One Best Way? Leader Behavior and Different Aspects of Team Performance

Abstract. In two experiments, we tested differential effects of transformational, empowering, and task-oriented leader behavior on various aspects of team performance (quantity, quality, independence, subjective group performance) using three different tasks. In Experiment 1, 60 three-person teams completed a rank-order task and in Experiment 2, 54 three-person teams completed a construction and an information-search task. In both experiments, a videotaped team leader displayed transformational, empowering, or task-oriented leadership. Results suggested that leadership effectiveness may be a function of group outcome. Only for the tasks of Experiment 2 did transformational leadership result in superior outcomes, specifically regarding productivity and originality. Empowering leadership, in turn, yielded superior outcomes in terms of leader-independent thinking, while task-oriented leadership resulted in the highest subjective group performance ratings – except for the ranking task in which satisfaction ratings were highest for transformational leadership. Implications for research and practice are discussed.