The Interplay of Emotional Competence and Team Activities in Work Teams - Insights into team learning behaviours and dealing with emotions in education, social and health care teams

Teams play an increasingly critical role in today’s work environment, particularly in professions where tasks are complex and emotionally demanding. In organisations that provides education, care, and social services for elderly, youth, families, and persons with disabilities, work teams are essential for managing challenges like high workloads, stress, and emotional exhaustion, which are exacerbated by staff shortages and turnover. Teams, viewed as social units, are better equipped to handle these multifaceted demands through effective coordination, learning, and emotional support among members. Consequently, understanding how teams’ function and sustain themselves in organisations, where cognitive and emotional labour are deeply intertwined, is vital for improving both team members’ and team effectiveness. Using the premise that emotions transmit information and influence interpersonal behaviours (Van Kleef, 2009, 2016), the dissertation explores how team members’ competence to perceive, express, and manage emotions shapes team activities and outcomes. Relying on the Input-Mediator-Output-Input framework (Ilgen et al., 2005), this dissertation addresses gaps in understanding how team activities and emotional competence as individual input contribute to outcomes for the team. The aim is to extend research on how emotional competence and team activities interact to influence team members’ emotional exhaustion, focusing on emotionally intensive work environments. To achieve this aim, the following research question will be answered: What is the interplay of emotional competence and team activities within work teams, and how do they both contribute to team members' emotional exhaustion? Four studies, which pursued different aims, were conducted to answer the research question. The aim of Study 1 and Study 2 was to provide a short, valid and reliable measure of emotional competence based on a multidimensional perspective to investigate team members efficiently. Data of students (Study 1: N = 271; Study 2: N1 = 518, N2 = 38, N3 = 777) were collected and analysed. The aim of Study 3 was to identify relationships between team members’ emotional competence and team activities that promote learning within the team. A systematic literature review was conducted, and N = 32 studies were included, which consisted of both quantitative and qualitative studies at different levels. The aim of Study 4 was to provide insight into the antecedents of team members’ emotional exhaustion by investigating emotional competence, dealing with emotions in the team as emotional team activities and team learning behaviours as cognitive, and work tasked directed team activities. Data of N = 417 team members in 78 teams in organisations that provide education, care, and social services for elderly, youth, families, and persons with disabilities were collected and analysed. Findings suggest that emotional competence is a critical team members’ input. Teams with team members with higher levels of emotional competence demonstrated a high level of engagement in team learning behaviours and dealing with emotions in the team. However, distinct EC dimensions are related to different team activities, providing important insights for fostering and developing teams. Drawing on the Job Demands-Resources model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007 model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007, 2017), this dissertation extends research on emotional exhaustion by integrating team activities as key mediators. The findings indicate that emotional competence, team learning behaviours, and dealing with emotions in the team predict emotional exhaustion, with team activities mediating the relationship between demands at work and exhaustion. Furthermore, according to the Conservation of Resources Theory (Hobfoll, 1989), team members with lower emotional competence benefit more from engagement in team activities in mitigating emotional exhaustion, highlighting the moderating role of emotional competence for teams in emotionally demanding environments. Ultimately, this dissertation highlights the value of integrating personal resources such as emotional competence with team activities in organisational and team research. Applying Job Demands-Resources model and Input-Mediator-Output-Input framework, it calls for a more comprehensive approach that incorporates cognitive, emotional, and motivational components in team research. The findings provide insights for human resources professionals, team leaders, and organizational development practitioners, offering strategies to mitigate emotional exhaustion through the development of emotional competence and the optimization of team activities.