Leadership Styles in Agile Teams: An Analysis Based on Experience

Gema Gutierrez,M Teresa Gonzalez De Lena,Javier M Moguerza,Javier Garzas

doi:10.1109/access.2022.3151314

Gema Gutierrez, M Teresa Gonzalez De Lena + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2022.3151314

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Abstract

This study covers the lack of literature analyzing the empirical relationship between leadership styles and self-management in agile frameworks. We have conducted a comprehensive survey in agile teams in order to analyze the relation between the self-management concept and the different types of leadership that occur in such teams. To perform the study we have followed the Goleman’s leadership classification and the Marquet’s and Kniberg’s self-management models. Besides the previous concepts, we also investigate how different leadership styles exert alignment and autonomy within agile teams. The statistical evidence of these results has been validated for the sample at hand using statistical hypothesis tests. The results of the study show that respondents’ perception of self-management in their teams remains similar and significant for all leadership patterns. Moreover, we study the effect of the alignment dimension within the concept of self-management, showing that authoritarian leadership styles, when present in agile teams, compensate low levels of autonomy with high levels of alignment.

Highlights

I N this study we explore the direct relationship between self-management and leadership styles in agile teams
RESEARCH In this article, we have defined a survey with results that seem to show empirically that the type of leadership in agile teams does not have a substantial influence on the levels of selfmanagement perceived by the members of those teams
A first result is that all leadership styles may occur in agile teams, authoritarian styles, Pacesetting and Commanding leaders, are less frequently perceived than flexible styles, Democratic, Affiliative, Visionary and Coaching

Summary

Introduction

I N this study we explore the direct relationship between self-management and leadership styles in agile teams. A real servant leader should use this authority to give others a reasonable degree of autonomy This ties in with the natural emergence of de-facto leaders in agile teams, as the key point is the type of authority: an agile leader is not necessarily an appointed authority, but an authority recognised by the team. The Agile Manifesto [7] explicitly states that “The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.”, being self-organization a concept strongly linked to self-management [8]. In agile frameworks, these two concepts are often used interchangeably. We refer to [14], [13] and references therein for a detailed literature compilation on self-organization in agile teams

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