The Journal of applied psychology
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Bridging the task conflict, team creativity, and project team development literatures, we present a contingency model in which the relationship between task conflict and team creativity depends on the level of conflict and when it occurs in the life cycle of a project team. In a study of 71 information technology project teams in the greater China region, we found that task conflict had a curvilinear effect on team creativity, such that creativity was highest at moderate levels of task conflict. Additionally, we found this relationship to be moderated by team phase, such that the curvilinear effect was strongest at an early phase. In contrast, at later phases of the team life cycle, task conflict was found to be unrelated to team creativity.
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Exhaustion has a significant impact on employees and organizations, and leader behavior may affect it. We applied conservation of resources theory to test propositions regarding the joint effects of goal-focused leadership (GFL) and personality on employee exhaustion. We proposed that the relationship between GFL and exhaustion depends on employees' standing on both conscientiousness and emotional stability. ⋯ In contrast, employees low on both traits likely experience greater exhaustion under a goal-focused leader compared with other employees. Results revealed a 3-way interaction in 2 independent samples and were generally supportive of our predictions. GFL was associated with heightened exhaustion among individuals in the low-emotional-stability, low-conscientiousness group but not among workers having any other trait combination.
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We examined the proposition that leaders' social network ties in the larger organization influence the quality of their leader-member exchange (LMX) with their employees, which, in turn, impacts these employees' job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Using multilevel, multisource data from a field study of 184 bank employees nested within 42 branch managers, we found that leaders who had higher quality relationships with their bosses and who were more central in their peer networks were perceived by their subordinates as having greater status in the organization and, therefore, were able to form higher quality relationships with them. ⋯ Finally, LMX mediated the impact of leaders' perceived status in the organization on subordinates' job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.