Exploring the prediction of team climate by means of emotional intelligence, team-member exchange and team-member goal orientation

Abstract

Teams offer more flexibility within organizations and their business is shaped around teams to be more competitive in complex business environments. Teams are also the ideal work structure in which team members can influence each other’s perceptions of their work climate. Existing research results positively linked organizational climate with productivity prediction. The perception of team members of their social environment influence their behaviour and should be of interest to organizations if it can be proven that these perceptions of climate can be influenced. The main research question guiding the study was, “What is the predictability of emotional intelligence, team member exchange and goal orientation on team climate?” A literature study highlighted that team climate (TCI) is assumed to be the aggregation of individuals perceptions of the team context they work in. If the perceptions of the climate that people work in guide their behaviour, then it is likely that those perceptions of climate, and the responses that follow, may be influenced through individual attributes, appropriate structures, processes and interaction in the team. Emotional intelligence (EI) reflects the ability to recognize and control and regulate emotions in oneself and in others, with regulating in others implying an element of influence. It was further established that goal orientation (GO) refers to the two predispositional goal orientations individual seems to have indicating a different approach to setbacks, challenges and goal achievement. Team member exchange (TMX) was used in this study as reflection on an individual’s evaluative perception of his exchange interaction relationship as well as the anticipated reciprocal exchange with fellow team members. A confirmatory factor analysis was done on each of the four different instruments (TCI, EI TMX and GO). A path analysis was then developed based on the correlation matrix in order to reflect the relevant relationships between the different variables. The results reflected a strong causal relationship between team member exchange and team climate. Contrary to that, emotional intelligence and goal orientation had elements of a very weak to no causal relationship at all with team climate. The result confirmed that team exchange actions, facilitated through team meetings, influence team members’ perception of their team climate. If climate can be influenced to a positive supporting climate, team performance will be enhanced.