Transformational leadership in context: Face-to-face and virtual teams

This experimental study examined transformational leadership in the context of traditional teams using face-to-face communication and virtual teams using computer-mediated communication. Thirty-nine leaders led both face-to-face and virtual teams. Repeated-measures analyses revealed similar mean levels of transformational leadership in both team types; however, leader rank order varied across team type. Post hoc analyses revealed that the most effective leaders where those who increased their transformational leadership in virtual teams. Furthermore, analyses at the team level revealed that the effect of transformational leadership on team performance was stronger in virtual than in face-to-face teams. Team-member ratings of transformational leadership were equally linked to project satisfaction in face-to-face and virtual teams. Considered as a whole, our results suggest that transformational leadership has a stronger effect in teams that use only computer-mediated communication, and that leaders who increase their transformational leadership behaviors in such teams achieve higher levels of team performance.     

Virtual Teams versus Face-to-Face Teams: An Exploratory Study of a Web-based Conference System*

Many organizations are forming “virtual teams” of geographically distributed knowledge workers to collaborate on a variety of workplace tasks. But how effective are these virtual teams compared to traditional face-to-face groups? Do they create similar teamwork and is information exchanged as effectively? An exploratory study of a World Wide Web-based asynchronous computer conference system known as Meeting Web™ is presented and discussed. It was found that teams using this computer-mediated communication system (CMCS) could not outperform traditional (face-to-face) teams under otherwise comparable circumstances. Further, relational links among team members were found to be a significant contributor to the effectiveness of information exchange. Though virtual and face-to-face teams exhibit similar levels of communication effectiveness, face-to-face team members report higher levels of satisfaction. Therefore, the paper presents steps that can be taken to improve the interaction experience of virtual teams. Finally, guidelines for creating and managing virtual teams are suggested, based on the findings of this research and other authoritative sources.     

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.     

Leadership emergence in face-to-face and virtual teams: A multi-level model with agent-based simulations,quasi-experimental and experimental tests

With leadership as a major predictor of team performance in both face-to-face and virtual teams, research on differences in leadership emergence in these contexts seems warranted. We offer a multi-level model analyzing the roles of degree of team virtuality and density of social network ties as boundary conditions on leadership emergence, viewed as a fundamentally social–cognitive process. Using agent-based modeling and simulations, our results suggest that virtuality moderates the relationships between cognitive ability, extraversion, and self-efficacy (as independent variables) and leadership emergence (as dependent variable); and density of network ties serves as a moderator for the associations of cognitive ability and self-efficacy with leadership emergence. Subsequent quasi-experimental and experimental tests support the role of density of network ties as a moderator for the association of extraversion with leadership emergence. Implications of these findings and future paths for research bridging the fields of leadership, team virtuality and social networks are discussed.     

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.     

An empirical study of transformational leadership,team performance and service quality in retail banks

The discipline of operations management (OM) has long been offering differing quantitative techniques for improving the efficiency of banking operations. However, there has been a trend in recent years that operations and services of the banking industry are becoming more diverse and unstructured, rendering many traditional OM quantitative techniques less effective in performance improvement. By integrating the literature on banking operations, service quality, leadership style and work teams, we argue that leadership style and team performance are crucial concerns determining the service quality performance of today's banking operations in a team setting. Using data collected from 192 employees from 32 operational teams (a leader and five members in each team) in 15 retail banks in Macau, China, we investigated whether the five dimensions of transformational leadership have an impact on team performance with respect to team cohesion, team leader job satisfaction and team competence; and whether the dimensions of team performance have an impact on such service quality dimensions as reliability and responsiveness. We found that one of the dimensions of transformational leadership and two of the dimensions of team performance have a significant impact on service quality. We discuss the implications of the findings for research and practise.     

Do transformational CEOs always make the difference? The role of TMT feedback seeking behavior

In the present paper, we raise the question whether CEO transformational leadership invariably makes a difference for team performance and change effectiveness. Since in general, CEOs are surrounded by a team of highly influential top managers, we argue that the effectiveness of CEO transformational leadership is contingent on the feedback seeking behavior of their top management team (TMT). Data from 38 TMTs and their CEOs demonstrated that transformational leadership was positively related to both TMT performance and effectiveness of organizational change, but only when the TMT engaged in low levels of feedback seeking behavior. As predicted, there was no relationship between CEO transformational leadership and performance and change effectiveness for teams exhibiting high levels of feedback seeking behavior. These findings suggest that for high-feedback seeking TMTs, organizational results can be achieved without a transformational CEO.     

