Antecedents of task performance: An examination of transformation leadership, team communication, team creativity, and team trust

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1927
• Author: Shah Hassan,Kashif Ullah Khan,Sadia Akhtar,Muhammad Irfan,Fouzia Atlas
• Published date: 01 May 2019
• Date: 01 May 2019

ACADEMIC PAPER

Antecedents of task performance: An examination of

transformation leadership, team communication, team

creativity, and team trust

Sadia Akhtar

1

|Kashif Ullah Khan

2

|Shah Hassan

1

|Muhammad Irfan

3

|Fouzia Atlas

4

1

School of Public affairs, University of Science

and Technology of China, Hefei, China

2

Department of Management Sciences and

Humanities, GIK Institute, Topi Swabi, Pakistan

3

School of Chemistry and Materials Science,

University of Science and Technology of China,

Hefei, China

4

Department of Management Sciences,

Women University Swabi, Swabi, Pakistan

Correspondence

Sadia Akhtar, School of Public affairs,

University of Science and Technology of China,

Hefei 230026, China.

Email: sadia@mail.ustc.edu.cn

Higher education requires best leaders and collaborative environment to stimulate

staff and student because of facing more challenges and to make the educational

institutions remain relevant in a competitive global context. Considering the fruitful

academic outcome, ideal leadership style and collaborative work are essential among

teachers and students. Therefore, an empirical study was performed to investigate

the effect of transformational leadership and team communication on task perfor-

mance. The proposed model was verified by quantitative study to clarify the complex

relationship between predicators and outcomes. Research data were collected from a

sample of 273 master students from the University of Science and Technology of

China. The collected data were examined through partial least square analysis

technique. The results suggested that team perception of transformation leadership

has positive effect on team communication and team trust to measure high task

performance. In addition, team communication has positive effect on team trust,

whereas team trust has a significant effect on team creativity, which enhances the

task performance.

1|INTRODUCTION

The rapid development in educational sectors is expected to play an

important role and put into practice many responsibilities and tasks

related to teaching, educational improvement, curriculum changes,

professional growth, students' learning experiences, and relations with

parents and community (Cheng & Townsend, 2000). Nowadays, educa-

tional sectors are mostly team‐based arrangements among students and

need leaders to lead and motivate not only individuals but also teams as

a whole (Chen, Kirkman, Kanfer, Allen, & Rosen, 2007). Leading teams

face numerous challenges such as managing resources, aligning individ-

ual aims with a shared mission, forming a positive climate of trust and

provision, and organizing task completion and information transfer

(Zaccaro, Rittman, & Marks, 2001). The deans and chairs can be a source

of culture change as they possess administrative positions closest to the

most significant activities including teaching and research (Lucas, 2000).

The educational leaders play a significant role in the development of

quality and performance of educational sectors (Cohen, McCabe,

Michelli, & Pickeral, 2009). Transformational leadership is one of the

best leadership style that highlights the attaining higher order goals

through interactive purpose and emerging followers to increase their

own interests in the support of organization's (B. M. Bass, 1997, 1999;

B. M. Bass & Avolio, 1990, 1994).

A predominant outcome proved that team communication is a

necessity factor for the effective team performance (Marks, Zaccaro,

& Mathieu, 2000; Warkentin & Beranek, 1999). The previous

researchers suggested that information sharing and communication

of ideas accompanied by interaction with diverse others would lead

to high creativity (e.g., Amabile, Conti, Coon, Lazenby, & Herron,

1996; L. Gilson, 2001; Perry‐Smith & Shalley, 2003). Ancona and

Caldwell (1992) recognized that when members belong from different

functional area join a new group, the communication is augmented

that increased creativity through the outline of different ideas (Agrell

& Gustafson, 1994). Similarly, Monge, Cozzens, and Contractor

(1992) confirmed that team communication was positively correlated

to the creation of novel ideas. Thomas, Zolin, and Hartman (2009)

Received: 22 January 2019 Accepted: 23 February 2019

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1927

J Public Affairs. 2019;19:e1927.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1927

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of12