Scholars continue to show interest in research on teams, leadership and gender. Teams are the basic units of work and are instrumental in implementing organisational goals and outcomes (see Bodla, Tang, Jiang & Tian, Reference Bodla, Tang, Jiang and Tian2018; Lee & Wong, Reference Lee and Wong2019; Men, Fong, Luo, Zhong & Huo, Reference Men, Fong, Luo, Zhong and Huo2019) and for responding to crisis (Wegge, Jungbauer & Shelma, Reference Wegge, Jungbauer and Shemla2019) such as in the current COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, and for more than 50 years, researchers have always been intrigued by leadership. Especially, research on team leadership now appears to be gaining momentum. With regards to gender, researchers continue to interrogate gender at multiple organisational contexts (see Galbreath, Reference Galbreath2011; Zeffane, Reference Zeffane2020). The above provides a backdrop for the papers in our current issue.
In this issue (Issue 26.5), we investigate the intersection between teamwork and leadership. We also look at the impact of gender in organisations. We begin with a paper, “An Empirical Examination of the Emergence of Collective Psychological Ownership in Work Team Contexts” by Pierce, Li, Jussila and Wang. The paper is a test of their validated instrument to assess collective psychological ownership in organizations which was previously published by JMO in 2017. Especially, their paper in this issue illuminates the role played by teamwork complexity and team self-management in the emergence of the psychological processes associated with the manifestation of job-focused collective psychological ownership. Additionally, the use of serial mediation suggests that both teamwork dimensions put employees on two routes (intimate knowing of, and the collective investment of the team members' selves into the job) that lead to the emergence of a collective sense of ownership. Together these two route variables and collective psychological ownership sequentially mediated a positive relationship between teamwork design and team performance effectiveness. This is an important finding.
Our next paper takes a cross level perspective on teamwork. In this paper, “Cross-level Impact of Team Goal Orientation and Individual Goal Orientation on Individual Creativity”, the authors, Zhang, Ji, Anwar, Li & Fu explore 562 team members in 81 teams, to show how individual and team-level goal orientation influence individual creativity in Chinese organisations. Using multi-level research method and hierarchical level modelling, the authors reveal that team learning and individual learning goal orientation influence individual creativity through different information activities at their own levels. Furthermore, team learning goal orientation has a positive while team performance avoidance goal orientation has a negative effect on individual creativity through team information exchange. Additionally, individual learning goal orientation has a positive effect on individual creativity through individual information elaboration. Finally, team members tend to elaborate more work-related information when teams are more learning-orientated. Researchers (e.g. Huang, Huang & Chang, Reference Huang, Huang and Chang2019; Song, Yu, Zhang & Jiang, Reference Song, Yu, Zhang and Jiang2015) continue to explore goal orientation in the workplace. Future research should continue to tease out the full impact of goal orientation in multilevel organisational contexts.
The relationship between team familiarity and team innovation is mixed, paradoxical and tenuous. To provide more clarity on this relationship, our next paper, “The curvilinear relationship between team familiarity and team innovation: A secondary data analysis” by Xie, Ji, Luan and Zhao apply habitual routines theory to propose that team familiarity and team innovation have an inverted U-shaped relationship. They collected data from 68,933 R&D teams in the electrical engineering industry to test their hypotheses. The results support a nonlinear relationship between team familiarity and team innovation, and suggest that the best innovative performance is produced by moderately familiar teams. Furthermore, they show that external learning can moderate this curvilinear relationship. The paper concludes with theoretical contributions and future implications.
Our next paper, “Workgroup accord and change-oriented behavior in public service organizations: Mediating and contextual factors” by Campbell focuses on the effect of workgroup accord (i.e. positive exchange, cooperation, and consensus) on change-oriented behaviour in public service organizations. The author demonstrates that workgroup accord positively influences organizational commitment, which, in turn, facilitates change-oriented behaviour. However, a negative direct effect renders the total effect of workgroup accord on change-oriented behaviour non-significant. These findings also show that innovation climate and employee performance agreement efficacy separately and positively moderate the negative relationship between workgroup accord and change-oriented behaviour.
Still on teamwork, we know that Top Management Team (TMT) plays a central but strategic role in envisioning and implementing strategic goals in organisations. In this regard, Lehmberg and Tangpong in their paper, “Do top management performance attribution patterns matter to subsequent organizational outcomes? A two-country study of attribution in economic crisis”, argue that management's performance attributions set the tone for accountability and shape organizational climate. Yet, studies on the link between attribution patterns and subsequent performance are mixed. Extending literature in this area, the authors examine four different types of attribution on performance concurrently in a two-country sample and demonstrate a significant positive relationship between positive internal attribution and subsequent performance improvement. Their results reaffirm prior findings that managers tend to attribute positive outcomes to internal causes and negative outcomes to external causes on negative external attribution and performance. The authors caution that “managers should be careful and deliberate about how they attribute performance outcomes, as these attributions can be a galvanizing or a deterring force of a subsequent performance”.
Moving from teams to the relationship between workers and their supervisors, Eissa, Wyland and Gupta in their paper, “Supervisor to Co-worker Social Undermining: The Moderating Roles of Bottom-Line Mentality and Self-Efficacy” explore the notion of social undermining in the workplace. Drawing on social cognitive theory, this study shows that supervisor social undermining is positively linked with co-worker social undermining in the workplace. Additionally, they theorise that employee bottom-line mentality will exacerbate the positive relationship between supervisor social undermining and co-worker social undermining while employee self-efficacy will buffer this positive relationship. Using field data obtained from several information technology and financial organizations in India, their overall findings provide support for their proposed trickle-down model. This paper is a good addition to the conversation on supervisor- supervisee relationship and self-efficacy in JMO (see Brunetto Teo, Shacklock, Farr-Wharton & Shriberg, Reference Brunetto, Teo, Shacklock, Farr-Wharton and Shriberg2017).
Now moving from teamwork to leadership, we commence with board leadership. Indeed, our next paper, “Board leadership and governance for clear-sighted CEO succession at Air New Zealand” explores the intersection between teams and leadership and especially contextualising leadership in the board literature. The authors, Cikaliuk, Erakovic, Jackson, Noonan and Watson address the issue of CEO succession drawing directly on the experience of the board of directors of Air New Zealand. Based on the data from documentary sources and in-depth interviews with all board members and CEOs appointed in the period 2002–2013, they shed light on governance processes primarily for teaching purposes but also as a resource for research. The case study demonstrates that the board has an important role in transforming an organisation such as the Air New Zealand. In this respect, the board developed, implemented, and managed a succession process for three CEOs that was well-designed and achieved its desired benefits.
Also, related to CEO succession, the paper, “CEO outsiderness and firm performance in an emerging economy: The moderating role of managerial discretion” by Ataay investigates the moderating impact of managerial discretion on the relationship between new CEO outsiderness and firms' post-succession performance. Analysis of a sample of 75 CEO succession events in an emerging economy, the author shows that new CEO outsiderness, without managerial discretion context influences, has no direct effect on post-succession performance. Moreover, market complexity, but not munificence, provides CEOs with more discretion in the Turkish context, thus strengthening the positive relationship between CEO origin and firm performance. The paper also shows that when firms have more inertia (as with older firms), managerial discretion is weakened, as is the relationship between CEO outsiderness and firm performance. However, when a CEO has the dual role of both CEO and chairman, the relationship between CEO outsiderness and firm performance becomes stronger.
Our next paper, “Organizational learning and Gen Y employees' affective commitment: The mediating role of competency development and moderating role of strategic leadership” by Naim and Lenka, examines the impact of strategic leadership on affective commitment of Gen Y employees working in Indian IT industry. Analysis of data from a sample of 356 Gen Y employees (born between 1980–2000) from IT industry in Delhi (NCR, India) reveals that organizational learning has a direct influence on affective commitment of Gen Y employees while competency development mediates the relationship between them. Moreover, strategic leadership positively moderates the link between organizational learning and competency development.
