How Team Members' Transformational Leadership and Effective Followership Work During Team Interactions

Abstract

In the current study, a mixed‐method research design was used to explore how team members' transformational leadership and effective followership relate to teamwork quality. Data were collected from 10‐student project teams (N [team] = 10; N [individual] = 84 team members) in a leadership class at a large‐sized public university in the United States. As a follow‐up, focus group interviews were conducted with two teams (n = 13 team members) to explore how team members' transformational leadership and effective followership work during team interactions. Correlation results showed that team members' transformational leadership was positively related to teamwork quality (r (82) = .84, p < .01). In the qualitative phase, findings showed that the team exhibiting centralized transformational leadership also exhibited passive team followership and low‐quality teamwork. Low‐quality teamwork was described as social loafing and polarization. In contrast, the team exhibiting shared transformational leadership also exhibited proactive team followership and high‐quality teamwork. High‐quality teamwork was described as conflict resolution and team synergy. The findings have important implications for leaders, followers, leadership educators, teams, organizations, and researchers.