Linking employee boundary spanning behavior to task performance: The influence of informal leader emergence and group power distance
Linking employee boundary spanning behavior to task performance: The influence of informal leader emergence and group power distance
Driven by fierce global competition, flatter organizational structures and the growing complexity of tasks, boundary spanning behavior (BSB) in externally dependent work teams has increasingly been emphasized in both theory and practice. The current study aims to answer the questions of whether, when and how an individual’s BSB impacts his or her task performance within a team. Based on a sample of 272 employees from 57 new product development teams in China, we found that informal leader emergence mediated the relationship between an individual’s BSB and his or her performance within a team. Moreover, group-level power distance positively moderated the association between BSB and informal leader emergence. An overall mediated moderation model of the effect of the interaction between BSB and group power distance (PD) on task performance via informal leadership emergence was also confirmed. In particular, the relationship between BSB and task performance via informal leadership emergence was stronger for teams with less PD than for those with more PD. The implications of the research are discussed.
1879-1899
Liu, Songbo
a1432811-b316-41bc-af60-98a9286f2938
Jiang, Kaifeng
586c56e0-9740-40a9-bc6e-4ccd2d437dc3
Chen, Jianxun
02043c1d-4699-441b-80f8-dcaa35609035
Pan, Jingzhou
cae3d33b-a85d-4fef-9446-5ded0384dfc8
Lin, Xiaoshuang
d0bbdbac-4a58-459a-9d2d-6c235788095a
2018
Liu, Songbo
a1432811-b316-41bc-af60-98a9286f2938
Jiang, Kaifeng
586c56e0-9740-40a9-bc6e-4ccd2d437dc3
Chen, Jianxun
02043c1d-4699-441b-80f8-dcaa35609035
Pan, Jingzhou
cae3d33b-a85d-4fef-9446-5ded0384dfc8
Lin, Xiaoshuang
d0bbdbac-4a58-459a-9d2d-6c235788095a
Liu, Songbo, Jiang, Kaifeng, Chen, Jianxun, Pan, Jingzhou and Lin, Xiaoshuang
(2018)
Linking employee boundary spanning behavior to task performance: The influence of informal leader emergence and group power distance.
The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 29 (12), .
(doi:10.1080/09585192.2016.1216872).
Abstract
Driven by fierce global competition, flatter organizational structures and the growing complexity of tasks, boundary spanning behavior (BSB) in externally dependent work teams has increasingly been emphasized in both theory and practice. The current study aims to answer the questions of whether, when and how an individual’s BSB impacts his or her task performance within a team. Based on a sample of 272 employees from 57 new product development teams in China, we found that informal leader emergence mediated the relationship between an individual’s BSB and his or her performance within a team. Moreover, group-level power distance positively moderated the association between BSB and informal leader emergence. An overall mediated moderation model of the effect of the interaction between BSB and group power distance (PD) on task performance via informal leadership emergence was also confirmed. In particular, the relationship between BSB and task performance via informal leadership emergence was stronger for teams with less PD than for those with more PD. The implications of the research are discussed.
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Accepted/In Press date: 1 April 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 24 September 2016
Published date: 2018
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Local EPrints ID: 436129
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/436129
ISSN: 0958-5192
PURE UUID: 8899a3da-cbca-43e3-9c0a-d81b3f55144e
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Date deposited: 29 Nov 2019 17:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 05:22
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Author:
Songbo Liu
Author:
Kaifeng Jiang
Author:
Jianxun Chen
Author:
Jingzhou Pan
Author:
Xiaoshuang Lin
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