Authors:
Marta Alves | Research Center in Business Sciences (NECE-UBI), Universidade da Beira Interior | Portugal
Paulo Lourenço | University of Coimbra | Portugal
Despite the fact that the hierarchical position within an organization structure determines who is and who is not a formal leader, in this paper we intend to emphasize the relational nature of leadership. The social network approach allows the conceptualization and the operationalization of leadership as “relational, situated in specific contexts, involving patterned processes, and both formal and/or informal influence” (Carter, DeChurch, Braun, & Contractor, 2015, p.599). The present study aims to test the following general hypotheses: (1) the level of centrality of the formal team leader positively predicts leadership and group outcomes; (2) the density of the network moderates the association between formal leader centrality and leadership/group outcome. A sample of 77 team leaders (81.6 % male) with an average age of 43.16 years (DP=8.44) participated in the research. The participants were formal leaders of organizational teams (i.e., commercial and marketing teams, project teams, human resources management teams, quality control teams, financial management teams and top management teams) from several organizations (industry, information and communication technology services, hospital institutions, commerce as well as transport and distribution). Team size ranged from three to ten members (M=5.23; DP=1.88). All the teams had no common members and were, to some extent, characterized by direct and regular interaction in the same organization. Leader centrality in communication (i.e.., “to whom I provide information and materials necessary to carrying out the work”) and expressive (i.e., “with whom I have a close relationship”) group networks was calculated. Degree, closeness, betweeness and eigenvector centrality indicators were obtained for both social networks. Firstly, the relation between centrality variables and leader satisfaction with the team as well as leader’s evaluation of group performance were analyzed. Secondly, the moderating role of group network density in the relationship between leader centrality variables and both leader satisfaction and group performance was studied. Team size was controlled for all the analysis. Results are discussed in the context of contemporary leadership theories and leader’s social capital approach in the organizational team context.
Reference: Carter, D. R., DeChurch, L. A., Braun, M. T., & Contractor, N. S. (2015). Social network approaches to leadership: An integrative conceptual review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(3), 597-622.