Leadership clarity and team innovation in health care

The relationships among leadership clarity (i.e., team members' consensual perceptions of clarity of and no conflict over leadership of their teams), team processes, and innovation were examined in health care contexts. The sample comprised 3447 respondents from 98 primary health care teams (PHCTs), 113 community mental health teams (CMHTs), and 72 breast cancer care teams (BCTs). The results revealed that leadership clarity is associated with clear team objectives, high levels of participation, commitment to excellence, and support for innovation. Team processes consistently predicted team innovation across all three samples. Team leadership predicted innovation in the latter two samples, and there was some evidence that team processes partly mediated this relationship. The results imply the need for theory that incorporates clarity and not just style of leadership. For health care teams in particular, and teams in general, the results suggest a need to ensure leadership is clear in teams when innovation is a desirable team performance outcome.     

The effects of leadership change on team escalation of commitment

Although teams benefit from developing plans and processes that boost efficiency and reduce uncertainty, they may become too attached to these plans and escalate commitment when an alternative response is needed. Drawing on theories of team leadership, team processes and escalation of commitment, we propose that a change in leadership can help the team reduce commitment to outdated plans and avoid further escalation over time. Across two studies, we tested and found support for our hypotheses and provide evidence that leadership change can break the cycle of escalation by enhancing leader-driven team reflection and refocusing the team on error correction instead of additional investment. We discuss how the results of these studies extend existing theory and add to our understanding of the important role leaders play in enhancing team adaptation and preventing team escalation.     

The servant leadership advantage: When perceiving low differentiation in leader-member relationship quality influences team cohesion,team task performance and service OCB

How does servant leaders' unique ability to place each follower's needs above their own influence relationships between followers and impact their collective performance? In a study that integrates principles of servant leadership with the social comparison theoretical framework, we tested a group-level model to examine how servant leadership induces low perceived differentiation in leader-member relationship quality (perceived LMX differentiation) within a group, which strengthens team cohesion and in turn positively influences team task performance and service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors (service OCB). Our sample comprised 229 employees nested in 67 work teams. Structural equation modeling results indicate that servant leadership significantly predicts low perceived LMX differentiation; perceived LMX differentiation is strongly related to team cohesion such that the lower the perceived differentiation, the stronger the team's cohesiveness. And, team cohesion is also strongly related to both the team's task performance and service OCB. Perceived LMX differentiation and team cohesion mediate the effect of servant leadership on both team task performance and service OCB.     

变革型领导对R&D团队创新绩效的影响机制研究

R&D团队是企业技术创新的重要组织形式.本研究从变革型领导这一视角探讨了其对R&D团队创新绩效的影响及中介机制.本文运用结构方程模型方法,通过对316个R&D团队样本的实证研究发现,R&D团队领导者的变革型领导风格对团队创新绩效有积极影响,而知识分享与知识整合正是这种影响的中介机制.     

Bringing the cognitive revolution forward: What can team cognition contribute to our understanding of leadership?

Cognition is a central element of organizational behavior and leaders are seen as key shapers of organizational cognition. Leaders’ influence over organizations often occurs through their influence on the collectives or teams they are leading. Hence, leaders influence organizational outcomes by modeling team cognition. Despite the importance of this relationship for organizational outcomes, there is little integration currently between the leadership and team cognition literatures. To address this gap, we conduct an integrative review. First, we develop a model for leader and team influence based on organizational emergence and leadership complexity theories. Our model makes a distinction between the source of influence over cognition (leader → team, team → leader, reciprocal) and form of cognition emergence (variance reduction, variance enhancement); constraints that shape cognitions that vary in levels (within and between-level, contextual) and focus (individual, interindividual, collective); and leader behaviors (administrative, adaptive, enabling). We apply this model to review and analyze ninety-nine studies in the current literature and then discuss the limitations and future directions drawing on our findings and theoretical model. We contribute a unifying framework of leadership and team emergence that can be expanded and applied to other settings.     

Traditional Chinese leadership and employee voice behavior: A cross-level examination

To enhance the understanding of leadership influences on employee voice behavior, this study focused on traditional Chinese leadership (i.e., authoritarian leadership). We proposed that supervisor authoritarian leadership negatively affects employee voice behavior and manager authoritarian leadership has a cascading effect on such behavior through supervisor authoritarian leadership. Furthermore, these effects were either amplified or attenuated under different conditions (i.e., leader identification and power distance orientation). A cross-level investigation of voice behavior within 52 groups of employees from multiple Chinese companies in Beijing was conducted. The results showed that supervisor authoritarian leadership negatively affected employee voice behavior and mediated the negative relationship between manager authoritarian leadership and employee voice behavior. Leader identification moderated the indirect negative effect of manager authoritarian leadership on employee voice behavior via supervisor authoritarian leadership, while power distance orientation moderated the direct negative effect of supervisor authoritarian leadership on employee voice behavior.     

