Abstract
This study uses a relational work design perspective to explore substitutes for leadership behaviors that promote team meaningfulness and performance. We propose that team task interdependence, a structural feature facilitating interaction among team members, can be a substitute for the contributions of empowering leadership. Data were collected from 47 R&D and technology implementation teams across three organizations in a cross-sectional field study. The results revealed that high task interdependence attenuated the contributions of empowering leadership concerning team meaningfulness and, indirectly, to team performance. These findings highlight that the importance of leaders as generators of team meaningfulness is contingent on team relational work design.
Highlights
The quest for meaningfulness is central to employees who strive to make their work purposeful and to organizations that aim to improve their outcomes (Martela and Pessi, 2018)
We address this research gap by taking the relational work design perspective, “which focuses on how work structures can provide more or fewer opportunities for employees to interact with others, which in turn affect their motivation, attitudes, and job performance” (Parker, 2014, 668), to suggest that interaction levels of team members contribute to their team meaningfulness
We explore how task interdependence of team members can substitute the effect of empowering leadership behaviors on team meaningfulness and, on team performance
Summary
The quest for meaningfulness is central to employees who strive to make their work purposeful and to organizations that aim to improve their outcomes (Martela and Pessi, 2018). Cultivating team meaningfulness is a central aim of most organizations, especially under the prevalent practice of using team-based work structures (e.g., Ilgen et al, 2005; Mathieu et al, 2017). Most such research deals with ways in which leaders can foster meaningfulness as part of team psychological empowerment (Kirkman and Rosen, 1999; Kirkman et al, 2004a,b; Chen et al, 2007; Spreitzer, 2008). This leadership research builds on the Job Characteristics Theory
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