Team Identification, Team Performance and Leader-Member Exchange Relationships in Virtual Groups

The push and pull provided by information technology and rapidly changing business demands have led to virtual work becoming increasingly important in organizations. Virtual work can take various forms, from telecommuting to global project development teams. In virtual organizations and communities, individuals can be part of groups that have no physical co-location, and often do not meet, except virtually. Increased globalization, tightened traveling budgets, and heightened security awareness foster the growth of virtual environments. This mini-track focuses on issues related to challenges presented by and effectiveness of virtual work, teams, organizations, and communities. We sought papers addressing these issues from an organizational, managerial, team, community, or individual perspective, as well as papers on enabling technologies and their use in this environment. The resulting twelve papers published in the HICSS-38 proceedings investigate a variety of important topics of interest to researchers and practitioners. Walther, Bunz, and Bazarova address the development of trust in virtual groups. They propose communication rules based on social information processing theory, and empirically test them. Keim and Weitzel also explore trust development in establishing successful virtual partnerships. Factors influencing performance of virtual teams are of critical interest to researchers and practitioners. Staples and Cameron report results from a field study examining relationships between team performance and interpersonal skills, team size, and turnover. DeLone, Espinosa, Lee, and Carmel present a conceptual framework for global IS development project success. They conduct interviews with global project managers to validate the framework. Role coordination -preventing the emergence of individual roles and building shared team interaction mental models -is an important aspect of task performance in teams. Sutanto, Phang, Kuan, Kankanhalli, and Tan investigate this phenomenon in two global virtual teams and offer suggestions on how effective role coordination can be achieved. Galvin, McKinney, and Chudoba also investigate individuals’ integration with the team in pursuit of common objectives, proposing a model to help better understand the process of transformation from being individually centric to being team centric. Zhang, Fjermestad, and Tremain analyze and identify drawbacks and inconsistencies in previous empirical literature on leadership style in the virtual team context. They develop propositions for future research. Misiolek and Heckman examine leadership behavior in virtual teams by observing a virtual collaboration exercise and developing insights into how leadership behaviors emerge and are distributed. Addressing an increasingly important virtual team structure, Mark and Abrams investigate largescale group-to-group collaboration. They examine how interactions differ between collocated and distributed settings in a design team. Results indicate that subgroup interactions occurred differently within sites compared to across sites. DeLuca and Valacich examine communication media choice in virtual groups in two organizations. Results support Media Synchronicity Theory. Bhappu and Crews explore effects of communication media and conflict on team identification in diverse teams and suggest ways diverse teams can manage intra-group conflict. Chidambaram and Carte also examine virtual teams with diverse membership. They propose a model that describes how collaborative technologies can help leverage positive aspects of diversity and limit negative aspects; they then test the model in a longitudinal field study.

In this review, we address inconsistencies and a lack of clarity in the study of leader-member exchange (LMX) differentiation and group outcomes. We do so by drawing on another highly visible group dispersion literature in the management domain, group diversity, based on the recognition that LMX quality is a characteristic on which group members vary. Utilizing insights from Harrison and Klein’s typology of group diversity constructs, we introduce a framework that specifies the meaning and shape of three variations of differentiated leader-member relationships in groups and connects each construct with implications in terms of theorizing and measurement. Specifically, our framework conceptualizes LMX differentiation as LMX separation (dispersion in LMX relationships as disagreement or opposition regarding an opinion, perception, or position), LMX variety (dispersion in LMX relationships as distinctiveness in kind, source, or category), and LMX disparity (dispersion in LMX relationships as inequality in concentration of valued social assets or resources). We then apply this framework to conduct a systematic review of the LMX differentiation literature with particular attention to alignment among a study’s descriptions of the construct, application of theory, expected group outcomes, and construct measurement. Finally, we offer recommendations for future research and for applying our framework to enhance reliability, validity, and generalizability in studies of LMX differentiation and group outcomes.