The shared leadership of teams: A meta-analysis of proximal,distal, and moderating relationships

The current meta-analysis examines the relationship between shared leadership and team performance. It also assesses the role of team confidence (i.e., collective efficacy and team potency) in this relationship. Mediation analyses supported the hypothesis that team confidence partially mediates the effects of shared leadership on team performance. We also found support for the notion that shared leadership explains unique variance in team performance, over and above that of vertical leadership. Furthermore, a variety of substantive continuous and categorical variables were investigated as moderators of the shared leadership–team performance relationship. Specifically, the relationship between shared leadership and team performance was moderated by task interdependence, team tenure, and whether performance was objectively versus subjectively measured. Finally, results suggest that the approach used when measuring shared leadership can also play a role in the observed validity. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

We can do it! Inclusive leader language promotes voice behavior in multi-professional teams

Although it is known that leaders can have a strong impact on whether employees voice work-related ideas or concerns, no research has investigated the impact of leader language on voice—particularly in professionally diverse contexts. Based on a social identity approach as well as on collectivistic leadership theories, we distinguish between implicit (i.e., First-Person Plural pronouns) and explicit (i.e., invitations and appreciations) inclusive leader language and test its effects on voice in multi-professional teams. We hypothesized that implicit inclusive leader language promotes voice especially among team members sharing the same professional group membership as the leader (in-group team members) while explicit inclusive leader language promotes voice especially among team members belonging to a different professional group (out-group team members). These hypotheses were tested in a field setting in which 126 health care professionals (i.e., nurses, resident and attending physicians), organized in 26 teams, managed medical emergencies. Behavioral coding and leader language analyses supported our hypotheses: Leaders' “WE”-references were more strongly related to residents' (in-group) and explicit invitations related more strongly to nurses' (out-group) voice behavior. We discuss how inclusive leader language promotes employee voice and explain why group membership functions as an important moderator in professionally diverse teams.     

Different ways lead to ambidexterity: Configurations for team innovation across China,India, and Singapore

In this paper, we transfer the ambidexterity theory of leadership for innovation to a cross-cultural context. We develop a configurational model to explore how combinations of opening leadership, closing leadership, and team initiative differently affect team innovation performance in different cultures. Applying an Asia-centric perspective, our study analyzes cross-cultural heterogeneity of team innovation processes across China, India, and Singapore. Our fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) illuminates cultural differences and the configurational nature of how leadership and team behaviors work together in promoting team innovation performance. We found that configurations for team innovation performance differ across countries, such that an innovation-yielding configuration in one country may be ineffective in another country. Moreover, our findings suggest that alternative, equifinal configurations of leadership and team initiative, rather than just one optimal pathway, are associated with high team innovation performance; and high-performance configurations and low-performance configurations are asymmetric and therefore imply non-linearity of the relationships. The findings provide implications for managers in different cultural contexts as they help identify culture-specific action repertoires to manage innovation processes and promote innovation performance.     

Communication and trust are key: Unlocking the relationship between leadership and team performance and creativity

Considerable theoretical and empirical work has identified a relationship between transformational leadership and team performance and creativity. The mechanisms underlying this link, however, are not well understood. To identify the intervening processes inherent in this relationship, we experimentally manipulated the leadership style assigned to 44 teams taking part in a resource-maximization task. Teams were exposed either to a leader using inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, or a control condition. Our findings reveal important differences between leadership styles in communication and team outcomes (objective task performance and creativity). These results suggest that different dimensions of transformational leadership should be emphasized depending on the outcome sought. In addition, our results provide evidence for a sequential mediation model where leadership influences team outcomes through overall team communication and trust in teammates. This study suggests mechanisms by which transformational leaders may impact team outcomes, which has implications for team building and leadership training.     

