Authentic leadership and team climate: testing cross-lagged relationships

Authentic leadership and employee resilience during the COVID-19: The role of flow, organizational identification, and trust

The present work investigated fundamental mediating mechanisms (i.e., flow experience, organizational identification, and trust), underlining the impact of authentic leadership on employee resilience during the turbulent COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 901 frontline employees working in a construction engineering company in China participated in this study. They were asked to respond to a battery of questionnaires comprising Trust Scale (affective-based, cognitive-based, and competence-based), Flow Proneness Questionnaire (FPQ), Organizational Identification Scale, Authentic Leadership Questionnaire, and Employee Resilience Scale. Results of structural equation modeling indicated that: (1) Authentic leadership positively predicted employee resilience in the COVID-19 pandemic, directly and indirectly. (2) As for the indirect relationship, two parallel mediation effects and one chain mediation were detected: employees' flow at work and organizational identification respectively and dependently mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and employee resilience; trust and organizational identification played as a chain mediation role within authentic leadership-employee resilience association. The study provides empirical evidence for organizations' resilience-building and leadership training programs. Findings also contribute to the literature by facilitating flow intervention, promoting organizational identification and trust to enhance the effect of authentic leadership in promoting positive psychological functioning of employee resilience. Limitations with respect to future research directions were also outlined.

In search of mediators of leadership behavior to Team Creativity in Team Start-ups

Creativity is believed as the first step to innovation, especially in a team or workgroup in an organization. Team Creativity will lead to several innovations in a team, such as product and process innovation. Team leaders play a significant role in embracing Team Creativity. Our study investigates the mediator variables to foster the impact of leadership behavior on Team Creativity in Team Start-up. Earlier research shows that two value-based leadership styles, Transformational and Servant Leadership, significantly affect a team's creativity. We proposed two mediators of leadership behavior to foster Team Creativity: Team Climate and Team Ambidexterity. The sample is early Team Start-ups in several cities in Indonesia, run and led by young people. It is empirical cross-sectional quantitative research with more than 434 participants aggregated into 145 teams. The result shows that Team Climate and Team Ambidexterity are good mediators of Servant and Transformational Leadership behavior to Team Creativity in Team Start-ups. The two variables maximize the impact of leadership behavior on Team Creativity.

Exploring the team dynamic learning process in software process tailoring performance

Purpose

Software process tailoring (SPT) is a knowledge- and learning-intensive activity in which a software project team customizes its software development processes to accommodate project particularities. Because SPT critically influences how a project is conducted, SPT performance should be investigated, but the extant literature lacks investigations into how team knowledge mechanisms and team environments contribute to SPT performance. To fill this gap, this study looks into a team's absorptive capacity (AC) and combines a transactive memory system (TMS) and team climate inventory (TCI) to develop a theoretical research model to facilitate the understanding of SPT performance.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is a conceptual study that uses the propositional methodology with a focused review of existing literature pertaining to SPT, AC, TMS and TCI to develop a theoretical model to foster SPT performance. Because this study is conceptually established, further empirical research and studies are also suggested.

Findings

The proposed model provides guidance for firms conducting SPT. It also contributes to future research aiming to empirically understand the mechanisms behind the identified team-based knowledge and environmental enablers in the dynamic team learning process that lead to superior SPT performance.

Originality/value

The proposed model provides a fresh look at the dynamic capabilities theory in SPT and innovatively identifies a team's dynamic learning process to show how a team can conduct effective SPT through AC and facilitated by TMS. Environmental climates characterized by vision, participative safety, task orientation and support for innovation act as positive moderators in promoting the team dynamic learning process.

Emergence of team engagement under time pressure: role of team leader and team climate

Purpose

This paper aims to identify the determinants of team engagement emerging as a collective team-level phenomenon under time pressure context. The paper particularly explores how teams working under time pressure conditions use their social resources to develop into highly engaged teams.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper develops a conceptual framework along with related propositions by integrating diverse literature from the field of team processes, leadership and engagement. The arguments are theoretically embedded into the job demands-resources (JD-R) model to explain the emergence of team engagement under time pressure conditions.

Findings

The suggested conceptual model based on the JD-R model reveal that teams working under time pressure conditions view it as a challenging job demand and, hence, use their social resources as a coping mechanism, thereby developing into highly engaged teams. However, the paper finds that for team engagement to emerge under time pressure, teams require two important determinants. These two main determinants are team leader engaging behaviors and team climate. Engaging team leader’s behaviors include four sub-components: emotional agility, use of humor, efficient delegation and quality of feedback. Team climate constitute three sub-components: open communication, fun at work and compassion within the team. Only teams which have a strong team climate and team leaders’ engaging behaviors tend to have high team engagement under time pressure contexts.

Research limitations/implications

The paper offers implications for both HR and line managers in team-based organizations to promote factors that enhance team engagement, for teams to perform under time pressure situations.

Originality/value

The paper identifies determinants of team engagement under time pressure context and further adds to the understanding of team processes by theoretically exploring how time pressure as a job demand can be channeled in a positive manner for promoting team engagement by using teams’ social resources: team leader’s engaging behaviors and team climate.