Leadership and the fate of organizations.

This article concerns the real-world importance of leadership for the success or failure of organizations and social institutions. The authors propose conceptualizing leadership and evaluating leaders in terms of the performance of the team or organization for which they are responsible. The authors next offer a taxonomy of the dependent variables used as criteria in leadership studies. A review of research using this taxonomy suggests that the vast empirical literature on leadership may tell us more about the success of individual managerial careers than the success of these people in leading groups, teams, and organizations. The authors then summarize the evidence showing that leaders do indeed affect the performance of organizations--for better or for worse--and conclude by describing the mechanisms through which they do so. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental efficacy and physical efficacy at the team level: Inputs and outcomes among newly formed action teams.

The authors demarcated mental efficacy and physical efficacy at the team level, and they explored these 2 factors as outcomes of 4 potential inputs and as predictors of 3 outcomes among 110 newly formed action teams in a military setting. Both types of team efficacy benefited from greater team size and an initial experience of enactive mastery, but they were not influenced by teams' female representation or knowledge pool. In terms of predictive contributions, both mental and physical efficacy facilitated internal social cohesion, yet only mental efficacy promoted problem solving and observed teamwork effectiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contingent Leadership and Effectiveness of Trauma Resuscitation Teams.

This research investigated leadership and effectiveness of teams operating in a high-velocity environment, specifically trauma resuscitation teams. On the basis of the literature and their own ethnographic work, the authors proposed and tested a contingency model in which the influence of leadership on team effectiveness during trauma resuscitation differs according to the situation. Results indicated that empowering leadership was more effective when trauma severity was low and when team experience was high. Directive leadership was more effective when trauma severity was high or when the team was inexperienced. Findings also suggested that an empowering leader provided more learning opportunities than did a directive leader. The major contribution of this article is the linkage of leadership to team effectiveness, as moderated by relatively specific situational contingencies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leader Self-Sacrifice and Leadership Effectiveness: The Moderating Role of Leader Prototypicality.

Self-sacrificing behavior of the leader and the extent to which the leader is representative of the group (i.e., group prototypical) are proposed to interact to influence leadership effectiveness. The authors expected self-sacrificing leaders to be considered more effective and to be able to push subordinates to a higher performance level than non-self-sacrificing leaders, and these effects were expected to be more pronounced for less prototypical leaders than for more prototypical leaders. The results of a laboratory experiment showed that, as expected, productivity levels, effectiveness ratings, and perceived leader group-orientedness and charisma were positively affected by leader self-sacrifice, especially when leader prototypicality was low. The main results were replicated in a scenario experiment and 2 surveys. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group performance in a cognitive task.

On a cross-word puzzle task performed by 60 pairs of male Ss, correlations between group performance and performance of the individuals (independently determined) were calculated. 82% of the true group performance variance on the task could be predicted from the individual performance scores. "It is suggested that the nature of the task is important in studies of group performance, and that the existence of 'group' phenomena should be empirically demonstrated rather than assumed." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group performance as function of task difficulty and the group's awareness of member satisfaction.

Investigated the hypothesis that group effectiveness increases with increased member awareness of group satisfaction, and that this effect is greater for difficult than for easy tasks. 5-person groups attempted 3 tasks differing in difficulty, under 3 conditions of satisfaction feedback: no feedback, overt feedback, and covert feedback. In the overt condition, Ss publicly indicated their satisfaction with the problem-solving process, whereas in the covert condition their satisfaction was indicated anonymously. The results supported the hypothesis. It was suggested that valid communication of satisfaction leads to more complete use of members' contributions, and hence improves performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Collective Efficacy and Team Performance: A Longitudinal Study of Collegiate Football Teams.

This study examined the reciprocal relationship between collective efficacy and team performance over a season of competition in American football. Efficacy beliefs of offensive football players from 10 teams were assessed prior to 8 consecutive games to form 2 team-level measures of collective efficacy: aggregated self-efficacy and aggregated collective efficacy. Game-level performance indexes produced a team-level measure of offensive performance for each game. Within teams and across games, aggregated collective efficacy prior to performance was a positive predictor of subsequent offensive performance; however, previous offensive performance was a negative predictor of subsequent aggregated collective efficacy. Within weeks and across teams, aggregated collective efficacy prior to performance also was a positive predictor of subsequent offensive performance, and previous offensive performance was a positive, rather than negative, predictor of subsequent aggregated collective efficacy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some effects of varying combinations of group members on group performance measures and leadership behaviors.

