变革型领导行为对科研团队绩效的影响过程研究

The Influencing Process of Transformational Leadership in Research Teams

科研团队的产出具有高的理论创新与知识含量,组织正式权力的影响作用较弱,这些结构特征对其领导者会提出多重的行为要求。本文对国家自然科学基金委信息科学部资助的科研团队进行了配对问卷调查,分析其中的变革型领导行为、组织公民行为、团队沟通和团队绩效之间的关系。分析结果表明,变革型领导对团队绩效同时具有直接和间接的影响效应,领导者的个体能力决定其行为有效性,而组织公民行为和团队沟通在领导过程也具有中介作用。以上结论对于科研团队领导者的选拔和培养具有重要的指导价值。

Scientific research is becoming more specialized and knowledge sharing among researchers is important for the management of research teams. Research team is the basic unit of scientific and technological organizations, and its effective management and leadership becomes essentially important. Different from the management team in companies, the main output for research team in universities and colleges is new knowledge and theoretical innovation. However, the formal organizational authority is weak and requires its leader to exhibit multiple behaviors in order to achieve project success. This paper aims to employ empirical research methods to examine the leadership behavior in research teams by focusing on the relationships among transformational leadership behavior, organizational citizenship behavior, team communication and team performance. The samples of paired questionnaire survey were originated from 50 research teams sponsored by the Department of Information Sciences of NSFC. A total of 350 questionnaires were sent out and 242 were returned （a return rate of 69.1% ） , with 215 valid questionnaires. Structural equation modeling （SEM） method was employed to perform the data analysis. The results show that： （ 1 ） There is a positive significant relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and team performance. Team members are often not willing to express their innovative ideas due to group＇s conforming pressure. However, organizational citizenship behavior can enable them to overcome this psychological pressure and assists them to establish favorable communication and assistance climate, which can improve their team productivity. （2） There is a positive significant relationship between team communication and team performance. Since team objectives are achieved by members together, knowledge sharing and information communication are necessary means for better performance. Thus, efficient operation of a team is often accompanied by rich communications among team members with diversified backgrounds. （3） There is a positive correlation between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior. In other words, transformational leadership has an active effect on organizational citizenship behavior. Mutual aid behaviors can be formed because that leader can provide support, guidance and respect for team members. （4） Although two dimensions （ i. e. , vision-driven and charismatic leadership behaviors） of the transformational leadership have a positive effect on team communication, the dimension of moral example has insignificant impact. （5） Transformational leadership has both direct and indirect effects on team performance. A leader can have direct effect on team performance via personality, expert knowledge and academic guidance, etc. Because of the mutual aiding climate and good communication mechanism built by the team leader, members can cooperate with and enlighten each other. As a consequence, team performance is improved significantly. These findings provide vital guiding values for a research team to select and foster its leaders. It is important to train team leaders to acquire leadership skills. Considering the shortage of such training programs available in Chinese universities, we can try to learn from the career development plan and courses provided by overseas universities. Team leaders should also devote their attention to teaching others via personal examples as well as verbal instruction. In other words, they can influence their followers by both academic guidance and cultural cultivation through the means of their knowledge and actions.