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This study focused on leadership style (participative leadership/directive leadership) as a key factor, which has an intervening impact on a functionally heterogeneous team’s process and outcomes. In a study of 136 primary care teams, the author found that in high functionally heterogeneous teams, participative leadership style was positively associated with team reflection, which in turn fostered team innovation; however, this leadership style decreased team in-role performance. The impact of directive leadership was in promoting team reflection under the condition of low functional heterogeneity, whereas no such impact was found under the condition of high functional heterogeneity.

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The purpose of the present study was to examine the distinctive relationships of teacher professional and organizational commitment with participation in decision making and with organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The data were collected through questionnaires from a sample of 983 teachers at 25 middle schools and 27 high schools in Israel. The results of the structural equation model confirmed the main hypotheses and depicted distinctive patterns of relationships regarding professional commitment and organizational commitment in schools. First, whereas participation in the managerial domain was positively associated with both the professional and the organizational commitment, participation in the technical domain was positively related with only teachers’ professional commitment. Second, professional commitment was positively associated with OCBtoward the student, whereas organizational commitment was positively associated with all three dimensions of OCB(toward the student, the team, and the organization). Implications of the study findings are discussed in relation to teachers and administrators in schools.

SummaryThe present study explores the dynamics of conflict management as a team phenomenon. The study examines how the input variable of task structure (task interdependence) is related to team conflict management style (cooperative versus competitive) and to team performance, and how team identity moderates these relationships. Seventy-seven intact work teams from high-technology companies participated in the study. Results revealed that at high levels of team identity, task interdependence was positively associated with the cooperative style of conflict management, which in turn fostered team performance. Although a negative association was found between competitive style and team performance, this style of team conflict management did not mediate between the interactive effect of task interdependence and team identity on team performance.

The present study focused on innovation of teams, examining the contributions of team interaction processes (exchanging information, learning, motivating, and negotiating) and structures (functional heterogeneity and frequency of meetings) to innovation. Specifically, it was hypothesized that (a) team structures will be positively related to team innovation, (b) team heterogeneity will be positively related to team interaction processes, (c) team interaction processes will be positively related to team innovation, and (d) team interaction processes will mediate the relationship between team heterogeneity and team innovation. Results from a sample of 48 intact teams in elementary and secondary schools supported the main hypotheses. These results imply that the development of mutual interaction processes is a crucial mechanism for translating team heterogeneity into innovation.

The present study explored the issue of organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) as a context‐related phenomenon, from a multidimensional perspective. More specifically, it was hypothesized that organizational learning (structures and learning values) would be positively related to (a) OCB that benefited the organization as a whole (OCBO) and (b) OCB that immediately benefited particular individuals (OCBI). The hypotheses identified the school as the unit of analysis; so all variables were aggregates of individual responses to the organizational level of analysis. Justification for aggregation was provided by a within‐group similarity index (rwg) and a within‐ and between‐entities analysis (WABA). Results from a sample of 31 schools confirmed the main hypotheses, and generally supported the notion that OCB could be treated as a context‐related phenomenon. These results should encourage researchers and practitioners to focus more attention on the organizational context and its characteristics as related to OCB.

Purpose: The success of schools fundamentally depends on teachers’ willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty, namely, to exhibit organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). Attempts to understand the causes of OCB frequently focus on individual characteristics; only recently have researchers begun to direct their attention to more contextual variables. The present study continues this line of research and proposes an integrative model. This allows the authors to examine simultaneously the relative impact of individual characteristics (dispositional variables of positive affectivity, negative affectivity, and teacher attitude) to perceived superior support and an organizational characteristic (of organizational values of individualism versus collectivism) on OCB at school. Method: Data were collected from a survey of 104 teachers and their principals at eight elementary schools in northern Israel. Results : A mixed models analysis demonstrates that perceived supervisor support and collectivism were positively related to OCB, whereas a negative relation was found between negative affectivity and OCB; no relation was found between positive affectivity and OCB. However, when these variables were examined simultaneously, the organizational variable of collectivism proved the most effective predictor of OCB. Implications: The present results should serve to encourage OCB researchers to focus more attention on characteristics of organizational context as related to OCB. Schools are powerful suppliers of norms to their teachers, and exchange relationships that form within schools, as well as collective values, may partly determine the level of OCB in them.