Team Dispersion and Performance: The Role of Team Communication and Transformational Leadership

Small Group Research, Vol 50, Issue 3, 2019

Posted: 20 Sep 2019

See all articles by Julia Eisenberg

Julia Eisenberg

Pace University - Lubin School of Business

Corinne Post

Lehigh University

Nancy DiTomaso

Rutgers Business School - Newark and New Brunswick

Date Written: February 12, 2019

Abstract

Organizations increasingly rely on virtual teams to access geographically dispersed expertise. Yet, team dispersion introduces challenges to team communication that may negatively influence team performance. Using a sample of 53 innovation teams representing a variety of geographic dispersion configurations from completely collocated to highly dispersed, we examined the moderating role of transformational leadership on the relationship between team dispersion, team communication, and team performance. Our findings suggest that while transformational leadership is effective in reducing the negative effects of dispersion in collocated teams or ones with low level of geographic dispersion, it is less effective helping improve the performance of highly dispersed teams. This effect may be due to transformational leader’s difficulty in facilitating team communication in highly dispersed teams, where their influence might actually have counterproductive effects. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory, future research, and practice.

Keywords: virtual teams, transformational leadership, team communication

JEL Classification: M12

Suggested Citation

Eisenberg, Julia and Post, Corinne and DiTomaso, Nancy, Team Dispersion and Performance: The Role of Team Communication and Transformational Leadership (February 12, 2019). Small Group Research, Vol 50, Issue 3, 2019, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3452968

Julia Eisenberg (Contact Author)

Pace University - Lubin School of Business ( email )

1 Pace Plaza
New York, NY 10038-1502
United States

Corinne Post

Lehigh University ( email )

621 Taylor Street
Bethlehem, PA 18015
United States

Nancy DiTomaso

Rutgers Business School - Newark and New Brunswick ( email )

NJ
United States

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