In the paper, “Authentic Leadership Outcomes in Detail Orientated Occupations: Commitment, Role-Stress and Intentions to Leave”, the authors Kalay, Brender-Ilan and Kantor employ the Certified Public Accounting (CPA) as a context to examine if CPA managers exhibiting an authentic leadership style are capable of strengthening the commitment of their subordinates and, at the same time, reducing role-stress and intentions to leave. Based on a sample of 512 CPAs in Israel and using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), the findings indicate that perceived authentic leadership is negatively related to role-conflicts and role-ambiguity, directly and through the mediation of affective commitment. Besides, the negative correlation between authentic leadership and intention is also fully mediated by affective commitment.
Investigating the dark side of leadership, Arain, Bukhari, Khan and Hameed in their paper, “The Impact of Abusive Supervision on Employees' Feedback Avoidance and Subsequent Help-Seeking Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Analysis” investigate a moderated mediation model where perceived co-worker support is hypothesised as moderating the mediation of supervisory feedback avoidance between abusive supervision and help-seeking behaviour. Data from matching dyads of 220 house officers and 86 postgraduate medical staff supported the hypothesis that abusive supervision is positively associated with supervisory feedback avoidance leading also to help-seeking from co-workers. Moreover, the mediating effect of supervisory feedback avoidance indicates a stronger at the high-value of co-worker support than at the low-value of co-worker support. The findings of this paper suggest that abusive supervision may not always lead to negative work behaviours, rather, it may culminate into positive work behaviours that are highly beneficial for organization.
The last three papers but the not the least in the current issue cross-examine gender in the workplace. In the paper, “Rethinking Femininity in Organisations-Experimental Insights into Team Composition”, Busse examines an underrepresentation of femininity in businesses. Employing an experimental design with 288 young executives simulating self-organised work groups and manipulated the degree of gender-related (not sex-related) heterogeneity, the study shows a curvilinear relationship with an upright U-shaped format between heterogeneity and performance, team identity and intra-team communication. The author recommends ‘femininity enrichment’ in firms and discusses manageable practical advice to do so.
Koseoglu, Blum, and Shalley, in their paper, “Gender similarity, co-worker support, and job attitudes: An occupation's creative requirement can make a difference” introduce gender similarity as a contextual antecedent of co-worker support and they examine the mediating role of co-worker support for the relationship between workgroup gender similarity and job attitudes. They also explore how a creative requirement, which is an occupational characteristic, can influence the relationship between co-worker support and job attitudes above and beyond the role of supervisor support and organizational support. Data from 975 full-time employees across a wide variety of occupations and industries indicate that co-worker support can serve as an underlying mechanism in the relationship between the relational demography of a workplace, employees' job satisfaction and intention to quit. Furthermore, co-worker support is found to be significantly related to job satisfaction only for those occupations that required high levels of creativity. Finally, the creative requirement of an occupation moderates the indirect effect of gender similarity on job satisfaction through co-worker support.
Finally, the paper on “Courage in the workplace: The effects of managerial level and gender on the relationship between behavioural courage and job performance” by Oleksandr, Quast, Song and Jang examine the relationship between behavioural courage and job performance, and also explore the possible effects of organizational level and gender on this relationship. With a sample of managers from mid-to large-sized for-profit organizations in the United States, the results demonstrate that behavioural courage is positively associated with job performance while significant differences in supervisors' ratings of behavioural courage between employees at low and high organizational levels are indicated. Also, gender moderated the association between behavioural courage and job performance. These results extend literature on leadership studies, and human resource development.
Overall, the articles in Issue 26.5 continue to interrogate and broaden the work on teamwork, leadership and gender in organisations. We note that the issues studied in the papers are by no means exhaustive and JMO welcomes articles that investigate these research issues at multiple organisational levels, with novel methodological approaches and across various contexts and disciplines.
