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Introduction
As the industry has shifted toward an emphasis on team collaboration, rather than individual efforts, research on team performance has increased. The literature on team effectiveness has proved that team cohesion has a positive, significant effect on team performances and processes (Evans and Dion, 2012). Carron and Brawley (2000) considered team cohesion to be the most important factor in optimal group performance. Team cohesion allows for faster, stronger agreement and adherence to corporate goals, generally smoother functioning of the team (Smith et al., 1994) and increased satisfaction with the team (Tekleab et al., 2009). In particular, strong cohesion among team members improves communication, resulting in greater participation in the task (Cartwright and Zander, 1968). As a team “comes together”, the team’s performance typically improves, so the effect of team cohesion on team performance is the primary focus and contribution of this study.
This study observed team members’ interactions as they managed a company in a business simulation. It included the analysis of team members’ emotional intelligence – the ability to manage their own emotions as well as others’ emotional states while evaluating how this affected team cohesion. Emotional intelligence is considered to be closely related to the social skills needed for teamwork (Goleman, 1998; Mayer and Salovey, 1997; Salovey and Mayer, 1990; Sjoberg, 2001). Initially, emotional intelligence was conceptualized in the individual level. As the role of emotional intelligence in the group performance has been highlighted, the scholars have explored collective emotional intelligence (CEI) (Druskat and Wolff, 2001; Koman and Wolff, 2008). Many studies empirically tested the effect of CEI on team effectiveness including team cohesion (Cursue et al., 2015), team learning (Dunaway, 2013; Ghuman, 2011, 2015) and interpersonal process effectiveness (Frye et al., 2006). This study examined the effect of team level emotional intelligence on self-efficacy and team cohesion.
As an additional contribution, this research added self-efficacy as an influencer on the relationship between emotional intelligence and team cohesion, an under-studied trait of team members but one that is critical to the demonstration of emotional intelligence. In this study, self-efficacy played a role by influencing the relationship between emotional intelligence and team cohesion. Research into the impact of emotional intelligence on team cohesion and the influence of self-efficacy on the relationship between emotional...