Abstract: The emotional aspect of teams has received increasing attention in the group/team literature in the West. However, very few empirical studies have addressed the issue in China. This study examines the effect of team emotional climate, emotional labor, and team efficacy on team innovation, especially the moderating role of team emotional labor and the mediating role of group efficacy on the relationship between team emotional climate and team innovation.
In the study, team emotional climate and team emotional labor are conceptualized as contrasting types of team emotional exchanges. We define the former as within-team member directed emotional exchange and the latter as the outward directed emotional exchange required to enact one’s job role. We argue that team emotional labor moderates the relationship between team positive emotional climate and team innovation performance such as the relationship is stronger in lower than higher team emotional labor contexts. In addition, we hypothesize that the interaction between team emotional climate and team emotional labor on team innovation is mediated by team efficacy.
Data were collected from 85 team leaders and 475 team members using questionnaire survey. The average team size was 5.29 (SD = 2.46) with a minimum of three and a maximum of 16 members per team. Results of analyzing the matched sample showed that team positive emotional climate promotes team efficacy. Emotional labor has resource draining effects and weakens the relationship between team positive emotional climate and team innovation. When emotional labor is high, even a team possesses low positive emotional climate, which has positive effect on team innovation. In contrast, when emotional labor is low, team positive emotional climate has positive effect on team innovation. The results also showed that the interactional effect of team emotional climate and emotional labor on team innovation performance is fully mediated by team efficacy.
This study offers five major contributions. First, it examines the specific mechanism through which team-level convergence of emotions influences team innovation by investigating the moderating role of team emotional labor and the mediating role of team efficacy in the relationship. Second, it expands the existing literature which is dominated by studies based on Western cultures by providing evidence of team-level emotion in China. Third, it contributes to the literature of team emotional climate and addresses the question of team innovation from the emotional aspect of teams. Fourth, it identifies and examines team emotional climate and team emotional labor as two types of emotional exchanges, thus contributing to the research on team emotional dynamics. Finally, our study identifies positive team emotional climate as an important source of team efficacy, which plays a significant role in the relationship between team emotional climate, team emotional labor and team innovation.

Key words: team emotional climate, emotional labor, team efficacy, team innovation