The relationships between group-affect tone, transactive memory system, and teams’ incremental creativity

Abstract This study explores the relationships between group-affect tone, teams’ transactive memory systems (TMSs), and teams’ incremental creativity. Data were collected from 334 team members and 70 team leaders across 70 teams. Results indicate that positive group-affect tone enhances TMS, while negative group-affect tone impedes it. TMS positively impacts team incremental creativity. Additionally, both types of group-affect tone influence incremental creativity through TMS mediation. This research advances TMS theory and group-affect tone, substantiating the affect-cognition model and deepening the understanding of TMS’s role in incremental creativity.