Group Positive Affect and Beyond: An Integrative Review and Future Research Agenda

Abstract

Group positive affect is defined as homogeneous positive affect among group members that emerges when working together. Considering that previous research has shown a significant relationship between group positive affect and a wide variety of group outcomes (e.g., behaviors, wellbeing, and performance), it is crucial to boost our knowledge about this construct in the work context. The main purpose is to review empirical research, to synthesize the findings and to provide research agenda about group positive affect, in order to better understand this construct. Through the PsycNET and Proquest Central databases, an integrative review was conducted to identify articles about group positive affect published between January 1990 and March 2019. A total of 44 articles were included and analyzed. Finding suggests that scholars have been more interested in understanding the outcomes of group positive affect and how to improve the productivity of groups than in knowing what the antecedents are. A summary conclusion is that group positive affect is related to leadership, job demands, job resources, diversity/similarity, group processes, and contextual factors, all of which influence the development of several outcomes and different types of wellbeing at the individual and group levels. However, with specific combinations of other conditions (e.g., group trust, negative affect, and interaction), high levels of group positive affect could cause harmful results. Conclusions shed light on group positive affect research and practice and might help Human Resources professionals to initiate empirically-based strategies related to recruitment, group design and leadership training.

Positive affect and job performance in psychiatric nurses: A moderated mediation analysis

“…Nurses with high positive affect had higher job performance. The discovery is in line with previous studies (Peñalver et al, 2020 ). The reason is that, on the one hand, emotion is the embodiment of human wisdom and substantially impacts human behaviour, while work is the main activity in people's daily life.…”

Personality, dietary identity, mental and sleep health in vegans and vegetarians: A preliminary cross‐sectional study

“…As omnivores have been shown to have fewer positive feelings toward other omnivores than plant‐based eaters have for other plant‐based eaters, 33 this positivity toward other plant‐based eaters may be a protective factor for overall mental health and well‐being. For instance, it has been shown that having shared identities 72 and group positive affect (i.e., positive affect among group members) 73 are associated with resilience and positive emotions. Moreover, although overall mental well‐being and mental health are highly correlated, 66 the reason why we did not observe associations between dietarian identity and depression and anxiety, needs further exploration in a more representative sample.…”

¿Todos los grupos felices son productivos? Interacción entre el afecto positivo grupal y el desempeño laboral grupal: estudio exploratorio

“…Teniendo en cuenta los grandes beneficios que aportan los grupos y equipos de trabajo al éxito organizacional (Wilson et al, 2004), no es de extrañar que el estudio del afecto positivo grupal se haya relacionado con una amplia variedad de variables como desempeño grupal, creatividad grupal, eficacia grupal y absentismo (Peñalver et al, 2020). De forma paralela al aspecto individual, a la relación entre el afecto positivo grupal y el desempeño laboral grupal se la bautizó happy-productive group o grupo feliz y productivo (Peñalver, et al, 2019).…”