Two field studies (N = 1240 and N = 22021) were conducted to investigate the impact of subordinates’ disability status, type of disability, and self-efficacy on leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships. In study 1, we focused on the interplay of subordinates’ disability status and personal resources (self-efficacy and individual performance) in predicting LMX quality. Contrary to further research, subordinates with disabilities formed no lower-quality LMX relationships with their supervisors in general and the interaction of disability status and personal resources (self-efficacy and individual performance) did not affect LMX quality. However, after analyzing subordinates' disability status, self-efficacy and performance in a three-way-interaction, we found a significant relationship with LMX quality. For employees with disabilities, the combination of high self-efficacy and low performance resulted in the lowest LMX quality, while low self-efficacy and low performance resulted in significantly higher LMX quality. For employees without disabilities, this pattern did not emerge. In study 2, we investigated the interplay of disability type, self-efficacy, and LMX quality. In line with our expectations, we found significant differences between disability types, indicating that employees that have both a physical and a psychological disability form significantly worse LMX relationships with their supervisors than employees without or with just one type of disability. Moreover, we found two significant moderations such that self-efficacy had a stronger impact on LMX quality when a subordinate had a psychological disability, or a combination of disabilities. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed and directions for future research are presented.

PurposeThis study aims to examine the relationships among leader‐member exchange (LMX), innovative work behaviour (IWB), and intention to quit. The mediating role of work engagement is tested within the relationship of LMX, IWB, and intention to quit.Design/methodology/approachRespondents to a survey were 979 Indian managerial employees working in six service sector organisations in India. Structural equation modelling was used to test hypothesised relationships.FindingsResults suggest quality of exchanges between employees and their immediate supervisors influences engagement. Work engagement correlates positively with innovative work behaviour and negatively with intention to quit. Work engagement mediates the relationship between LMX and innovative work behaviour, and partially mediates intention to quit.Research limitations/implicationsA cross‐sectional design and use of self‐reported questionnaire data is a limitation of this study. Since the study focuses only on service‐sector organisations, the results of this study should be interpreted with caution.Originality/valueThis study makes important theoretical contributions in three ways. In the domain of work engagement, it addresses factors that influence employee engagement and its outcomes. It expands knowledge about organisational resources that foster work engagement. For LMX, this study complements existing research by investigating work engagement as an outcome. Identifying LMX and work engagement as antecedents of innovative work behaviour, it also extends research in that domain. An important contribution is positioning work engagement as a means through which job resources are linked to employee outcomes. The study is also a rare examination of the Indian context.

PurposeClinician turnover in mental health settings impacts service quality, including availability and delivery of evidence-based practices. Leadership is associated with organizational climate, team functioning and clinician turnover intentions (TI). This study examines leader–member exchange (LMX), reflecting the relationship between a supervisor and each supervisee, using mean team LMX, dispersion of individual clinician ratings compared to team members (i.e. relative LMX) and team level variability (i.e. LMX differentiation), in relation to organizational climate and clinician TI.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were collected from 363 clinicians, nested in children's mental health agency workgroups, providing county-contracted outpatient services to youth and families. A moderated mediation path analysis examined cross-level associations of leader–member exchange with organizational climate and turnover intentions.FindingsLower relative LMX and greater LMX differentiation were associated with higher clinician TI. Higher team-level demoralizing climate also predicted higher TI. These findings indicate that poorer LMX and more variability in LMX at the team level are related to clinician TI.Originality/valueThis study describes both team- and clinician-level factors on clinician TI. Few studies have examined LMX in mental health, and fewer still have examined relative LMX and LMX differentiation associations with organizational climate and TI. These findings highlight the importance of leader–follower relationships and organizational climate and their associations with clinician TIs. Mental health service systems and organizations can address these issues through fostering more positive supervisor–supervisee relationships.

Team composition literature has established associations of team personality composition and performance in previous research. This study adds to this literature by examining the positive relationship of mean core self-evaluations (CSE) and team performance as well as the moderating effect of team-member exchange (TMX) on this relationship. Using 63 senior business student teams engaged in a management-simulation exercise, there was no support for the main effect of CSE above any variance explained in team performance by mean levels of the Big 5 factors. However, there was strong support for TMX as a moderator where mean CSE was only found to positively relate with team performance when TMX was high. The discussion will detail the results and future directions for research.

