How Group-Affect Tone Influences Team Creativity : The Perspective of Transactive Memory Systems

In this study, we examine the relationships among group-affect tone, teams’ transactive memory systems (TMSs), and teams’ team-performance and team-creativity outcomes. We conducted two studies, each corresponding to a particular survey. For Study 1, we sampled 515 team members and 95 team leaders covering 95 teams. The results show that positive group-affect tone is positively related to TMSs, whereas negative group-affect tone is negatively related to TMSs. TMSs have a positive influence on team performance and team creativity. In addition, Study 1 shows that TMSs have a mediating effect on the relationship between positive group-affect tone and team performance and between negative group-affect tone and team performance. For Study 2, we sampled 334 members and 70 team leaders covering 70 teams. The results reveal that two types of group-affect tone influenced team performance and incremental creativity through TMS mediation. This research contributes to TMS theory and group-affect tone in teams