Development and effects of transformational leadership in adolescents

We developed and tested a model in which adolescents who perceive their parents exhibiting transformational leadership behaviors would themselves display these behaviors. In turn, adolescents who used transformational leadership behaviors in a team context (as rated by themselves, their peers, and their coach) would be rated as more effective, satisfying, and effort-evoking leaders by their peers and coaches. Participants were 112 high school students (mean age = 15.2 years) who were members of 11 sports teams, and their team coaches. Controlling for the effects of adolescents' skills, results obtained using structural equation modeling supported the predicted model. Conceptual and empirical issues regarding the development and effects of transformational leadership in adolescents are discussed.     

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.     

Transformational leadership and ambidexterity in the context of an acquisition

This study explores the role of transformational leadership and the values incorporated in a learning culture in promoting ambidexterity (the ability to explore new capabilities while exploiting existing ones) in teams involved in acquisition integrations. Data from a field study of an acquisition integration (N = 71 work teams) support hypotheses arguing that transformational leadership behaviors and the development of a learning culture, characterized by psychological safety, openness to diverse opinions, and participation in decision making, promote ambidexterity at the team level. We also found support for the association between transformational leadership and learning cultures.     

An investigation of project complexity's influence on team communication using Monte Carlo simulation

Research using empirical methods has established a curvilinear relationship between team communication and performance. We conduct virtual experiments to examine team communication and performance when teams work under varying types and levels of project complexity. Data samples, generated using Monte Carlo simulation, are based on the statistical characteristics of empirical data collected from 60 cross-functional project teams that communicated over multiple media (email, phone, and face-to-face) and were completing projects of varying complexity. Regression analysis indicates that project complexity influences the communication-performance relationship. Optimization shows that the communication frequencies at which teams maximize or minimize their performance are dependent upon media used.     

家长式领导对高管团队有效性的影响机制研究:以团队凝聚力为中介变量

本文通过对108家中国企业的高管团队问卷调查所获得的数据的分析,探讨了CEO的家长式领导对高管团队有效性的影响机制,结果表明:仁慈领导和德行领导对团队有效性有显著的积极影响,威权领导对团队有效性有显著的消极影响;团队凝聚力起到了部分中介的作用,威权领导通过降低团队凝聚力对团队有效性产生负面影响.     

Cultural and societal influences on shared leadership in globally dispersed teams

Leading globally dispersed teams poses critical challenges, especially if the team members are not only physically separated, but also culturally diverse and their tasks are dynamic and complex. It has been argued that shared leadership behaviors, such as continuous reflection, anticipation of a team's information needs, and initiating a team's social influence, positively influence virtual team performance. Country-level effects on shared leadership in globally dispersed teams, however, have been neglected. Building on the country institutional profile developed by Kostova (1997), we argue that regulative, cognitive, and normative components influence the likelihood that the individual will engage in shared leadership behaviors. Analyzing the differences between the institutional profiles of team members' home countries as reflected in institutional diversity as a team-level property, we furthermore point to different levels of institutional diversity as an enabling or hindering condition of shared leadership.     

Leading teams in the digital age: Four perspectives on technology and what they mean for leading teams

Digital technologies are changing the nature of teamwork in ways that have important implications for leadership. Though conceptually rich and multi-disciplinary, much of the burgeoning work on technology has not been fully integrated into the leadership literature. To fill this gap, we organize existing work on leadership and technology, outlining four perspectives: (1) technology as context, (2) technology as sociomaterial, (3) technology as creation medium, and (4) technology as teammate. Each technology perspective makes assumptions about how technologies affect teams and the needs for team leadership. Within each perspective, we detail current work on leading teams. This section takes us from virtual teams to new vistas posed by leading online communities, crowds, peer production groups, flash teams, human-robot teams, and human-artificial intelligence teams. We identify 12 leadership implications arising from the ways digital technologies affect organizing. We then leverage our review to identify directions for future leadership research and practice.     

