Emotional Contagion and its

Influence on Team Functioning in

Organizations
V.Vijayalakshmi
MS04D011

Department of Management Studies

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MADRAS
1st DC Meeting, 19th July, 2005

DC Members:
Dr. Sanghamitra Bhattacharyya (Guide)
Dr. L.S.Ganesh (Chairman)
Dr.T.J.Kamalanabhan
Dr. C. Rajendran
Dr. K .N. Satyanarayana
Dr. Debashis Acharya
Contents
Definition of Emotional Contagion
Occurrence of Emotional Contagion
Rationale of Emotional Contagion
Literature Review
Work done in the past year
Objectives of the study
Conceptual Framework
Research Propositions
Proposed Plan of Action
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What is Emotional Contagion?

Emotional Contagion is defined as “a

multiply determined family of
psychophysiological, behavioral and social
phenomena.” (Hatfield,1994)
It’s a multi-level phenomenon
‘A ‘ individual

’B’ individual ‘C’ individual ‘D’ individual

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How does this occur? (Hatfield,
1994)
Conscious cognitive process

Conditional and Unconditional emotional responses

Mimicry and feedback

Automatic, unintentional,

uncontrollable & largely inaccessible

to consciousness.

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Rationale

Emotions drive
Psychological
people
Climate is influential
to action

Raison d'être-

State of infancy
in India

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Literature Review

Marketing
and
Groups and Teams Customer
Relations

Literature review

Mimicry and Imitation Psychological

Processes

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Emotional Contagion and Group
Behavior
Barsade(2002)
Deals with the mechanisms by which mood
transfer occurs in groups.
Emotional Contagion and Gender Differences
Helland (2001)
Investigated whether there was any significant
difference between genders in terms of the
amount of imitation recorded.

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Emotional Contagion and Organizational
Functioning
Halverson (2004)
Suggests that the concept of affect is
influential in its dealings with leadership,
especially charismatic and transformational
leadership.
Hsee, Hatfield, and Carlson (1990)
The nature of power base and its relation to
Emotional Contagion was analysed.
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Emotional Contagion in Marketing and
Customer Satisfaction
Howard and Gengler (2001)
Employee affect is manifested by their on-the-job
service transactions and is a potent contributor to
attributions of service quality and perceptions of the
organizations by the customer.

Pugh (2001)
Studies how employees feel and how they act
towards customers and also about how employee
actions make customers feel, and how this influences
what customers think about the organization.

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Emotional Contagion and Stress
Wethington (2000) sees stress as
originating in the daily course of life as a
consequence of social interaction in
dyads and groups.

Doherty (1997) has developed a

Emotional Contagion 15-item uni-
dimentional measure of susceptibility to
other’s emotions resulting from mimicry.
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Work done during the period of
review

Literature Survey

Position paper - work in progress

Deciding on the variables to be used in

the study

Completion of the required course work

Two National Conference Presentations

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Objective of the study (Research
questions )
What is the level of contagion present in the Indian
organizational setting?
How do
a) individual factors contribute to EC?
b) interpersonal factors affect EC?
c) contextual factors influence the level of EC?
How would the use of
a) the concept Facial Feedback Hypothesis (FFH)
influence EC and thereby aid in the improvement of
team functioning?
b) Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), as an
organizational developmental tool affect EC and
bring about better team functioning?
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 Conceptual Framework
Individual Factors Facial
Feedback
•Level of susceptibility
Hypothesis
to emotion
•Need for affiliation
Interpersonal
Factors
• Interpersonal
Improvement
attraction
•Interpersonal trust of team
Presence of EC functioning
•Extent of familiarity
•Psychological
congruence
Contextual Factors

• Composition of teams
Neuro -
•Nature of job tasks
Linguistics
•Cohesiveness
Programming

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Research Propositions…
Based on the objectives of the study, we propose the
following:

Individual and interpersonal factors may contribute

more to the level of EC than contextual factors.

Applying

a) FFH to the presence of EC may bring about

improvement in team functioning.

b) NLP to the presence of EC may improve team

functioning.
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2 Stages of Future Action
I Stage

Development of a multi-dimensional EC
Scale applicable to the Indian Context

Assessing the level of contagion present in

organizations

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II Stage

Using the concept of FFH and NLP on the level of

Emotional Contagion to bring about an
improvement in team functioning.

