Team emotions important for leaders in the workplace

Thursday 1 March 2007

Great relationships with team members can be counter productive for managers according to the University of Newcastle's Dr Herman Tse.

Recently appointed as a lecturer in Organisational Behaviour in the Faculty of Business and Law, Dr Tse has been researching relationships between supervisors, employees and co-workers in the workplace.

"Research suggests that leaders develop high-quality relationships with only a few people within a work team," said Dr Tse.

"Leaders tend to provide more organisational resources, work-related advantages and psychological support to those team members with whom they share high-quality relationships.

"This can have an adverse effect leading some team members to feel jealous, upset or angry because they have low-quality relationships with their manager and ultimately impacting on productivity."

Dr Tse said the impact of these high and low-quality relationships was being felt by many employees in many workplaces.

"When developing their leadership skills, managers need to recognise the important role of team emotions play in the development of relationships and ultimately a productive workplace," said Dr Tse.

Dr Tse recently received the prestigious Kenneth E. Clark Student Research Award from the internationally recognised Center for Creative Leadership in the USA. He will visit the Center for Creative Leadership in North Carolina in September this year to present his research.

For interviews: Dr Herman Tse on 02 4921 7317 or Herman.Tse@newcastle.edu.au