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Impact of transformational leadership on team performance: an empirical study in UAE

A. Srinivasa Rao (Dubai Campus, BITS Pilani, Dubai, United Arab Emirates)
Waheed Kareem Abdul (Institute of Management Technology, Dubai, United Arab Emirates)

Measuring Business Excellence

ISSN: 1368-3047

Article publication date: 16 November 2015

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate impact of transformational leadership on team performance and the effects of support for innovation and psychological empowerment in this association. Over the past many decades, teams have become an increasingly popular way of organizing and coordinating work. This trend creates new challenges for leaders, as they are expected to motivate individual employees and to improve team performance simultaneously.

Design/methodology/approach

This study proposes a conceptual framework for understanding motivation and support extended to individual employees which would influence team performance. The conceptual framework includes psychological empowerment and support for innovation as mediating variables in the effect of transformational leadership on team performance. The study also validates the proposed conceptual framework using a second-order confirmatory factor analysis technique, namely, partial least squares-structural equations modeling, with the data collected from 182 followers from 10 service organizations in the UAE.

Findings

The findings suggest that transformational leadership has significant positive impact on team performance and, on the contrary, transactional leadership has significant negative effect on team performance. Two dimensions of psychological empowerment such as meaning and self-determination have partial mediation effect in the relationship between transformational leadership and team performance.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the research that identifies team mechanisms influenced by transformational leadership that can affect team success and performance, particularly in the context of UAE-based organizations. Managerial implications and future research areas are further discussed.

Keywords

Citation

Rao, A.S. and Kareem Abdul, W. (2015), "Impact of transformational leadership on team performance: an empirical study in UAE", Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 30-56. https://doi.org/10.1108/MBE-07-2014-0022

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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