West, Michael and Borrill, Carol S and Dawson, Jeremy F and Brodbeck, Felix and Shapiro, David A and Haward, Bob (2003) Leadership clarity and team innovation in health care. The Leadership Quarterly, 14 (4-5). pp. 393-410. ISSN 1048-9843
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
The relationships among leadershipclarity (i.e., team members' consensual perceptions of clarity of and no conflict over leadership of their teams), team processes, and innovation were examined in healthcare contexts. The sample comprised 3447 respondents from 98 primary healthcareteams (PHCTs), 113 community mental healthteams (CMHTs), and 72 breast cancer careteams (BCTs). The results revealed that leadershipclarity is associated with clear team objectives, high levels of participation, commitment to excellence, and support for innovation. Team processes consistently predicted teaminnovation across all three samples. Teamleadership predicted innovation in the latter two samples, and there was some evidence that team processes partly mediated this relationship. The results imply the need for theory that incorporates clarity and not just style of leadership. For healthcareteams in particular, and teams in general, the results suggest a need to ensure leadership is clear in teams when innovation is a desirable team performance outcome.