The Mediating Role of Team Trust and Conflict on the Relationship Between Team Interpersonal Emotion Regulation and Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Abstract In this chapter, the authors examine how team interpersonal emotion regulation (team IER) influences organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) through relational mediators. Drawing on data from 99 work teams (478 members and 99 supervisors), the authors distinguish between antecedent-focused strategies (addressing emotion causes) and response-focused strategies (managing emotional expressions). The authors found that team antecedent-focused IER strategies positively related to team OCB through decreased conflict while response-focused strategies showed no significant relationship with team dynamics or OCB. These findings extend emotion regulation literature to the team context, conceptualizing team IER as a collective process while enriching team effectiveness models by identifying specific emotional mechanisms underlying key relational processes. Additionally, by clarifying how collective emotional regulation influences trust and conflict, the authors provide actionable guidance for organizations to enhance team effectiveness through targeted interventions promoting constructive emotional regulation strategies.