Team management

Abstract: We present and test a theory on leader emergence in self-managing teams that highlights the emotional and cognitive skills underlying selection as an informal team leader. Existing theory and research reveals that informal leaders are selected because they display constructive task and team management behavior. We contribute to existing theory in two ways. First, by proposing that specific cognitive processes and skills precede the appropriate enactment of those behaviors by facilitating an accurate analysis of the task situation. Second, by proposing that empathy, an aspect of emotional intelligence, precedes and enables those cognitive processes and skills by providing an accurate understanding of team and member emotions and needs. We test our theory in a longitudinal study of 382 team members comprising 48 self-managing teams. Our theory is partially supported and implications are discussed.

Abstract: Based on role enactment theory, leadership task theory, and emerging notions of leadership as a collective process, this study examined the existence and performance correlates of collective team leadership in state department of transportation road maintenance teams. Confirmatory factor analysis ( n = 277) supported a hypothesized four-factor model consisting of: planning and organizing, problem-solving, support and consideration, and development and mentoring. Collective leadership enactment within teams was positively related to mean level of team members' collectivism, but not power distance. The mean level of collective leadership within a team, particularly the development and mentoring dimension, predicted supervisor-rated team performance ( n = 45). Future research and team management implications for conceptualizing collective leadership as concertive role enactment are discussed.

Abstract: In this paper, we consider how the structures of tasks and teams interact to affect team performance. We study the effects of diversity in experience on a team's ability to respond to task changes by separately examining interpersonal team diversity (i.e., differences in experience across the entire team) and intrapersonal team diversity (i.e., whether individuals on the team are more or less specialized). We also examine whether team familiarity---team members' prior experience working with one another---helps teams to better manage challenges created by task changes and greater interpersonal team diversity. Using detailed project-and individual-level data from an Indian software services firm, we find that the interaction of task change with intrapersonal diversity is related to improved project performance, whereas the interaction of task change with interpersonal diversity is related to diminished performance. Additionally, the interaction of team familiarity with interpersonal diversity is related to improved project performance in some cases. Our results highlight a need for more nuanced approaches to leveraging experience in team management.