Dr. M.A.J. (Max) Renault

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

272

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.