Symposium 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

Team Flow Climates Within Professional Organizations (#410)

Jef van den Hout 1 2 , Orin Davis 3
  1. Eindhoven Univesity of Technology, Eindhoven
  2. Flow Concepts, Eindhoven, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands
  3. Quality of Life Laboratory, New York City, United States of America

Nowadays, an important question in the field of team research is how teams within professional organizations deliver sustainable optimal performance.  An increase of team flow experiences, defined as a shared experience of flow during the execution of interdependent personal tasks in the interest of the team, could fill this gap. It is therefore interesting and important for those hoping to spark team flow to better understand how to create a work environment in which all of the prerequisites for team flow are present. Therefore, the purpose of this study is an exploration of the process of how the prerequisites and characteristics of team flow come into being. Specifically, we collected data by conducting in depth interviews with team members and focus groups with entire teams asking them if they identify with the experience of our description of team flow and how this then specifically occurred in the teams they are part off. The results led to detailed descriptions of the emergence of team flow in different contexts, healthcare, information technology, construction and education. Therefore, this study contributes to an enhanced understanding of the emergence of team flow and ways to create environments conducive to team flow.