Abstract
The purpose of this quantitative, positivistic study is to investigate the unique roles, actions, and behaviors of vertical team leaders that lead to the emergence of shared leadership, effectiveness, and performance in work teams in organizations. The correlational study design evaluated critical leadership functions relative to a 20-item shared leadership inventory. The study included 34 team leaders and 101 team members associated with primarily Midwestern organizations.
The findings revealed that all leadership functions can be shared to a certain extent, but the leadership function of providing feedback was notably less shared than other leader functions. In addition, not only can functional leadership participation be a predictor of shared leadership, but also, this research has established new reliability and validity of the he Team Leadership Questionnaire (TLQ).
Other findings from this sample indicate that functional leadership can be a predictor of shared leadership and when leadership functions related to planning and initiating (transition phase) are more shared, then the execution functions (action phase) are also more shared. The transition function predicts the outcome of shared leadership more strongly. Finally, there is a strong correlation with perceived leader effectiveness and leadership satisfaction with shared leadership in this study. This research provides new insights for creating an environment that better supports shared leadership and challenges some traditionally held norms of the unique role of the vertical leader.