رهبری تحول گرا، رضایت شغلی و عملکرد تیمی: مدل میانجی گری چندسطحی برای اعتماد

In spite of calls for deliberate differentiation between individual and team levels of analysis, leadership research based on well-grounded theory referring to multiple levels is scarce. We seek to fill this gap by analyzing the relations between transformational leadership, trust in supervisor and team, job satisfaction, and team performance via multilevel analysis. Results are based on a sample of 360 employees from 39 academic teams. Transformational leadership was positively related to followers' job satisfaction at individual as well as team levels of analysis and to objective team performance. The relation between individual perceptions of supervisors' transformational leadership and job satisfaction was mediated by trust in the supervisor as well as trust in the team. Yet, trust in the team did not mediate the relationship between team perceptions of supervisors' transformational leadership and team performance. Implications for theory and research of leadership at multiple levels as well as for practice are discussed.

Nowadays, organizations' predominantly team-based structures require leaders “to lead and motivate not only individuals but also teams as a whole” (Chen, Kirkman, Kanfer, Allen, & Rosen, 2007, p. 331). Leading teams yields several challenges, like aligning individual goals with a shared mission, managing resources, establishing a positive climate of trust and support, and coordinating information transfer and task completion (Zaccaro, Rittman, & Marks, 2001). Yet, while scholars stressed that “the study of leadership is inherently multilevel in nature” (Bliese, Halverson, & Schriesheim, 2002, p. 4), leadership research has been suffering from a dearth of deliberate theoretical and empirical differentiation between levels of analysis (Yammarino, Dionne, Chun, & Dansereau, 2005). Transformational leadership – arguably the most researched leadership concept to date – is closely related to desired outcomes for individuals (e.g., Casimir et al., 2006, Judge and Piccolo, 2004 and Liu et al., 2010) and teams (e.g., Bass et al., 2003, Peus et al., 2010, Schaubroeck et al., 2007 and Schaubroeck et al., 2011). Yet, with some recent exceptions (e.g., Wang & Howell, 2010) research analyzing effects of transformational leadership at individual as well as team levels is still scarce. Thus, the first aim of this study is to further investigate relations between individual and team perceptions of supervisors' transformational leadership and desired outcomes for individuals (i.e., job satisfaction) and teams (i.e., team performance). That is, in addition to effects at the individual level, transformational leadership is posited to also have an impact at the team level of analysis. This assertion is based on a direct consensus model, which employs consensus among lower level units to specify another form of a construct at a higher level (Chan, 1998). This model is assumed because transformational leadership (a) comprises individual-focused as well as team-focused behaviors (Wang & Howell, 2010) and (b) as a participative leadership style, it contributes to mental model convergence in teams (Dionne, Sayama, Hao, & Bush, 2010). Even more limited than insights into the direct relations between transformational leadership and performance at multiple levels is knowledge about multilevel mediators. Strong positive relationships between individual perceptions of supervisors' transformational leadership and trust in the supervisor have been established (Casimir et al., 2006, Jung and Avolio, 2000, Pillai et al., 1999, Pillai et al., 2003 and Podsakoff et al., 1990). Recent research also revealed trust as a mediator between team perceptions of supervisors' transformational leadership and team performance (Schaubroeck et al., 2011). While research on trust in leader–follower relationships flourished, effects of trust among team members have been “virtually ignored” (Lau & Liden, 2008, p. 1130). Thus, the second aim of this study is to investigate trust in the supervisor and trust in the team as multilevel mediators. Finally, a lack of context-specificity in leadership research has been widely criticized (Jordan et al., 2010, Liden and Antonakis, 2009, Schriesheim et al., 2009 and Yukl, 1999). Concordantly, the third aim of this study is to extend the investigation of transformational leadership and its effects to a previously understudied context for leadership, that is, the academic one. Our focus lies on academic institutions because they have a major impact on our society (e.g., by building the foundation of our knowledge-based economy and educating future leaders). Moreover, preliminary evidence indicates the relevance of transformational leadership for academic institutions (Bryman, 2007) and innovative work (Eisenbeiss, van Knippenberg, & Boerner, 2008). Unlike most previous research (see Dvir, Eden, Avolio, & Shamir, 2002) our analyses also comprise an objective outcome measure of team performance.

Despite the stated limitations, our study makes several substantial contributions to multilevel theory and research. We demonstrated that transformational leadership enhances job satisfaction and team performance at individual and team levels of analysis, and directed attention to relevance of trust among team members, in addition to trust in supervisors. Thereby, we presented important evidence of the impact of trust in the supervisor and the team at multiple levels, and depicted the positive relations of transformational leadership with an objective measure of team performance in academia. We hope that our results will enrich the field and inspire future multilevel leadership research.