PhD defence M.A.J. (Max) Renault

Dissertation in short::

Surprises and crises can occur anytime, anywhere, and can impart acute challenges on organizational teams. Prior work on team adaptation has unveiled many cognitive and structural adaptive mechanisms. Similarly, management practice (e.g., Agile) has translated these mechanisms into popular tools and processes for teams to handle changing situations. Yet,
these approaches confined to structural and cognitive mechanisms are incomplete in explaining the adaptive performance of teams as they overlook affect and emotions. Emotions are fundamental to human nature and teamwork, and crises can be intensely emotional events. This dissertation aims to complete the jigsaw puzzle: it uncovers the poorly
understood affective mechanisms of team adaptation. I explain how emotions triggered by crises can activate emergent cycles of help, care and camaraderie between teammates. Teams that build such relational and affective reserves through successive crises, more successfully cope and respond to future events. Though, this is easier said than done: negative
emotions can expedite the fragmentation of a team. Fortunately, this can be averted through affective leaders who positively regulate members’ emotions. Such positivity helps avoid cliques as members’ emotional needs are met, and the team collectively unites to respond to crises. This dissertation offers a fresh perspective on team adaptation. Adaptation to
crises, it seems, cannot be achieved without nurturing members’ relational and affective ties for the benefit of the whole. This serves as a call for organizations to value emotions above blind adherence to packaged methodologies emphasizing mere structures, tools and processes.