A multilevel investigation of predictors and outcomes of shared leadership

• Author: Kai N. Klasmeier,Jens Rowold
• Published date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2477
• Date: 01 November 2020

RESEARCH ARTICLE

A multilevel investigation of predictors and outcomes of

shared leadership

Kai N. Klasmeier | Jens Rowold

Center for Higher Education, TU Dortmund

University, Dortmund, Germany

Correspondence

Kai Klasmeier, Center for Higher Education,

TU Dortmund University, Hohe Straße

141, Dortmund 44139, Germany.

Email: kai.klasmeier@tu-dortmund.de

Summary

For modern organizations, shared leadership becomes increasingly important. Knowl-

edge on shared leadership may be limited, as past research often relies on cross-

sectional data or student samples, and most studies neglect the multilevel nature of

shared leadership. Our research model includes transformational leadership, trust,

and organizational support as predictors of shared leadership. Furthermore, we ana-

lyze the influence of shared leadership on team performance and team creativity. In

total, 160 teams with 697 employees participated in our field study. Data collection

took place at three time points. To test our hypotheses, we used multilevel modeling

with a Bayesian estimator. We found relationships of transformational leadership and

trust with shared leadership at the team level and of transformational leadership,

trust, and organizational support with shared leadership at the individual level. Fur-

thermore, shared leadership fully mediated the effect of the three input factors on

team performance and team creativity. This study contributes to the understanding

of the antecedents and outcomes of shared leadership. Furthermore, the dynamic

development of team processes based on an input–mediator–output model is

explored. On the basis of the results, organizations can increase shared leadership

behavior by focusing on transformational leadership and trust building.

KEYWORDS

Bayes, multilevel, shared leadership, team creativity, team performance

1|INTRODUCTION

The understanding of leadership in organizations has changed. Hierar-

chical and top-down influence processes that require a formal posi-

tion are supplemented by more lateral and informal forms of

leadership (DeRue & Ashford, 2010). Likewise, research on team pro-

cesses and leadership focused on collective or shared forms of team

leadership (Contractor, DeChurch, Carson, Carter, & Keegan, 2012;

Morgeson, DeRue, & Karam, 2010). Scholars understand shared lead-

ership in teams as an emergent, dynamic, and mutual influence pro-

cess (Contractor et al., 2012). Recent studies found beneficial

consequences of shared leadership for teams and organizations

(e.g., Wang, Waldman, & Zhang, 2014; Zhu, Liao, Yam, &

Johnson, 2018). Although the consequences of shared leadership

(e.g., team performance) have been studied previously, less is known

about the antecedents of shared leadership (Zhu et al., 2018). Sum-

marized in a recent review by Zhu et al. (2018), the “research on the

antecedents of shared leadership is still in its infancy”(p. 847). Addi-

tionally, Wu, Cormican, and Chen (2018) called for further studies in

their meta-analysis to examine multiple antecedents of shared leader-

ship simultaneously. On the basis of past theory building, a shared

purpose, reciprocity, and a trustful team environment can be syn-

thetized as necessary conditions for shared leadership (Bligh, Pea-

rce, & Kohles, 2006; DeRue & Ashford, 2010; Hoch &

Dulebohn, 2013; Zhu et al., 2018). In particular, we focus on per-

ceived organizational support (POS), transformational leadership, and

Received: 9 May 2019 Revised: 14 July 2020 Accepted: 7 August 2020

DOI: 10.1002/job.2477

J Organ Behav. 2020;41:915–930. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/job © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 915

team trust. POS is likely to evoke shared leadership, as teams behave

reciprocally towards organizational support and develop a stronger

obligation to organizational goals (Cropanzano, Anthony, Daniels, &

Hall, 2017). Likewise, transformational leadership can foster a shared

purpose and collective identification and helps to build leadership

capacity among team members (Kearney & Gebert, 2009; Kozlowski,

Mak, & Chao, 2016). Finally, team trust fosters risk-taking behaviors

and thus may be a necessary condition to share leadership influence

among team members (Bligh et al., 2006; DeRue & Ashford, 2010).

However, it is still unclear whether shared leadership antecedents

stem from outside the team (i.e., POS), from the team leader

(i.e., transformational leadership), or from the team itself (i.e., team

trust). To gain a more comprehensive understanding about shared

leadership antecedents, this study provides knowledge about which

of these factors are of particular importance for establishing shared

leadership in teams.

