are defined differently across the spectrum of researchers, it is interesting to see that
the social and motivational component plays a critical role in the cohesiveness
construct. Therefore, it would be expected that a group led by a transformational
leader who stresses motivation and stimulation would also evince greater group
cohesion.
GenderThe Essay is provided by UK Assignment http://www.szdhsjt.com
Research on gender and group leaders has focused on how men and women differ as
leaders (e.g. Carli and Eagly, 1999; Morgeson, 2005). A meta-analysis of 45 studies
found that female leaders were more transformational than male leaders (Eagly et al.,
2003). However, little research has focused on the gender of team members and its
relationship to group performance. In one recent study, team member gender was
examined in relationship to team structure (Berdahl and Anderson, 2005). The authors
reported that besides women’s preference of equality norms in groups, a centralized
group structure was preferred by men and a decentralized one by women. This would
be consistent, though not with a perfect correlation, with a transactional
(men)-transformational (women) distinction. In another study where gender was not
central to the study but was analyzed more like a covariate, Cooke et al. (2003) found no
difference in performance between teams made up of men and women. Using another
outcome measure, commitment, which is often an antecedent of performance, Riordan
and Shore (1997) found that women have higher levels of commitment toward their
work units (groups) than men. As discussed above, commitment, a motivational
concept, is often engendered from transformational leadership. Other relationships
between gender and attitudes and behaviors were not found to be significant. The
authors argue that there may be other structural variables (perhaps, leadership style)
that interact or moderate the gender-performance effect. Based on some of the
differences in gender results, we hypothesize that gender needs to be examined in
understanding the process that leads to team performance.
Summary of hypotheses:
According to the above, three hypotheses were formulated:
H1. Transformational leaders, as compared to transactional ones, lead to higher
levels of team cohesiveness.
H2a. Women see leaders as more transformational, as compared to men.
H2b. Gender serves as a moderator in predicting team performance.
H3. Team performance is a function of perceived leadership style, gender,
knowledge level, and team cohesiveness of the team members.
MethodThe Essay is provided by UK Assignment http://www.szdhsjt.com
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