新创企业高管团队的团队过程与战略决策绩效 ——认知的调节作用

新创企业的成败很大程度上取决于战略决策绩效,具有决策权力的高管团队在创业情境下的认知和行为过程对战略决策绩效具有重要影响。本文结合创业研究和高管团队研究的现有成果,以122家新创企业为研究对象,从内部团队过程和外部团队过程两个维度考察高管团队的团队过程对战略决策绩效的影响,并从认知的视角分析新创企业高管团队认知需要和认知能力对团队过程与决策绩效关系的调节作用。研究结果表明,新创企业高管团队的内部团队过程和外部团队过程与决策的质量和满意度均有显著的正相关关系,且认知需要和认知能力对这种关系具有调节作用,在认知需要和认知能力较高的情况下,内、外部团队过程对决策质量和满意度的正向影响更强。     

Collective voice mechanisms,HRM practices and organizational performance in Italian manufacturing firms

The literature on employee voice has grown enormously over the past decades. However, the relationships between different employee voice mechanisms and organizational performance are far from being fully understood, and the existing research shows mixed evidence. Moreover, the HRM literature tends to concentrate on individual voice mechanisms (e.g. employee involvement) and to underestimate the role that collective voice may have in the HRM performance relationship. This paper aims to analyze how collective employee voice mechanisms (i.e. union voice and team voice) affect organizational productivity and how these relationships vary when voice mechanisms are adopted in combination with other HRM practices (i.e. variable pay, training, performance appraisals and multitasking). The analysis of a sample of 223 Italian manufacturing firms matched with an external database (AIDA) containing balance sheet information found that union voice is positively related to labor productivity, while team voice does not show any significant relationship with labor productivity. Moreover, both union and team voice have important moderation effects in the HRM-performance relationship. Union voice moderates positively the relationship between variable pay and performance and negatively the relationship between training and performance. Team voice positively moderates the relationship between training and performance. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Leadership and team cohesiveness across cultures

This study examines the relation between leadership and team cohesiveness in different societal cultures. We expect direct effects of societal culture on leadership and team cohesiveness, as well as a moderating effect of culture on the relationship between leadership and cohesiveness. Data were collected from 29,868 managers and 138,270 corresponding team members in 80 countries. Multilevel analysis was used to test the hypotheses, relating societal individualism–collectivism (IC), with directive and supportive leadership, and with team cohesiveness. In individualistic societies managers use less directive and less supportive behavior, compared with collectivistic societies. Team cohesiveness is not directly related with IC. Directive leadership and supportive leadership are negatively and positively related with team cohesiveness respectively and these relations are stronger in individualistic societies. Implications for managerial education and practices are discussed.     

How leader humility helps teams to be humbler,psychologically stronger,and more effective: A moderated mediation model

We hypothesize that (a) the level of humility expressed by leaders predicts team performance through, serially, team humility and team PsyCap, and (b) the strength (i.e., consensus within the team) of the leader humility, team humility and team PsyCap moderates the paths of that hypothesized model. A sample comprising 82 teams (82 leaders; 332 team members) was collected. Team members reported leader humility, team humility and team PsyCap. Leaders reported team performance. To handle the risks of common method bias, each mediating path of the hypothesized model is based on data from two different subsamples within each team. Our model's most novel theoretical contribution is the (moderated mediated) connection between leader humility, collective humility, and team PsyCap, and this was consistently supported in our data. Our inconsistent findings dealing with the relationship between team PsyCap and performance is well established in the literature and our results in both sub-samples were in the theorized direction. The study contributes to understand why, how and when humble leaders are more effective.     

Transformational leadership,job satisfaction,and team performance: A multilevel mediation model of trust

In spite of calls for deliberate differentiation between individual and team levels of analysis, leadership research based on well-grounded theory referring to multiple levels is scarce. We seek to fill this gap by analyzing the relations between transformational leadership, trust in supervisor and team, job satisfaction, and team performance via multilevel analysis. Results are based on a sample of 360 employees from 39 academic teams. Transformational leadership was positively related to followers' job satisfaction at individual as well as team levels of analysis and to objective team performance. The relation between individual perceptions of supervisors' transformational leadership and job satisfaction was mediated by trust in the supervisor as well as trust in the team. Yet, trust in the team did not mediate the relationship between team perceptions of supervisors' transformational leadership and team performance. Implications for theory and research of leadership at multiple levels as well as for practice are discussed.     

Creating team ambidexterity: The effects of leader dialectical thinking and collective team identification

In the current, increasingly dynamic environment, more attention is being devoted to ambidexterity (both explorative and exploitative learning), as it is beneficial to organizational functioning. Despite an abundance of research on organizational ambidexterity, there is a paucity of research examining team-level ambidexterity. In a cross-level empirical study, we examine a leader's dialectical thinking as an antecedent of team-level ambidexterity. We also incorporate collective team identification as a moderator in the study. Our findings support that a leader's dialectical thinking can help facilitate team ambidexterity that, in turn, improves employee performance. Those teams whose members have strong team identification and whose leader is high in dialectical thinking will reap the most benefit from team ambidexterity.     