Effects of leader intelligence,personality and emotional intelligence on transformational leadership and managerial performance

This study investigates the effects of intelligence, personality traits and emotional intelligence on transformational leadership and the effective performance of leaders in the organizational context. Data were collected from 134 midlevel managers from a large Brazilian company that operates in the energy sector. Our findings suggest that leadership effectiveness, as measured by the achievement of organizational outcomes, is a direct function of a leader's transformational behaviors, and is an indirect function of individual differences (experience, intelligence and conscientiousness) that work through transformational behaviors. A negative effect of neuroticism on leadership effectiveness was also observed. In addition, while emotional intelligence seemed to be statistically related to transformational leadership if considered in isolation, when ability and personality were controlled for, the effect became non-significant. We discuss implications for theory, research and practice.     

变革/交易型领导对团队创新绩效的权变影响机制——团队情绪氛围的调节作用

基于85个团队的团队领导和450名团队成员的配对数据,通过统计分析发现:当团队情绪氛围比较积极时,变革型领导与团队创新绩效正相关,交易型领导与团队创新绩效负相关;当团队情绪氛围比较消极时,变革型领导与团队创新绩效负相关,交易型领导与团队创新绩效正相关。最后,结合有关研究结果给出了相应的实践和研究建议。     

Impact of rater personality on transformational and transactional leadership ratings

This study addresses the role of rater personality in ratings of transformational and transactional leadership. In a naturalistic field study, we found that rater personality (i.e., agreeableness, openness, extraversion, and conscientiousness) was positively associated with ratings of transformational leadership, but significant rater personality effects were not found in an experimental study where leadership behavior was invariant. These results suggest that disagreements among raters about leaders' behaviors are not due solely to random error and may instead reflect true differences either in (a) the behaviors leaders exhibit toward individual followers or (b) personality-related differences between followers in attention to and recall of leadership behaviors. We also found that personality (of subordinates and peers) was not randomly distributed across leaders, though clustering effects were generally small. Practically, our results suggest that (a) individual reports of leadership may be better at predicting leadership outcomes than aggregated group reports – especially those related to individual attitudes and behaviors – though they are rarely used in the literature; (b) aggregation is complicated because rater personality is associated with leadership ratings and is not randomly distributed across leaders; and (c) corrections for measurement error based on inter-rater agreement may not be appropriate due to non-random unique rater variance.     

Shared leadership performance relationship trajectories as a function of team interventions and members' collective personalities

We used longitudinal data from 205 members of 53 student teams who competed in a complex business simulation over 10 weeks to test: (1) whether shared leadership and performance were related reciprocally over time; (2) the relative magnitude of those relationships; and (3) whether a shared leadership intervention changes those relationships. We also considered the influence of team members' mean level personality to account for compositional effects. As anticipated, shared leadership and performance were related positively and reciprocally over time. Moreover, the shared leadership to performance relationship grew stronger and positive whereas the performance to shared leadership relationship remained fairly consistent over time. As expected, the intervention positively related to the trajectory of shared leadership. Finally, we did not find evidence for the hypothesized relationships of personality on shared leadership nor the strength of the intervention.     

Transformational leadership and childrens' aggression in team settings: A short-term longitudinal study

Social learning theory posits that one crucial way individuals learn how to behave is by observing and modeling the behavior of salient others. We conducted a short-term longitudinal study using multisource data on 183 teenaged ice hockey players (M age = 13.39 years) in 16 hockey teams to test the effects of 3 potentially salient leadership influences (team coaches, team players, and parents) on players' on-ice aggression. We tested a cross-level mediated model in which player aggression (penalty minutes) as measured by referees was the criterion variable. After controlling for prior levels of player aggression, team-level aggression mediated the relationship between team-level coach transformational leadership and player aggression. Parents' transformational leadership did not influence player aggression when assessed simultaneously with team-level coach transformational leadership. Consistent with social learning theory, the findings suggest that transformational leaders model prosocial behavior for followers.     

8. Information processing in traditional,hybrid, and virtual teams: From nascent knowledge to transactive memory

Virtual teams are increasingly common in organizations, yet explicit theory and research on virtual team processes and outcomes is relatively rare. In this chapter, we first place virtual teams in context and provide a two dimensional framework for understanding the range of virtualness. We then build from foundations of diversity, psychological safety, social identity, conflict, and transactive memory to provide a coherent model of traditional, hybrid, and virtual team outcomes. Fourteen propositions are derived from these foundations - covering knowledge availability, sharing, refinement, and storage. Teams whose members are separated by geographical or temporal distance can have considerable positive outcomes for organizations, if they are effectively managed and supported.