This experiment tests whether individuals contribute differently to the group product depending on the other individuals with whom they are assembled. "This assembly effect on the group end-product is clearly distinguished from the contribution attributable to each individual of the group, considered separately." By using the Ball-and-Spiral Apparatus as a group task, this assembly effect was found significant, for the two experimental measures used, at the .05 and .08 levels. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for future research on assembly effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What We Know About Leadership.

This article reviews the empirical literature on personality, leadership, and organizational effectiveness to make 3 major points. First, leadership is a real and vastly consequential phenomenon, perhaps the single most important issue in the human sciences. Second, leadership is about the performance of teams, groups, and organizations. Good leadership promotes effective team and group performance, which in turn enhances the well-being of the incumbents; bad leadership degrades the quality of life for everyone associated with it. Third, personality predicts leadership--who we are is how we lead--and this information can be used to select future leaders or improve the performance of current incumbents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leadership, Collective Personality, and Performance.

By viewing behavior regularities at the individual and collective level as functionally isomorphic, a referent-shift compositional model for the Big 5 personality dimensions is developed. On the basis of this compositional model, a common measure of Big 5 personality at the individual level is applied to the collective as a whole. Within this framework, it is also hypothesized that leadership (i.e., transformational, transactional, and passive) would predict collective personality and that collective personality would be significantly related to collective performance. The results supported these hypotheses using a sample of franchised units. On the basis of recent research at the individual level, several interactions among the various personality dimensions were hypothesized and supported. Implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is! Explaining Collective Action Tendencies Through Group-Based Anger and Group Efficacy.

Insights from appraisal theories of emotion are used to integrate elements of theories on collective action. Three experiments with disadvantaged groups systematically manipulated procedural fairness (Study 1), emotional social support (Study 2), and instrumental social support (Study 3) to examine their effects on collective action tendencies through group-based anger and group efficacy. Results of structural equation modeling showed that procedural fairness and emotional social support affected the group-based anger pathway (reflecting emotion-focused coping), whereas instrumental social support affected the group efficacy pathway (reflecting problem-focused coping), constituting 2 distinct pathways to collective action tendencies. Analyses of the means suggest that collective action tendencies become stronger the more fellow group members "put their money where their mouth is." The authors discuss how their dual pathway model integrates and extends elements of current approaches to collective action. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group Cohesiveness, Group-Derived Collective Self-Esteem, Group-Derived Hope, and the Well-Being of Group Therapy Members.

I. D. Yalom's (1995) hypothesis that group therapy cohesiveness is the precursor to the development of group-derived collective self-esteem (CSE), hope for the self (HS), and psychological well-being (personal self-esteem and depression) was tested. Participants were 102 university counseling center group therapy clients from process (n = 54) and theme (n = 48) groups. Path analyses supported Yalom's theory that cohesiveness is the primary group factor and that it directly related to curative group factors such as CSE and HS. Additional path analyses showed that the relationship between group therapy CSE and personal self-esteem was moderated by HS, such that a significant relationship between CSE and personal self-esteem was no longer found once HS was entered into the model. Implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reciprocal Relationships Between Collective Efficacy and Team Performance in Women's Ice Hockey.

This study examined reciprocal relationships between collective efficacy and team performance over a season of competition in women's intercollegiate ice hockey within weekends where the opponent was constant for 2 games. Collective efficacy beliefs within 12 teams were assessed prior to both games for at least 7 weekends. Team performance indexes produced an overall measure of performance for each game. The average influence of Saturday collective efficacy on Saturday performance was moderate and positive after controlling for Friday performance. The average influence of Friday performance on Saturday collective efficacy was small and positive after removing the influence of Friday collective efficacy from Friday performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting group task effectiveness from member characteristics.

Studies relating premeasures of member characteristics to small-group task performance are reviewed. The individual traits used to predict performance are grouped into 6 categories: ability, adjustment, extraversion, dominance, authoritarianism, and "other characteristics." 2 member characteristics have been used as predictors in a sufficient number of studies to permit a tentative conclusion, namely, that member ability (both specific and general) and member adjustment are significantly related to group effectiveness. It is less clear however, whether extraversion, dominance, and authoritarianism would be useful for predicting group task performance. Both the requirements of the situation and social structural constraints must be taken into account when predicting group effectiveness from member traits. Specifically the type of group task and the organization of the group are seen to have a decided influence on the relationship. (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An Investigation Into the Impact of Coach Leadership and Coach-Athlete Relationship on Group Cohesion.

