Perceiving Leadership Structures in Teams: Effects of Cognitive Schemas and Perceived Communication

Abstract

We investigate whether individual differences predict perceptions of leadership patterns during teamwork. Building on information processing theories, we show that team members’ individual cognitive schemas regarding the distribution of leadership in teams, leadership structure schemas, predict the centralization of individual perceptions of team leadership. Team members’ individual perceptions of communication network centralization partially mediates, and team member’s affective motivation to lead moderates this relationship. Our results indicate that leadership structure schemas, as well as motivation to lead, affect perceived patterns of interpersonal communication as well as the centralization of the individually perceived team leadership structure.

You Raise Me Up: Employee Voice Elevates Leader Managerial Self-Efficacy Through Leader Self-Expansion

“…Our work answers the call for more empirical research on followership (Uhl-Bien et al, 2014) and indicates that team members can play an active role in leadership (Cook et al, 2021). Combining prior work on upward influence from employees to leaders with voice (i.e., upward communication from employees to their leaders), we hope to pave a clear path for followership research in the workplace communication literature (Cook et al, 2021;Dansereau et al, 2013;Mao et al, 2019). Second, we aim to enrich the literature on voice consequences by pointing out an overlooked direction in extant studies, namely, voice recipients' selfconcept and self-efficacy, and further explore and examine the validity of self-expansion theory in asymmetrical workplace relationships.…”

“…Followership research has proposed that subordinates can affect leaders' thoughts and behaviors and contribute to the leadership process, but few empirical research explored this kind of upward force (Uhl-Bien et al, 2014). Literature about leadership structure in the team also emphasizes employees' role in leadership process and team outcomes (Cook et al, 2019(Cook et al, , 2021. For example, the patterns that subordinates communicate with the team leaders have an impact on leaders' psychological states and team performance (Cook et al, 2021;Schermuly & Meyer, 2016).…”

“…Literature about leadership structure in the team also emphasizes employees' role in leadership process and team outcomes (Cook et al, 2019(Cook et al, , 2021. For example, the patterns that subordinates communicate with the team leaders have an impact on leaders' psychological states and team performance (Cook et al, 2021;Schermuly & Meyer, 2016). However, the mechanisms haven't been explored yet.…”

Leading When the Boss is Present: How Leadership Structure Schemas Affect Leadership Behavior

“…A more shared LSS (at the team level) appears to weaken the relationship between team competence centralization and the centralization of leadership perceptions (DeRue et al, 2015). Similarly, a shared LSS has been associated with perceptions of team leadership as being decentralized (Cook et al, 2021). A more shared LSS was also found to be associated with team members taking on additional “interpersonal responsibility,” which had negative implications for their enjoyment of work (Evans et al, 2021).…”

“…Most significantly, they establish LSS as a cognitive schema that affects leadership behavior and reactions. A small body of research has begun to explore the implications of LSS for other outcomes (e.g., Cook et al, 2021; DeRue et al, 2015; Evans et al, 2021), but the effects of LSS on leadership behavior remains unknown. In identifying a more shared LSS as a cognitive, individual-level antecedent of informal leadership, we contribute to the burgeoning body of studies exploring the precursors of shared leadership, and extend prior theories that have asserted mental models of leadership structure may play an important role in leader emergence (DeRue & Ashford, 2010; Wellman, 2017).…”