and expression to develop a model explicating how cultural orientation can impact on the relationship between WEC and workgroup effectiveness. The model presented in the paper represents a significant development in our understanding of the role of cultural differences, specifically the influence of the individualism–collectivism identity orientation, in WEC and its relationship to workgroup effectiveness. Future directions for research and practice arising from the model are also presented.