This study examined the extent to which athletes' perceptions of their relationship with their coach add to the prediction of team cohesion beyond what is predicted by perceptions of coach leadership. Four self-report instruments that measure perceptions of group cohesion, coach leadership, and the nature of coach-athlete relationships were completed by 111 university athletes. Multiple regression analyses revealed the variance accounted for by the hierarchically ordered sets of variables in task and social cohesion. Overall, the results revealed that leadership variables predicted more variance in task and social cohesion when relationship variables were included. Moreover, leadership and relationship variables were shown to be better and stronger predictors of task cohesion (R2 = .34) than social cohesion (R2 = .15). Limitations and future research directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Collective efficacy, group potency, and group performance: Meta-analyses of their relationships, and test of a mediation model.

The authors examined relationships among collective efficacy, group potency, and group performance. Meta-analytic results (based on 6,128 groups, 31,019 individuals, 118 correlations adjusted for dependence, and 96 studies) reveal that collective efficacy was significantly related to group performance (.35). In the proposed nested 2-level model, collective efficacy assessment (aggregation and group discussion) was tested as the 1st-level moderator. It showed significantly different average correlations with group performance (.32 vs. .45), but the group discussion assessment was homogeneous, whereas the aggregation assessment was heterogeneous. Consequently, there was no 2nd-level moderation for the group discussion, and heterogeneity in the aggregation group was accounted for by the 2nd-level moderator, task interdependence (high, moderate, and low levels were significant; the higher the level, the stronger the relationship). The 2nd and 3rd meta-analyses indicated that group potency was related to group performance (.29) and to collective efficacy (.65). When tested in a structural equation modeling analysis based on meta-analytic findings, collective efficacy fully mediated the relationship between group potency and group performance. The authors suggest future research and convert their findings to a probability of success index to help facilitate practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leadership and the spatial factor in small groups.

The present study extends the hypothesis that "persons tend to interact more in group discussion with persons sitting opposite them than they do with their neighbors." This effect seems to be manifested most strongly in groups with no designated leader. "It will tend to disappear in groups where group direction is shared about equally by the members and the designated leader, and it will be reversed in situations where the designated leader gives very strong direction." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rewarding Leadership and Fair Procedures as Determinants of Self-Esteem.

In the present research, the authors examined the effect of procedural fairness and rewarding leadership style on an important variable for employees: self-esteem. The authors predicted that procedural fairness would positively influence people's reported self-esteem if the leader adopted a style of rewarding behavior for a job well done. Results from a scenario experiment, a laboratory experiment, and an organizational survey indeed show that procedural fairness and rewarding leadership style interacted to influence followers' self-esteem, such that the positive relationship between procedural fairness and self-esteem was more pronounced when the leadership style was high in rewarding behavior. Implications in terms of integrating the leadership and procedural fairness literature are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attentional task aptitude and performance anxiety.

Anxious responding (trait, state, and test anxiety) has a negative impact on overt performance. Researchers have used a unidimensional method of assessing anxiety and performance, although a more informative approach would involve a comprehensive assessment battery and multiple performance tasks. Incorporating this strategy, the authors measured the impact of anxiety on 4 attentional processing tasks. Results revealed that "types" of anxiety symptoms were differentially related to attentional task performance; test anxiety accounted for the most variance in predicting performance on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (D. Wechsler, 1997) letter-number sequencing and digit-span subtests, trait anxiety and fear of negative evaluation were more significant in predicting Stroop performance, and math anxiety accounted for the largest variance toward understanding Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (C. W. Lejuez, C. W. Kahler, & R. A. Brown, 2003) scores. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Efficacy Beliefs as Determinants of Teachers' Job Satisfaction.

Self- and collective-efficacy beliefs were examined as main determinants of teachers' job satisfaction. In 103 Italian junior high schools, 2,688 teachers filled out self-reports to assess self-efficacy beliefs, their perceptions of the extent to which other school constituencies, namely, the principal, colleagues, staff, students, and families, were behaving in accordance with their obligations toward school well-functioning, their collective-efficacy beliefs, and their job satisfaction. Multilevel structural equation functioning, modeling analyses corroborated a conceptual model in which individual and collective-efficacy beliefs represent, respectively, the distal and proximal determinants of teachers' job satisfaction. The perceptions that teachers have of other constituencies' behavior largely mediated the links between self- and collective-efficacy beliefs. Collective-efficacy beliefs, in turn, partially mediated the influence that teachers' perceptions of other school constituencies' behavior exerts on their own job satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)