Internal dynamics of a team

Discussion And Response To Discussion Team Management

Part 1: According to the Sarin and O’Connor (2009) article, certain style and goal structures of team leaders have a strong influence on internal team dynamics. Based on your research within the article and textbook, as well as your own experience, what team leader management style would be most effective in leading a team in which you were a member?

Team Leader’s may serve as a strong force for a team’s performance and activities and team leaders with power will have strong influence on the team dynamics. Team leaders who create a learning environment within the team and trust the team enough to make authoritative decisions will make great team leaders which will result and encourage team members to become more collaborative.

Some of the styles based on different types of theories are.

Participative Leadership – A style where leader’s invite team members to actively be involved in the decision-making process and leaders interact with their teams. This enhances the more collaborative decision making.

Autocratic or Directive Leadership – In this style the leader organizes and directs the activities of the team members. There is no collaboration or inputs from team members. Team members would simply follow orders/requests set forth by the leader.

Achievement- Oriented Leadership – This style is more focused on achieving the desired output more than anything else. The leader sets forth the goals for the team to achieve and would team would have to come up with a solution and achieve the goal.

Some traits that are very important and have a strong influence on team members are Participation of the Leader in the Teams’ activities, consideration and support to team members, goal defining – this would give the team a target to work for, Transparent communication and process structure.

Part 2: DeRue, Barnes, and Morgeson (2010) found that team leadership style effectiveness depended on the level of charisma exhibited by the leader. Drawing from the article and the textbook, have you ever worked for a charismatic leader? What style (coaching or directing) did that leader administer? Was he or she effective in leading you as part of the team?

According to this article a charismatic leader is one who is motivational and skilled at improving the performance of the team and enables the team to achieve the targets or goals efficiently. I work in an environment where I do not exactly have a team. I just have a manager that I would report to. As far as being charismatic, I have a leader who has a combination of traits of a Participative and Directive leadership. He does a good job at of always keeping me in the loop in his thoughts of how he wants to achieve his targets and does let me pitch in ideas as well. Since me and my manager have a 1-1 interaction he is very clear and directional about his requirements and how he wants to get things done.

References:

Sarin, S., & Oconnor, G. C. (2009). First among Equals: The Effect of Team Leader Characteristics on the Internal Dynamics of Cross-Functional Product Development Teams. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 26(2), 188-205. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5885.2009.00345.x

DeRue, D. S., Barnes, C. M., & Morgeson, F. P. (2015, October 28). Understanding the Motivational Contingencies of Team Leadership. Retrieved March 28, 2018, from https://scholars.opb.msu.edu/en/publications/understanding-the-motivational-contingencies-of-team-leadership-2