SummaryIn this article, we sought to identify a new interpersonal antecedent of knowledge hiding, namely, leader–member exchange (LMX). Drawing on the group engagement model (an extension of social identity theory within the group/organization context), we built a theoretical model linking LMX and knowledge hiding. This model focuses on the mediating role of organizational identification and the moderating role of relative LMX in influencing the mediation. Using two time‐lagged studies (Study 1: n = 317; Study 2: n = 248) conducted in China, we examined our research model. Study 1 provided support for the proposed hypotheses for evasive hiding and playing dumb but not for rationalized hiding. Study 2 replicated and extended our findings. Results revealed that (a) LMX was negatively related to evasive hiding and playing dumb but not to rationalized hiding; (b) organizational identification mediated the influence of LMX on evasive hiding and playing dumb but not on rationalized hiding; and (c) relative LMX not only moderated the relationship between LMX and organizational identification but also reinforced the indirect effect of LMX on evasive hiding and playing dumb but not on rationalized hiding (via organizational identification). The implications, limitations, and future research directions are also discussed.

Current research highlights the importance of workplace relationships (e.g., leader-member exchange and team-member exchange) on individual and team performance. However, there is a lack of understanding of the effects of leader-star exchange relationship (LSX), defined as the dyadic relationships between team leader and team star performer. Drawing on theories of justice, we empirically examine both direct and indirect effects of LSX on nonstar individual and team performance in a three-wave multi-source, multi-level study of 190 teams, consisting of 190 leaders and 798 employees. Our findings suggest that through impacting the collective justice climate (CJC), LSX is positively related to both nonstar individual and team performance. In addition, through CJC, LSX moderates the relationships of leader-member exchange (LMX) and leader-member exchange differentiation (LMXD) on nonstar individual performance such that it significantly influences the direction of these relationships. Specifically, LSX strengthens the positive relationship between nonstar LMX and nonstar individual performance. On the other hand, LMXD is positively related to nonstar individual performance when there is high LSX between the leader and star performers and negatively related to nonstar individual performance when LSX is low. Implications of the effects of the leader’s relationship with star performers are discussed.

This study extends Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory to address how employees’ perceptions of their coworkers’ high-quality LMX relationships with supervisors influence their own attitudes and behaviors. Drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, we propose that strong LMX relationships are critical resources for employees. When employees become aware of a coworker’s high LMX, they may experience feelings of resource scarcity and threat, leading to social undermining behaviors. We further argue that the effects of coworker LMX on coworker-directed social undermining through perceived resource threat is especially strong for individuals who are highly competitive, who have lower quality personal LMX relationships, and who view their coworkers as rivals. These findings contribute to the literature by elucidating how perceived LMX disparities shape employee behavior and highlight the importance of managing LMX perceptions to mitigate negative workplace dynamics. The study underscores the interplay of individual traits and relational factors in responses to LMX quality, offering insights for enhancing organizational climate and employee relations.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report a study of the relationship between Leader‐Member Exchange (LMX) and span of control. The paper argues that depending on their extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness, some leaders will find it easier to establish and maintain LMX relationships with their followers in larger groups.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted among 52 leaders and 389 followers. As matched data were used, the final sample consisted of 244 individual employees who worked in 41 different groups.FindingsResults show that extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness moderate the relationship between span of control and various dimensions of LMX. The results for agreeableness, however, were in the opposite direction than expected.Research limitations/implicationsThe moderation effects that were found for leader personality indicate that organizations could foster LMX relationships by selecting leaders with certain personality patterns for larger groups or taking care to train leaders who do not show this pattern to overcome possible problems of low LMX relationships in large groups.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to address the relationship between span of control and LMX dimensions, and the first to examine the effects of leader personality on that relationship.

