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Strong team culture will pull Phillies' through latest playoff disappointment

Oct 19, 2023

2 min

[Updated Oct. 25, 2023] The Philadelphia Phillies magic run in the MLB playoffs has ended, but there's no doubt their unusually strong "Brotherly Love" will continue to carry them through another tough end to the season.

Kyle Emich, professor of management at the University of Delaware, can talk about the team's bond with each other and unique rituals. They include blaring the fluffy pop song "Dancing on My Own" after key victories and a potentially vulgar hand signal that players flash from the dugout after big hits.

The study of love in teams is not entirely new, said Kyle Emich, professor of Management at the University of Delaware. Companionate love, as opposed to romantic love, focused on compassion, caring and feelings of affection toward one's teammates, has been linked to satisfaction and working together as a team, while preventing burnout (key to late-season performance), he said.

Emich added:

A positive clubhouse culture can help a team remain confident after failure (which every team endures at some point), develop and commit to innovative solutions that may be risky and feel safe voicing concerns, which may need to be overcome to move forward.
We have all been on teams where members bottle up problems until, of course, they eventually burst ruining team performance. Positive teams don't do that.
It's not just nice that the Phillies seem to get along so well, this sense of chemistry and support may underlie their stellar performance.

To arrange an interview with Emich on this topic or any relating to teams – especially in the workplace – simply click the "contact" button on his ExpertFile profile.

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Kyle Emich

Associate Professor, Management

Prof. Emich's research explores the role of individual attributes in team dynamics and other collective environments.

Cognitive ProcessingLeadershipOrganizational BehaviorTeam DynamicsGroup Dynamics

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