A Duet of Leadership by Leader and Member: The Synergy Effects of Leader Transformational Leadership and Transformational Leadership Shared by Members on Team Effectiveness

리더와 구성원의 리더십 이중주: 팀에서 리더의 변혁적 리더십과 구성원의 변혁적 리더십의 상호작용

  • 김문주 (이화여자대학교 경영대학 경영학과) ;
  • 이지예 (이화여자대학교 경영대학 경영학과) ;
  • 윤정구 (이화여자대학교 경영대학 경영학과)
  • Received : 2013.06.04
  • Accepted : 2013.08.06
  • Published : 2013.09.01

Abstract

The present study examines the effects of transformational leadership exercised by team leader and transformational leadership shared by team members on team creativity and team performance at the team level. A growing body on leadership research highlights the role of team leadership in work organizations. In team settings, studies have focused exclusively on individual leaders who occupy formal leadership positions and exercise vertical influence over team members. In contrast to this traditional approach, shared leadership highlights a horizontal influence process where leadership is collectively carried out by team members. In this shared form of leadership, members actively participate in the leadership process and horizontally influence other team members. This mutual influence among team members constitutes a critical condition for the success of team-based organizations. The ability of team members to work together as a team is the key to the overall functioning of the team organization. To verify the effect of two leadership styles, we analyze the effect of a leader's transformational leadership and members' shared transformational leadership on team creativity and team performance for the same team. This study also predicts that the transformational leadership shared by members will moderate the effects of leader transformational leadership on team performance and creativity. Our findings show that both leaderships have a positive effect on team performance. However, the main effect of a leader's transformational leadership on team creativity is not significant when members' transformational leadership is employed into the model. With the effect of leader transformational leadership controlled for, the main effects of the transformational leadership shared by members on team creativity and performance are significant. In addition, we also found the significant moderation effects of member transformational leadership by leader transformational leadership on team creativity. Based on these findings, we strongly recommend that team based organizations shift the leadership focus from the leader focused leadership model to the shared leadership model. We also discuss managerial implications of our findings in details.

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