The Effect of Shared Leadership on Workgroup Creativity
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Edith Cowan University Research Online Theses: Doctorates and Masters Theses 2014 The effect of shared leadership on workgroup creativity Simon Guive Minaee Edith Cowan University Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses Part of the Leadership Studies Commons, Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons, and the Organization Development Commons Recommended Citation Minaee, S. G. (2014). The effect of shared leadership on workgroup creativity. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ theses/1576 This Thesis is posted at Research Online. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1576 Edith Cowan University Research Online Theses: Doctorates and Masters Theses 2014 The effect of shared leadership on workgroup creativity Simon Guive Minaee Edith Cowan University Recommended Citation Minaee, S. G. (2014). The effect of shared leadership on workgroup creativity. Retrieved from http://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1576 This Thesis is posted at Research Online. http://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1576 Edith Cowan University Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorize you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. A reproduction of material that is protected by copyright may be a copyright infringement. Where the reproduction of such material is done without attribution of authorship, with false attribution of authorship or the authorship is treated in a derogatory manner, this may be a breach of the author’s moral rights contained in Part IX of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Courts have the power to impose a wide range of civil and criminal sanctions for infringement of copyright, infringement of moral rights and other offences under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Higher penalties may apply, and higher damages may be awarded, for offences and infringements involving the conversion of material into digital or electronic form. The Effect of Shared Leadership on Workgroup Creativity Simon Guive Minaee Bachelor of Government (Honours) Master of Business Administration Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Business and Law Edith Cowan University September 2014 USE OF THESIS The Use of Thesis statement is not included in this version of the thesis. Abstract Research on leadership typically assumes a single leader who has managerial authority over the group, unit or organisation. Shared leadership is an emerging concept of leadership as a group-level phenomenon. It builds on antecedents such as democratic leadership, semi-autonomous and self-managed work groups, participative decision-making and co-leadership that are typically studied as variations of leadership by a single leader. Shared leadership is seen as more distributed, informal and emergent than these. Recent empirical research shows shared leadership can have beneficial effects on a variety of group process and outcome variables. However, so far its effects on creativity have not been empirically examined. This is surprising, since creativity is an important response to increased competition and rapid change in the business environment. Much creativity research identifies important pre-requisites that are more likely to be found in shared than hierarchical leadership. Improved creativity may be one of the most valuable benefits of shared leadership. This study provides empirical evidence on this relationship from a naturalistic experiment in which student groups were allowed to self-manage over a three-month creative project. In assessing shared leadership, two methodological innovations were introduced. First, previous studies have either used aggregated measures of group performance, or more recently the measures of group ‘degree centrality’ (degree of hierarchy) or ‘density’ (degree of sharing) developed in Social Network Analysis research. However, none of these measures by themselves adequately captures the distinction between hierarchical and shared leadership, although the SNA measures are potentially more precise. Following recommendations of previous ii authors, this study explored the combined use of centrality and density to better reflect the underlying construct. A second refinement was to use a general construct of leadership based on Bass and Bass’s (2008) extensive literature review, rather than constructs such as transformational leadership that have a narrower theoretical base and tend to assume a hierarchical context. Results from items measuring sharing of Bass and Bass’s five ‘leadership functions’ were compared with a ‘global’ measure of leadership sharing. Creativity was assessed by a panel of judges who rated the groups’ creative outputs (movies), rather than the more common method of rating creativity in the work process. The results provide evidence for the hypothesised link between shared leadership and creativity that, although qualified by aspects of the study design, suggests further research is worthwhile. Implications for future research on both leadership and creativity are explored, along with consequences for the practice of management. The issues of how to best measure shared vs. hierarchical leadership, and how much a construct can reflect both forms of leadership, are of particular relevance to the future development of this field. In summary, this study offers the first evidence directly linking shared leadership to work group creativity, and suggests improvements to current methods for measuring the extent of leadership sharing in a group. iii Declaration I certify that this thesis does not, to the best of my knowledge and belief: (i) Incorporate without acknowledgement any material previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any institution of higher education; (ii) Contain any material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the text; or (iii) Contain any defamatory material. I also grant permission for the Library at Edith Cowan University to make duplicate copies of my thesis as required. ………………………………….. ……………………. Signature Date iv Acknowledgements Completing this thesis would not have been possible were it not for the help and support of those around me. First, I would like to thank Professor Peter Standen for his many hours of patient support in helping me turn a vague idea into a final thesis. Without his wisdom and care, I do not honestly think I could have completed this journey. Peter has guided me throughout and has taught me so much. His probing attention to detail helped me to piece this story together. I thank you for your precision and rigour, and I thank you for your tolerance. I am profoundly grateful. Next, I would like to thank my darling wife. Novia’s encouragement has been legendary. She has helped me to overcome numerous obstacles and has spent countless hours poring over my work. Her wizardry as a statistician has been a blessing. Throughout this journey, she has stuck by me. I am a truly lucky man to be able to share my life with you hon! I would also like to thank Dr Llandis Barratt-Pugh for his help and reassurance. Llandis has unhesitatingly offered his assistance and guidance throughout. His encouragement has helped convince me that this challenge was not insurmountable and for that I am hugely indebted. And of course I need to thank the good people at ECU. In particular, Professor Marie Ryan, for listening to my woes and helping me over the line, and Bev Lurie, for casting an expert eye over my work and helping to craft a handsome final document. Also, I would like to thank Dr Stephen Grainger and Dr Ian Austin for their support. v Finally, I would like to thank my parents. Who I am and what I have achieved comes down to a happy childhood in a loving and caring family. You are my role models. I only hope I can offer Audrey and Alice the same joyous start in life. vi Table of Contents Chapter One ................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Hierarchical vs. Shared Leadership.................................................................. 1 1.2 The Concept of Hierarchical Leadership ......................................................... 3 1.3 The Concept of Shared Leadership .................................................................. 4 1.4 The Spread of Shared Leadership .................................................................... 8 1.5 Aims and Methods of this Study ...................................................................... 9 1.6 Structure of the Thesis ................................................................................... 11 Chapter Two ............................................................................................................... 13 Literature Review ....................................................................................................... 13 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 13 2.2 Defining Shared Leadership ........................................................................... 14 2.3 Antecedents of the Concept of Shared Leadership