Leaders and followers in multi-cultural teams

Abstract

This study examines the role of leaders and followers in multicultural teams and their effects on team communication, team identity and team effectiveness. Participants were 308 MBA students from 7 countries working in 77 virtual MCTs of 4 members each, one of whom served as the leader. Their task was to prepare guidelines for an expatriate. In addition, participants filled out questionnaires assessing team communication, team identity, team effectiveness, transformational leadership and global identity. The results demonstrated that transformational leadership significantly enhanced team communication, identity and effectiveness only for followers with high levels of global identities, but not for ones with low levels of global identity, with team identity mediating the relationship with team effectiveness and team communication mediating the relationship with team identity.