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Proposed plan of action
Developing a model of Emotional Contagion (End of
July’05)
Based on the Literature review, submit the position paper
to a journal –work in progress( End of Aug’05)
Identify the field of operations to collect data ( End of
Aug’05)
Approach the relevant authorities ( End of October’05)

Develop a pretest questionnaire ( End of January’06)

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 Thank You

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Personality & Group Processes
Group Personality Composition And Group
Effectiveness: An Integrative Review Of Empirical
Research.
Halfhill, Terry; Sundstrom, Eric; Lahner, Jessica;
Calderone, Wilma; Nielsen, Tjai M.. Small Group
Research, Feb2005, Vol. 36 Issue 1, p83, 23p
I'm in the Mood for Work: Current Perspectives on
Work Group Dynamics.
Gummer, Burton. Administration in Social Work, 2001,
Vol. 25 Issue 2, p81, 21p
Representations of the Group-as-a-Whole: Personality,
Situational, and Dynamic Determinants
Les R. Greene , Psychoanalytic Psychology , Vol 16, Iss 3 ,
Summer 1999, pg 403-425

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Personality & Group Processes (contd.)
Personality and Susceptibility to Positive and Negative
Emotional States
Larsen, R.J.,T.Ketelaar, Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology,1991, Vol.61, No1,132-140
Relating Member Ability and Personality to Work-
Team Processes and Team Effectiveness
Barrick, M.R et al., Journal of Applied Psychology,
1998, Vol.83, No. 3, 377-391
Personality and Organizational Team Work
Singh,S, Indian Psychological Review, 2004, Vol.62,
No.3, 124-135

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References
Barsade, G (2002) The Ripple Effect: Emotional Contagion
and its Influence on Group Behavior, Administrative Science
Quarterly.
Brett, J.M., L. K. Stroh (2003) Working 61 plus hours a
week: Why do managers do it?, Journal of Applied
Psychology, Vol. 88(1), 67-78.
Doherty, W.R (1997) The Emotional Contagion Scale: A
Measure of Individual Differences, Journal of Nonverbal
Behavior, 21(2), 131-154.
Gump, B., and J. Kulik (1997) Stress, Affiliation
and Emotional Contagion, Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, Vol. 72, Issue. 2, 305-319.
Halverson, S.K (2001) Emotional Contagion in
Leader-Follower Interactions, Journal of Consumer
Research, Vol.28.

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References
Hess, U., and S. Blairy (2001) Facial mimicry and
Emotional Contagion to dynamic emotional facial
expressions and their influence on decoding accuracy,
International Journal of Psychophysiology, 40, 129-141.
Hsee, K., Hatfield, and G. Carlson. (1990) The effect of
Power on Susceptibility to Emotional Contagion, Cognition
and Emotion, 4(4), 327-340.
Huy, Q.N (2002) Emotional Balancing of Organizational
Continuity and Radical Change: the Contribution of Middle
Managers, Administrative Science Quarterly.
Joiner, T.E (1994) Contagious Depression: Existence,
Specificity to Depressed Symptoms, and the Role of
Reassurance Seeking, Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, Vol.67(2), 287-296.
Kelly, J. R., S. G. Barsade (2001) Mood and Emotions in
Small Groups and Work Teams, Organizational Behavior
and Human Decision Processes, Vol.86, Iss 1, pg. 99

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References
Neumann, R., F. Strack (2000) Mood Contagion: The Automatic
Transfer of Mood Between Persons, Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, Vol. 79, Issue 2, 211-223.
Totterdell, P (2000) Catching moods and hitting runs: Mood
Linkage and Subjective Performance in Professional Sport Teams,
Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 85(6), 848-859.
Totterdell, P., S, Kellett., K, Teuchmann., R. B, Briner (1998)
Evidence of Mood Linkage in Work Groups, Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, Vol.74(6), 1504-1515.
Wethington. E (2000) Contagion of Stress, Advances in Group
Processes, Vol.17, 229-253.
Wild, B., M. Erb., and M. Bartels (2001) Are Emotions
Contagious? Evoked Emotions While Viewing Emotionally
Expressive Faces: Quality, Quantity, Time Course and Gender
Differences

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