How does differential leadership affect team decision-making effectiveness? The role of thriving at work and cooperative goal perception

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the mechanism and boundary conditions in the relationship between differential leadership and team decision-making effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach A total of 366 valid questionnaires were received from employees of high-tech enterprises in China, regression-based moderation and bootstrapping analyses were adapted to analyze data and test hypotheses by using the PROCESS syntax in SPSS software. Findings Differential leadership can positively contribute to team decision-making effectiveness, and thriving at work mediates the relationship between the two, and cooperative goal perception plays a moderating role in the relationship between thriving at work and team decision-making effectiveness and cooperative goal perception moderate the mediating effect of thriving at work between differential leadership and team decision-making effectiveness. Practical implications The findings suggest that managers need to focus on leadership style to promote improved team decision-making effectiveness by enhancing thriving at work and cooperative goal perception. Originality/value Overall, this study is based on the conservation of resources theory to uncover the “black box” between differential leadership and team decision-making effectiveness and to highlight the important role of thriving at work and cooperative goal perception.