Leading the team, but feeling dissatisfied: Investigating informal leaders' energetic activation and work satisfaction and the supporting role of formal leadership

Chiu, Chia‐Yen; Nahrgang, Jennifer D.; Bartram, Ashlea; Wang, Jing; Tesluk, Paul E.

doi:10.1002/job.2511

Cited by 23 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 99 publications

(149 reference statements)

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“…By integrating these status considerations, we offer a fresh, theory‐driven explanation for (a) why different supervisors' behaviors may more or less strongly shape their members' informal leader emergence and (b) why different members' informal leader emergence may more or less strongly hinge on a formal supervisor's behavior. More generally, our conditional indirect effects model extends previous research on trickle‐down processes in organizations (Wo et al, 2019) and addresses scholarly calls for a more integrative perspective on formal and informal leadership (Chui et al, 2021; Morgeson et al, 2010), illustrating how , why , and when a formal supervisors' actions may aid individual members' emergence into informal leader roles.…”

Section: Inroductionsupporting

confidence: 76%

Formal supervisors' role in stimulating team members' informal leader emergence: Supervisor and member status as critical moderators

et al. 2021

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Summary Teams can benefit markedly when formal supervisors stimulate their individual members' emergence as informal leaders. Combining insights from informal leadership research and social learning theory, we cast supervisors' role modeling of initiating structure and consideration behaviors as seemingly straightforward means of achieving this—but we suggest that the success of such role modeling critically hinges on supervisors' as well as members' status in the team. Results from a study of 220 nurses across 48 teams showed, accordingly, that a supervisor's initiating structure promoted individual members' informal leader emergence by increasing members' respective behavior. This indirect relationship only materialized, however, among relatively high‐status supervisors and relatively low‐status members. Moreover, although supervisors' and members' consideration were positively related (among relatively high‐status supervisors and largely irrespective of a member's status), such behavior did not influence members' emergence as informal leaders. Together, these findings offer novel insights into how, when, and why formal supervisors may aid their team members' attainment of informal leader roles. They shed new light on the complexity of formal–informal leadership linkages, with both supervisors' and members' standing in the team representing crucial, yet heretofore largely unexamined boundary conditions for formal supervisors' respective influence.

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Section: Inroductionsupporting

confidence: 76%

Formal supervisors' role in stimulating team members' informal leader emergence: Supervisor and member status as critical moderators

et al. 2021

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“…On the one hand, formal leaders need to protect the informal leaders by providing necessary resources and mentorship. On the other hand, they also need to educate and communicate with employees about being a loyal follower [ 1 ]. We anticipate our research findings to provide various implications for leadership development in organizations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, we add depth to the literature on informal leadership by investigating the decision-making process of informal leadership [ 36 ]. The study of informal leadership in organization emerged with the discussion of interpersonal relationships between organizational members [ 1 ]. Informal leadership ‘occurs when team members who do not occupy formal leadership positions engage in influence behavior that helps their team determine shared goals, motivates task activity in pursuit of those goals, and creates a positive social climate’ [ 37 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since modern teams are becoming increasingly complex and dynamic, formal leaders may not be able to fulfill all leadership functions, making informal leadership an essential component of team success [1][2][3], there is growing interest in leadership patterns beyond the formal leadership role [4]. The 'distributed leadership' considers leadership as a practice pattern in which the responsibility and power are unlimited to exclusively one or a few formal leaders but are distributed between formal and informal leaders [5][6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Game modelling and stability strategy research on distributed leadership pattern: A tripartite evolutionary game perspective

2022

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Distributed leadership pattern has been a topic of growing interest in recent years, recognizing that much remains to be known about this phenomenon. The research on distributed leadership acknowledges that responsibility and power are not exclusively limited to one formal leader, but are distributed between formal and informal leaders. The decision-making behavior of team members plays a vital role in optimizing cooperation and team performance. Nevertheless, little attention is paid to investigating the underlying mechanisms about how people in a team cooperate to initiate effective interactions and enhance team performance. Game theory offers a comprehensive analysis of rational behavior under the circumstances of strategic interdependence. By organizing the formal leader, the informal leader, and the ordinary employee in a team, this study constructs a tripartite evolutionary game model and analyzes the internal mechanism of distributed leadership patterns. The study finds that the equilibrium of the three parties is affected by multiple factors. The simulation results reveal that the empowerment of the formal leader to the informal leader is indispensable to promoting optimal cooperation and team performance in distributed leadership patterns. These findings have theoretical implications for the distributed leadership literature and managerial implications for practitioners.

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“…This question is highly relevant since most organizations do not entirely decentralize their hierarchical systems but rather rely on a combination of formal and shared leadership; thus, shared leadership often takes place in teams that still have a formal leader ( Pearce and Conger, 2003 ; Nicolaides et al, 2014 ; Lee and Edmondson, 2017 ). Yet, extant research has primarily focused on the direct influence of formal leadership on shared leadership at the team level ( Pearce and Sims, 2000 ; Hoch, 2013 ; Klasmeier and Rowold, 2020 ), while only recently scholars have begun to explore more complex constellations in which formal leadership promotes and interacts with shared and emergent forms of leadership (e.g., He et al, 2020 ; Chiu et al, 2021 ; Ziegert and Dust, 2021 ). Still, the question of whether and how formal leadership facilitates the processes that allow team members to engage not only in the leader but also in the follower role has remained unanswered thus far.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Do Team Members Share the Lead? A Social Network Analysis

et al. 2022

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Shared leadership is not only about individual team members engaging in leadership, but also about team members adopting the complementary follower role. However, the question of what enables team members to fill in each of these roles and the corresponding influence of formal leaders have remained largely unexplored. Using a social network perspective allows us to predict both leadership and followership ties between team members based on considerations of implicit leadership and followership theories. From this social information processing perspective, we identify individual team members’ political skill and the formal leaders’ empowering leadership as important qualities that facilitate the adoption of each the leader and the follower role. Results from a social network analysis in a R&D department with 305 realized leadership ties support most of our hypotheses.

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Leading the team, but feeling dissatisfied: Investigating informal leaders' energetic activation and work satisfaction and the supporting role of formal leadership

Abstract: Most research on informal leadership focuses on the benefits of leading, with little attention placed on exploring the potential negative implications for individuals with informal leadership status. We integrate adaptive leadership theory and conservation

Cited by 23 publications

References 99 publications

Formal supervisors' role in stimulating team members' informal leader emergence: Supervisor and member status as critical moderators

Formal supervisors' role in stimulating team members' informal leader emergence: Supervisor and member status as critical moderators

Game modelling and stability strategy research on distributed leadership pattern: A tripartite evolutionary game perspective

When Do Team Members Share the Lead? A Social Network Analysis

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