Team leaders' influence on the relationship between project uncertainty and project progress
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Authors
Cocco, John
Issue Date
2014-12
Type
Electronic thesis
Thesis
Thesis
Language
ENG
Keywords
Management
Alternative Title
Abstract
Survey responses from team members and team leaders of more than two hundred innovation teams within one large diversified global industrial company were collected and analyzed. The results offer little evidence of moderating influence of team leader characteristics on the relationship between project uncertainty and project outcomes. Interestingly, and contrary to expectations, results show that high levels of project complexity and ambiguity drive high performance team behavior whereas uncertainty related to role definition is negatively associated. In addition, increased interaction and interdependency between team members is associated with higher performance. Regarding team leader characteristics, mutual trust between team leader and members, team leader openness and political savvy have positive effects while team leader entrepreneurial expertise may detract from project team performance. Most of the team leader characteristics did not exhibit a significant association with team outcomes. Results point to the idea that teams engaged with projects of a more uncertain nature work to achieve high performance dynamics and do not rely on specific team leader/manager command / control skills often identified in the literature as important predictors of team performance. Instead, team leaders exhibiting a more facilitative role influence team related outcomes under these conditions. Implications for team leader selection are discussed.
Description
December 2014
School of Management
School of Management
Full Citation
Publisher
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY