A Longitudinal Approach to Team Adaptation Through the Two-Phase Framework: The Role of Team Leadership, Coordination, Behavioral Interaction Patterns and Team Cognition on Team Adaptation when Facing Changes of Different Magnitude

Abstract

In this study we analysed the effects of team leadership style and magnitude of change on team behavioural interaction patterns. We also analysed the effects of pre-change and post-change team behavioural interaction patterns on post-change team performance during the transition and reacquisition phases, respectively, for teams facing changes of different magnitudes. For this study, 67 three-person teams took part in a computer-based simulation task and were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions resulting from our 2 (leadership style: directive vs. empowering) × 2 (magnitude of change: high vs. low) factorial design. Our results indicated that teams led by an empowering leader tended to display more team behavioural interaction patterns than teams led by a directive leader. Through discontinuous random coefficient growth modelling (RCGM) we observed that pre-change team behavioural interaction patterns negatively affected teams’ transition adaptation, but post-change team behavioural interaction patterns were beneficial for teams’ reacquisition adaptation. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. Keywords: directive leadership, empowering leadership, team behavioural interaction patterns, team adaptation, magnitude of change.