How transformational leadership works during team interactions: A behavioral process analysis

Transformational leadership is generally considered helpful for team functioning. However, the social dynamics underlying the benefits of transformational leadership remain elusive to date. To understand how and why transformational leadership can foster team functioning, this study focuses on leader–follower communication dynamics during team interactions. From the perspective of leadership as social problem solving, we argue that transformational leadership is linked to functional team problem-solving processes because transformational leaders use solution-focused communication (mediator model). In a sample of 30 videotaped problem-solving team meetings from two organizations, we coded transformational leadership style and the verbal behavioral interactions of leaders and team members over the course of their entire meetings (30,128 behavioral units in total). Multilevel results showed that transformational leadership was positively linked to functional problem-solving communication by team members. This positive relationship was mediated by leaders' solution-focused communication. Moreover, at the micro-level of conversational dynamics within the meeting process, lag sequential analysis revealed that leaders' ideas and solutions triggered subsequent solution statements by team members and inhibited counterproductive communication by team members, such as running off topic, criticizing, or complaining. We discuss theoretical and methodological implications for conceptualizing dynamic leader–follower processes as well as managerial implications for leading effective meetings in organizations.     

主动性-被动性员工创新行为:基于分布式领导的作用机制研究

员工创新是企业创新驱动的重要推动力和提升其核心竞争力的关键。当前中国组织情境中，存在着两种不同性质的员工创新行为：主动性员工创新行为和被动性员工创新行为，两者所产生的创新绩效存在巨大差异。然而，现有文献对被动性员工创新行为研究不足，理论研究已经无法适应实践的需要，因此，有必要将两种不同性质的员工创新行为放在一个框架下进行研究，以丰富创新行为的研究内涵。本文以新兴的领导发展取向——分布式领导为切入点，引入组织支持感作为中介变量，上下级关系和价值观匹配作为调节变量，构建了分布式领导对主动性-被动性员工创新行为的作用模型。为了验证该模型，以408名知识型员工为研究对象，通过多元回归分析的方法进行检验，研究结果发现：分布式领导对主动性员工创新行为具有正向影响，对被动性员工创新行为具有负向影响；组织支持感在分布式领导与主动性-被动性员工创新行为之间起中介作用；上下级关系和价值观匹配正向调节分布式领导与组织支持感之间的关系，并进一步验证了有调节的中介作用。同时，上下级关系和价值观匹配交互调节了分布式领导与组织支持感之间的关系。本文研究为解构中国创新管理实践中纷杂多样的创新行为提供了理论诠释，丰富了中国情境下的创新管理理论。     

团队成员创新行为的两层影响因素:个人目标取向与团队创新气氛

当代企业的发展越来越依赖于创新型员工与创新型团队,影响个人创新行为的主要因素一直是研究者关注的热点.本文根据目标取向理论的相关研究结论,将团队创新气氛因素纳入到目标取向对团队成员创新行为影响的研究中.通过对70个团队(包含352个团队成员)样本的调查,运用分层线性模型分析技术,对个人层次目标取向与团队层次创新气氛时创新行为的主效应与交互效应进行了分析.结果表明:团队成员学习目标取向对其创新行为具有显著正向影响,且这种正向效应不会受到团队创新气氛的调节作用;成员证明目标取向对其创新行为的正向影响不显著,但团队创新气氛可以显著调节(增强)这种正向效应;成员回避目标取向对其创新行为具有显著负向影响,但团队创新气氛可以显著调节(减弱)这种负向效应.最后讨论了本研究的管理启示、研究局限及研究展望.     

多层次导向的真实型领导对员工与团队创新的影响机制研究

"德才兼备"是中国评价领导者的重要内容,学者多关注团队领导者的"才"对创新的影响,鲜有研究探讨领导者的"德"与创新的关系。真实型领导与德才兼备中的"德"有着较好契合,本研究以113个研发团队的领导者及其574名员工为被试,运用多层次研究方法,探究真实型领导对创新的作用及机制。结果表明,个体导向的真实型领导透过上级支持对员工创新结果具有显著促进作用;团队导向的真实型领导透过团队协力对员工个体创新行为和团队整体的创新均有显著促进作用。本文提供了在中国情境下真实型领导对创新的多层次影响机制。