Engineering team performance and emotion : affective interaction dynamics as indicators of design team performance
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Emotions play a crucial role in the practice of designing in teams. Engineers engaged in the activity of designing complex technical systems constantly negotiate dis- agreements with their peers and sometimes these disagreements turn hostile. Excite- ment and interest are suddenly replaced by frustration and contempt, and what started as a promising project falls short of expectations. Even though there is now a growing body of research about the relationship between social dynamics and engi- neering team performance, we still lack a coherent body of knowledge about the role of emotions in engineering team interactions. The reasons for this lack of research might be partially found in an absence of appropriate research methods and theory. This lack of research on emotions in engineering design interactions is opposed to an extensive body of work on emotions in marital interactions, an area in which re- searchers were able to powerfully relate emotional interaction dynamics with short and long-term outcomes. The present work adapts theory and methods that have been successful in pre- dicting satisfaction and divorce in marriages to study relationships between affective interaction characteristics and performance relevant outcomes in engineering design teams. In three studies, I show that Group Hedonic Balance, the balance between positive and negative affect present in a team, is a strong correlate of engineering team performance. Drawing from this work, I then propose a theory about the rela- tionship between intra-group conflict and performance based on affective distinc- tions of conflict types. This affect based intra group conflict theory departs from es- tablished theories, which are based on topical distinctions of conflict as either task, process or relationship-oriented.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2011 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Jung, Malte Friedrich |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| Primary advisor | Leifer, Larry J |
| Thesis advisor | Leifer, Larry J |
| Thesis advisor | Gross, James J, (Professor of psychology) |
| Thesis advisor | Hinds, Pamela |
| Thesis advisor | Steinert, Ralf |
| Advisor | Gross, James J, (Professor of psychology) |
| Advisor | Hinds, Pamela |
| Advisor | Steinert, Ralf |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Malte Friedrich Jung. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2011. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2011 by Malte Friedrich Jung
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...