Abstract/Summary

The main goal of the present thesis is to understand how leader behaviors and functions promote team processes and team effectiveness. Assuming teamwork as a dynamic process, we analyzed the role of team leadership in different contexts and considered team tasks temporal episodes. After a broad review of the literature, this thesis includes four studies. The aim of Study 1 was to investigate whether leadership is a mediator of team processes and team effectiveness. Among members of multidisciplinary teams (MDT), the results support the hypothesis that leadership does mediate the relationship between team reflexivity and effectiveness. Study 2 aimed to compare team leadership functions in different team contexts using a qualitative approach. Results showed that transition leadership functions were more frequently mentioned by information technology (IT) team leaders than by MDT leaders and that teams from nonprofit contexts lack defined performance criteria. Study 3 tested the factorial validity of the Team Leadership Questionnaire (TLQ) (Morgeson, et al., 2010) in a sample of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The results contributed to the theoretical and empirical validation of the instrument. Study 4 sought to examine the impact of transition leadership on team action processes over time in a management competition simulation. Results showed that leadership transition functions had a significant effect on the latent factor representing the change of team action processes. The results of the four studies contribute to our theoretical knowledge on team leadership and highlight important cues for leadership practices focused on teams