The impact of leadership on group performance was investigated in the context of a semiautonomous work team environment. The relationship between group performance and team leadership, as exhibited by the designated, internal leader, was moderated by team size. Team leadership, as rated by team members, was related to the managers’ ratings of quality and overall performance for smaller teams, but not for larger teams. In addition, the managers’ ratings of team performance were not significantly correlated with ratings of team performance obtained from the team members.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Avolio, B. J.
, O’Connell, M. S., Maritz, D., & Kennedy, C. (1999, April). Assessment of transformational leadership potential. Paper presented at the 14th annual Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Atlanta, GA.
2.
Bass, B.
, & Yammarino, F. (1991). Congruence of self and others’ leadership ratings of naval officers for understanding successful performance. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 40, 437-454.
3.
Calder, B. J.
(1977). An attribution theory of leadership. In B. M. Staw & G. R. Salancik (Eds.), New directions in organizational behavior (pp. 179-204). Chicago: St. Clair Press.
4.
Chelladurai, P.
(1984). Discrepancy between preferences and perceptions of leadership behavior and satisfaction of athletes in varying sports. Journal of Sport Psychology, 6, 27-41.
5.
Cohen, S. G.
, Chang, L., & Ledford, G. (1997). A hierarchical construct of self-management leadership and its relationship to quality of work life and perceived work group effectiveness. Personnel Psychology, 50, 275-308.
6.
Cummings, L. L.
, Huber, G. P., & Arendt, E. (1974). Effects of size and spatial arrangements on group decision making. Academy of Management Journal, 17, 460-475.
7.
Day, D. V.
, & Lord, R. G. (1988). Executive leadership and organizational performance: Suggestions for a new theory and methodology. Journal of Management, 14, 453-464.
8.
Donaldson, T.
, & Preston, L. (1995). The stakeholder theory of the corporation: Concepts, evidence, implications. Academy of Management Review, 20, 65-91.
9.
Echols, D.
, & Mitchell, R. (1990). Champion or victim? The supervisor’s new role in a team-based work system. Paper presented at 7th annual Fall Forum, Association for Quality and Participation, Denver, CO.
10.
Fiedler, F. E.
, & Garcia, J. E. (1987). New approaches to effective leadership: Cognitive resources and organizational performance. New York: Wiley.
11.
Fiedler, F. E.
, & Leister, A. F. (1977). Leader intelligence and task performance: A test of a multiple screen model. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 20, 1-14.
12.
Furnham, A.
, & Stringfield, A. (1994). Congruence of self and subordinate ratings of managerial practices as a correlate of supervisor evaluation. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 67, 57-67.
13.
Gist, M. E.
, Locke, E. A., & Taylor, M. S. (1987). Organizational behavior: Group structure, process, and effectiveness. Journal of Management, 13, 237-257.
14.
Gupta, A. K.
(1984). Contingency linkages between strategy and general manager characteristics: A conceptual examination. Academy of Management Review, 9, 399-412.
15.
Gupta, A. K.
(1988). Contingency perspectives on strategic leadership: Current knowledge and future research directions. In D. C. Hambrick (Ed.), The executive effect: Concepts and methods for studying topmanagers (pp. 147-178). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
16.
Hackman, J. R.
(1987). The design of work teams. In J. Lorsch (Ed.), Handbook of organizational behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
17.
Hackman, J. R.
, & Vidmar, N. (1970). Effects of size and task type on group performance and member relations. Sociometry, 33, 37-54.
18.
Hater, J. J.
, & Bass, B. M. (1988). Superiors’ evaluations and subordinates’ perceptions of transformational and transactional leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 73, 695-702.
19.
Hoffman, C. C.
, Nathan, B. R., & Holden, L. M. (1991). A comparison of validation criteria: Objective versus subjective performance measures and self-versus supervisor ratings. Personnel Psychology, 44, 601-619.
20.
Jacobs, D.
, & Singell, L. (1993). Leadership and organizational performance: Isolating links between managers and collective success. Social Science Research, 22, 165-189.
21.
Jessup, H. R.
(1990, November). New roles in team leadership. Training and Development Journal, 44, 79-83.
22.
Kirkman, B. L.
, & Rosen, B. (1999). Beyond self-management: Antecedents and consequences of team empowerment. Academy of Management Journal, 42, 58-74.
23.
Latané, B.
(1981). The psychology of social impact. American Psychologist, 36, 343-356.
24.
Lord, R. G.
, Binning, J. F., Rush, M. C., & Thomas, J. C. (1978). The effects of performance cues and leader behavior on questionnaire ratings of leadership behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 21, 27-39.
25.
Lord, R. G.
, Foti, R. J., & Phillips, J. S. (1982). A theory of leadership categorization. In J. G. Hunt, U. Sekaran, & C. Schriescheim (Eds.), Leadership: Beyond established views (pp. 104-121). Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
26.
Lord, R. G.
, & Maher, K. J. (1990). Alternative information-processing models and their implications for theory, research, and practice. Academy of Management Review, 15, 9-28.
27.
Manz, C. C.
, & Sims, H. P., Jr. (1987). Leading workers to lead themselves: The external leadership of self-managed work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 32, 106-128.
28.
Manz, C. C.
, & Sims, H. P., Jr. (1989). Super leadership: Leading others to lead themselves. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
29.
Misumi, J.
(1985). The behavioral science of leadership: An interdisciplinary Japanese research program. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
30.
Mitchell, T. R.
, Larson, J. R., & Green, S. G. (1977). Leader behavior, situational moderators, and group performance: An attributional process. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 18, 254-268.
31.
Murphy, K.
, & Cleveland, J. N. (1995). Understanding performance appraisal: Social, organizational and goal-based perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
32.
Pearce, J. A.
, & Ravlin, E. C. (1987). The design and activation of self-regulating work groups. Human Relations, 40, 751-782.
33.
Phillips, J. S.
, & Lord, R. G. (1981). Causal attributions and perceptions of leadership. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 28, 143-163.
34.
Slater, S. F.
(1989). The influence of managerial style on business unit performance. Journal of Management, 15, 441-455.
35.
Stewart, G. L.
, & Manz, C. C. (1995). Leadership for self-managing work teams: A typology and integrative model. Human Relations, 48, 747-770.
36.
Sundstrom, E.
, Demeuse, K., & Futrell, D. (1990). Work teams: Applications and effectiveness. American Psychologist, 45, 120-133.
37.
Weiss, M. R.
, & Friedrichs, W. D. (1986). The influence of leader behaviors, coach attributes, and institutional variables on performance and satisfaction of collegiate basketball teams. Journal of Sport Psychology, 8, 332-346.
38.
Wellins, R. S.
, Byham, W. C., & Dixon, G. R. (1994). Inside teams: How 20 world-class organizations are winning through teamwork. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
39.
Wellins, R. S.
, Byham, W. C., & Wilson, J. M. (1991). Empowered teams: Creating self-directed work groups that improve quality, productivity, and participation.SanFrancisco:Jossey-Bass.
40.
Wellins, R. S.
, Wilson, J., Katz, A. J., Laughlin, P., & Day, C. R., Jr. (1990). Self-directed teams: A study of current practice (Survey report). Pittsburgh, PA: Development Dimensions International.
41.
Williams, J.
, & Levy, P. (1992). The effect of perceived system knowledge on the agreement between self-ratings and supervisor ratings. Personnel Psychology, 45, 835-847.
42.
Wilson, J. M.
, George, J., Wellins, R. S., & Byham, W. C. (1994). Leadershiptrapeze: Strategies for leadershipin team-based organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.