Taking One For The Team: The Performance Effects of Negative Affect Ties in Imbalanced Triads

This study explores the performance effects of mediating negative affect relationships for the mediator and the mediated in a triad and the unit in which the triad is embedded. Negative affect between actors often leads actors to avoid interacting with those they do not like. This disassociation causes imbalanced triads to emerge, where actors are negatively tied to each other but positively tied to a common third actor. This third actor is a mediator in the imbalanced triad, a position that is likely to cause stress and exhaustion and which may lead to poorer performance for the mediator. However, by increasing coordination and reducing conflict, the mediator’s efforts are likely to increase the performance of the other parties in the triad and their organizational units. Using data from a large U.S. governmental organization, we find the performance of mediators of negative affect suffers. At the triad level, we find that those actors who are mediated benefit from the mediator’s efforts, increasing thei...