Shared leadership and commonality: A policy-capturing study

Although research has extensively examined the relationship between shared leadership and performance outcomes, little is known about the interaction with other team variables such as commonality and communication mode. Moreover, nearly all research on shared leadership has adopted a cross-sectional approach. Accordingly, this research examined the effects of shared leadership, commonality, and communication mode on work performance and satisfaction. Using an experimental policy-capturing design, shared leadership, commonality, and communication mode were manipulated. Students (sample 1) and employees (sample 2) evaluated their performance and satisfaction. The results of multilevel analyses revealed that both shared leadership and high commonality had positive effects on team members' intended performance and predicted satisfaction. Moreover, we found that commonality and communication mode had interactive effects. Interestingly, commonality was more important for face-to-face teams than for virtual teams. The results both emphasize the importance of shared leadership and prompt significant recommendations for virtual teamwork.