Leader behaviors, conflict and member commitment to team-generated decisions

Regardless of the quality of the decisions, teams that fail to effectively implement their decisions have accomplished nothing. Teams that derive decisions through a conflictual process may find that their members lack commitment to their decision due to the nature of the conflict the team experienced. This is where a team leader can play a critical role. The central aim of this laboratory study was to examine how leader behaviors can influence member commitment to team generated decisions via their impact on group conflict. Our study examined teams led by individuals who displayed charismatic-oriented behaviors, teams led by individuals who acted simply as pragmatic leaders, and teams whose members shared leadership. Consistent with our assertions, our findings indicate that pragmatic leaders were most effective at encouraging the highest levels of member commitment to team generated decisions through their restraint of dysfunctional forms of conflict during the decision-making process.