Why some teams work better than others: An investigation of voice, TMS and leadership on team performance

• Autor(a) principal: La Porta, Louisa Carlotta
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/20694
• topic: Voice; Transactive memory systems; Leadership; Self-managed teams; Teamwork; Voz; Sistemas de memória transativa; Liderança; Gestão de equipa autónoma; Trabalho de equipa; Gestão de recursos humanos; Conhecimento -- Knowledge; Autonomia; Desempenho organizacional

Teams have become the standard way of working in organizations and therefore the question of what differentiates highly performing units from other teams has attracted much research attention. Especially the utilization of knowledge such as team members sharing their knowledge and the awareness of other members’ expertise can be decisive for team performance. Looking into the relationship between team member’s behaviors, team cognition and self-management encouraged by the leader, this study connects three streams of literature, namely voice, TMS and leadership, to reach a better understanding how these interact and impact team performance. Specifically, in this study, we investigate the mediation role of TMS in the relationship between voice and team performance, and whether the leadership function of promoting team self-management moderates this relationship. A sample of 46 consulting teams has been analyzed through a moderated mediation model without finding support for the full model. However, this multi-level research showed that voice is positively related with performance but that the relationship between TMS and performance is less clear and depends on the extent to which leaders encourage the team to manage itself. In light of findings on both the individual and organizational level indicating that voice can have positive effects, this research extends the literature in terms of the applicability at the meso level. Also, further light is shed on the interaction between team cognition and team leadership warranting further research. Practical and theoretical implications of the findings and potential questions for future research are discussed.