The influence of transformational leadership on team performance and team creativity: A team-level resilient proactive model

• Main Author: ZHU, Youwei
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2023
• Subjects: transformational leadership; team mental model; team improvisation; team performance; team creativity; team task variety; external environmental complexity; Leadership Studies; Organization Development
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/461; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/etd_coll/article/1459/viewcontent/GPBA_AY2017_DBA_Zhu_Youwei.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The current Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA) era is characterized by a number of factors, including globalization, technological advancements, geopolitical instability, and shifting consumer demands. These factors have combined to create an environment in which businesses and organizations must be highly adaptable and agile to survive and thrive. To succeed in the current VUCA era, organizations must have the ability to anticipate and respond to change quickly while also being able to adapt to new technologies and business models. This task requires a strong focus on innovation, agility, and collaboration as well as a willingness to take calculated risks and try new approaches; accordingly, transformational leadership has emerged as a critical driver of organizational development in VUCA era. Given that the team is the basic unit of organizational operation, it is crucial for organizations to explore the effects of leadership on team performance and creativity as well as the mechanism underlying those effects. In this research, I propose that transformational leadership has a positive connection to the team mental model, which consequently benefits team performance and creativity by enhancing team proactive motivational states—team potency and team improvisation. Furthermore, I suggest that variables representing internal and external team environment complexity—team task variety and external team context complexity—moderate and strengthen the effect of transformational leadership on team mental model. Data were collected from firms located in eastern China using a multisource, three-wave field study design. The final sample consisted of 630 employees from 81 teams. The results provide partial support for the hypotheses proposed in this research. Specifically, I find that transformational leadership has a significant direct effect on team mental model, which in turn has effects on team potency and team improvisation. The serial indirect effects between transformational leadership and team performance/creativity via team potency/improvisation are thus supported. Moreover, the moderating role of internal team environment complexity—team task variety on the relationship between transformational leadership and team mental model is supported, while that of external environmental complexity—external team context is not. I discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for organizations, managers, and employees and highlight directions for future research.