Next, our study aims to identify the individual- and team-level

mechanisms that contribute to shared leadership in teams. Specifi-

cally, we answer recent calls to investigate shared leadership from a

multilevel perspective (Chiu, Owens, & Tesluk, 2016; Zhu et al., 2018).

As teams are made out of individuals, the individual team members'

perception of shared leadership antecedents is important for the pro-

cess of sharing leadership within a team beyond a collective perspec-

tive (DeRue, Nahrgang, & Ashford, 2015; Humphrey & Aime, 2014).

In particular, the individual reaction to the leadership influence of

another team member may depend on the individual's perception of

team trust, transformational leadership, or organizational support.

Therefore, by examining a model of multilevel homology (Chen,

Bliese, & Mathieu, 2005), this study may answer the questions: Which

antecedents motivate an individual team member to contribute to the

shared leadership process and which factors promote shared leader-

ship in the whole team. This model of multilevel homology may help

to integrate individual- and team-level mechanisms to a more general

and parsimonious theory of shared leadership antecedents (Klein &

Kozlowski, 2000a).

Summarized, the current study provides several contributions to

the research on shared leadership. First, our study considers different

antecedents of shared leadership. By focusing on POS, transforma-

tional leadership, and intrateam trust, this study provides new insights

about which factors are particularly important for establishing shared

leadership in teams. Second, we recognize the multilevel nature of

shared leadership and consider shared leadership antecedents across

the individual and team levels to identify factors that are related to

individual team member response to leadership influence and to the

distribution of leadership influence across the whole team. Finally, this

study contributes to the understanding about the development of this

team state and resulting outcomes by testing the following input–

mediator–output model (IMO model; Ilgen, Hollenbeck, Johnson, &

Jundt, 2005). In addition to examining three possible antecedents of

shared leadership, we analyze whether shared leadership mediates

the relationship between these antecedents and team performance

and team creativity.

2|SHARED LEADERSHIP

A common definition of shared leadership has been provided by Pea-

rce and Conger (2003). They define shared leadership “as a dynamic,

interactive influence process among individuals in groups for which

the objective is to lead one another to the achievement of group or

organizational goals or both”(Pearce & Conger, 2003, p. 1). Building

on the functional leadership framework of Morgeson et al. (2010),

shared leadership is an internal and informal source of leadership,

whereby leadership influence is distributed among the team members.

Leadership influence of the team members can occur along with lead-

ership influence of the formal team leader and affects the cooperation

and effectiveness of a team in a positive manner (D'Innocenzo,

Mathieu, & Kukenberger, 2016; Morgeson et al., 2010; Wang

et al., 2014). From this functional leadership perspective, team mem-

bers perform different types of team leadership functions. By practic-

ing shared leadership, the team members jointly structure and plan

their tasks and mutually provide feedback. Furthermore, they perform

team tasks, engage in problem solving, and support the social climate

within the team (Morgeson et al., 2010).

Newer leadership theories change the point of view from a top-

down orientation of leadership influence (e.g., a formal hierarchical

leader) to a more mutual and interactive conceptualization of leader-

ship relations within organizations (e.g., Kozlowski et al., 2016). Con-

cerning shared leadership, DeRue and Ashford (2010) developed the

adaptive leadership theory, which focuses on the dynamic nature of

leadership as a mutual social influence process. Leadership and follow-

ership are based on social interactions, in which individuals claim influ-

ence over others or grant the received influence by their team

members. In these reciprocal interactions, identities as leader or fol-

lower emerge, if the team members accept their peer's claim as leader

or follower. The identity as leader or follower can change across situa-

tions and over time, and it is affected by the history of claims/grants,

as well as by the image reward or risk that is associated with

claiming/granting the leader/follower identity (DeRue &

Ashford, 2010). Accordingly, we understand shared leadership as a

team state of mutual leadership influence among peers (i.e., on the

same hierarchical level).

2.1 |Shared leadership from a multilevel perspective

Shared leadership is a phenomenon that emerges from the distribu-

tion of leadership influence within a team (e.g., Carson, Tesluk, &

Marrone, 2007). According to Humphrey and Aime (2014), “teams are

made out of individuals”(p. 481), and therefore, the current research

on shared leadership may benefit from the inclusion of other levels of

analysis (i.e., the individual level). Additionally, as a team phenomenon,

shared leadership develops from individual cognition, affect, and

behavior of the team members (Kozlowski, 2015), so a consideration

of factors that influence these individual characteristics would provide

meaningful insights for promoting shared leadership.

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