Leader information seeking, team performance and team innovation: Examining the roles of team reflexivity and cooperative outcome interdependence

Abstract

This study tested how and when leaders’ information seeking from team members influenced team performance and innovation. We developed and examined a model by considering team reflexivity as a mediator and cooperative outcome interdependence as a moderator. The sample comprised 83 work teams and 253 team members from a pharmaceutical firm in China. Multiple-source, time-lagged data were used to test our hypotheses. Based on the social information processing theory, the current study demonstrated that leader information seeking is positively linked to team performance and team innovation. These relationships were mediated by team reflexivity. Further, the positive relationship between leader information seeking and team reflexivity was enhanced when team cooperative outcome interdependence was higher. The indirect effect of leader information seeking on team performance and innovation via team reflexivity was stronger when team cooperative outcome interdependence was higher. We provide empirical and practical implications for information seeking in the workplace.