Personal power and shared leadership in teams: roles of taking charge behaviors and learning orientation

Abstract

Purpose

Drawing on power approach-inhibition theory, this study aims to theorize a cross-level model to examine how team member personal power (i.e. expert power and referent power) impacts shared leadership through activating their taking charge behaviors in R&D teams, as well as the moderating effect of team learning orientation on the relationship between team member taking charge behaviors and shared leadership.

Design/methodology/approach

With multisource data collected from 264 employees in 58 R&D teams from 13 companies, this study tested the hypotheses of the cross-level theoretical model using Mplus 7.4.

Findings

The results showed that team member expert power was positively related to their taking charge behaviors, which in turn led to shared leadership, while team member referent power was not significantly related to their taking charge behaviors. Furthermore, the positive relationship between team member taking charge behaviors and shared leadership was strengthened by team learning orientation.

Practical implications

This paper offers suggestions regarding how vertical leaders should pay attention to team member power to promote their change-oriented taking charge behaviors and address team learning to strengthen the effect of team member taking charge behaviors on shared leadership.

Originality/value

By echoing the changing focus towards a shared leading process among team members in leadership literature, this paper provides important insights for both scholars and practitioners to understand the role that power plays in activating team member taking charge behaviors which in turn improves shared leadership.