Drawing on the Categorization-Elaboration (van Knippenberg, De Dreu, & Homan, 2004) and the Emotions-as-Social-Information model (Van Kleef, 2009), respectively, we hypothesized that leader mood will impact the respective relationships between team diversity and collective team identification and elaboration of task-relevant information. We further hypothesized that the association between elaboration and objective team performance will be moderated by team identification. Testing these hypotheses with data collected from 59 financial services teams at three different time points, we found that, given high levels of leader positive mood, team diversity was positively related to team identification and negatively associated with elaboration of task-relevant information. In contrast, given high levels of leader negative mood, diversity was negatively related to team identification and positively associated with elaboration of task-relevant information. Such incongruence between identification and elaboration poses an intriguing challenge with respect to predictions based on the CEM and previous research on team diversity. Also in contrast to previous theory and research, we found that elaboration of task-relevant information was conducive to objective team performance only when collective team identification was high. This study contributes to the literature by illustrating the central role of the leader in unlocking the potential of diversity, by shedding light on the link between team diversity and affect, and by providing new insights into the role of information elaboration in diverse teams.

This study examines the relationship between software project team characteristics and team performance by focusing on two questions: whether or not different team characteristics in software project team affect project performance, and whether or not different types of team motivation lead to different level of influence to the relationship between team characteristics and performance? In this study, we argue that team motivation should be considered as a moderate between the relationship of team characteristics and performance. Different kind and level of team motivation can result in different project performance outcome. We examine the interaction effects between team characteristics and team motivation before their final impact to the performance. The results show that the relationship between project team characteristics and performance can be interfered with team motivation. Management should pay more attention to team motivation within project teams so that a better project performance could be achieved.

Leader is the one who uses collaboration which is based upon mutual relationship and enhances further mutual communication and cooperation in the organisation. This research is aimed at addressing whether there is a relationship between the leadership style and LMX (LMX - Leader-Member Exchange) on the basis of „Rīgas siltums” company in order to develop recommendations to the studied company’s management and also to management of other companies on the matters of relationship quality improvement. The main tasks are to distinguish the features of various leadership styles within the company, as well as to realise the meaning of the concept of LMX and find out how LMX is evaluated within the company; on the grounds of collected data elaborate conclusions and perspectives for the future studies. Applying the Managerial grid and LMX scale instruments the questionnaire for the employees and the managers was created. It was found that in the company there is a rather high relationship quality among the leaders and subordinates. It was also proven that there is a relationship between the Leadership style oriented to personality and the Leader – member exchange.

While strategic management theories have heavily engaged with the reality of matrix organizations, leadership theories that actually focus on the people working within such arrangements are missing. We argue that (a) followers perceive dual leadership effectiveness to be more than the sum of each leader's effectiveness, (b) a core detriment to perceived dual leadership effectiveness is role conflict experienced by the follower, and (c) Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) needs to be theoretically extended to the triadic level to capture the influence of dual leadership. Specifically, followers’ role conflict and leadership effectiveness perceptions are driven not only by how they perceive their LMX relationships with both leaders, but also how they perceive the relationship quality between their leaders (dual leadership exchange, DLX). As such, even though higher LMX is still better than lower LMX, having a similar exchange relationship with both leaders reduces employees’ role conflict and, by extension, heightens dual leadership effectiveness. Additionally, we reason that when employees lack a good relationship with one of the leaders, higher DLX can act as a substitute. We find support for our hypotheses by applying polynomial regression analyses to a dataset of 111 managers from a matrix organization who report to both a regional and business unit leader.

This paper presents our findings from an empirical survey of 598 individuals placed by a German temporary work agency. Specifically, we focus on how differences in the job satisfaction of temporary and permanent workers influence the role that leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships can play on employees’ turnover intentions. Our results suggest that while for permanent employees, high-quality LMX relationships play a central role in the linkage between job satisfaction and turnover intention, for temporary employees, job satisfaction is less important in the formation of high-quality LMX relationships. Therefore, temporary work inhibits the reinforcing role of LMX in the job satisfaction – turnover intention relationship.