Enhancing team confidence: Collective efficacy as a mediator of the relationship between team leadership style and team outcomes
Description
Recent research on organizational work teams has proposed collective efficacy as a key determinant of work team effectiveness and has emphasized the need for examining how collective efficacy can be fostered within teams (Lindsley, Thomas, & Brass, 1995). It is theorized that a team leader, through the expression of a motivational leadership style, can foster collective efficacy within a team which, in turn, will lead to effective team performance. The present study investigated team leadership style as an antecedent of collective efficacy. Furthermore, the relationships between collective efficacy, task cohesion, and team outcomes such as profit, team satisfaction, and team viability were examined. Fifty teams, (each consisting of a leader and three team members) from a large federal organization performed a manufacturing simulation task. In order to investigate the impact of team leadership style on collective efficacy, one-half of the team leaders were trained to set high performance goals and expectations, provide positive feedback, and express confidence while they led their teams. The present research proposed that the three leadership behaviors would be positively related to collective efficacy. Furthermore, it was proposed that collective efficacy would be positively related to task cohesion, team satisfaction, and team viability. Collective efficacy was hypothesized to partially mediate the relationships between leadership style and task cohesion, and between leadership style and team performance outcomes (team satisfaction and viability). In addition, task cohesion was purported to mediate the collective efficacy-profit relationship. Results indicated that, as predicted, trained leaders exhibited more of the three leadership behaviors as compared with untrained leaders and that the three leadership behaviors were positively related to collective efficacy. In addition, collective efficacy was positively related to task cohesion, profit, team satisfaction, and team viability. Collective efficacy did prove to partially mediate the relationship between team member ratings of leadership style and the following team outcomes: profit, team satisfaction, and team viability. However, the hypothesized mediating role of task cohesion in the collective efficacy-profit relationship was not supported. Findings are discussed in terms of the implications for practice and future research