A Time to Lead: Changes in Relational Team Leadership Processes over Time

Tessa Horila,Marko Siitonen

doi:10.1177/0893318920949700

Tessa Horila, Marko Siitonen

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318920949700

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Abstract

This study analyzes how team members perceive changes in relational leadership processes over time. Interview data from three virtual teams ( N = 18) were analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis. The findings illustrate how ideals of well-functioning leadership and teamwork communication can differ both between and within teams at different times. Team members may perceive benefits of the passage of time in teamwork, including experienced closeness, adjustment, and clarification of practices, as well as challenges such as rigidity and historical baggage. Organizations and teams may experience a shift in the ideals of leadership, but adapting to and adopting new forms of leadership over time may not be unproblematic. The findings also highlight how relational leadership is neither stable nor linear in its development. Overall, the study contributes to leadership and team research by increasing understanding of the relational construction of leadership among naturally occurring teams and by challenging assumptions about how leadership and time are perceived by team members. The implications of studying subjective time in connection with relational leadership are discussed.

Highlights

This study analyzes how team members perceive changes in relational leadership processes over time
This study aims to understand how time is perceived in relation to relational leadership processes in teams
A key feature emerging across the interviews was the way the participants discussed the meaning of time for relational dynamics in teamwork and for leadership

Summary

Introduction

This study analyzes how team members perceive changes in relational leadership processes over time. We are interested in the ways relational leadership—the mutual accomplishment of leadership between multiple actors (Tourish, 2014)—is seen as changing and evolving over time throughout successive interactions in virtual teams To this end, we conducted an empirical interview study with three virtual teams operating in three different organizations. Time may refer to coordinating the rhythm, pace, and synchronization of leadership; the temporal horizon of leadership (Bluedorn & Jaussi, 2008); both measurable clock time and experienced subjective time (Castillo & Trinh, 2018); culturally influenced orientations to organizational time (Lee & Flores, 2019); or an intersubjective negotiation of time (Ballard & Seibold, 2003) Another approach is to examine the phases or performance cycles of groups (Arrow et al, 2005; Marks et al, 2001; Morgeson et al, 2010) and their relation to effective leadership behavior, though such phase models have been contested. Workplace teams often exist for much longer periods of time than teams studied in controlled laboratory settings

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