The Mechanism Of Authentic Leadership On Team Effectiveness

With the development of technology and economic globalization, the traditionalhierarchical form of organization has been unable to met the rapidly changingenvironment. Nowadays, building a flexibility and efficiency team is vital to the functionof a organization.Many team related studies have shown that the team leader behavior is akey factor to influence the team effectiveness.The newly developed theory of authenticleadership emphasizes the moral character and self-development of team leaders, ratherthan skills and action types that previously focused on. In recent years, the authenticleadership theory has begun to be introduced to China. Theoretical issues have beenexplored in related researches, yet empirical studies are relatively scarce. Thus, based onChinese culture, we selected humble personality as the antecedents of team leaderauthenticity, as well as team effectiveness as its outcomes.225artillery teams in Chinesearmy were selected as the research objects, we used empirical methods to study team leader authenticity’s antecedents and consequences at team level. Results are presented asfollows.Results:First, humble personality is positively related to the four dimensions of authenticleadership: transparency (r=0.331^***), moral （r=0.168*）, balanced processing （r=0.259**）, and self-awareness （r=0.200**）. Humble personality is also positively related tothe general level of authentic leadership in a team （r=0.285**） and exerted a significanteffect on team leader authenticity (β=0.288^***).Second, team leader authenticity has significant effects on team performance andteam innovation (β=0.307^***, β=0.324^***), but has unsignificant prediction functions onteam satisfaction.Third, team leader authenticity has a significant effect on team authenticity (β=0.465^***). In addition, team authenticity partly mediated the relationship between teamleader authenticity and team performance and team innovation.Fourth, team leader authenticity has a significant effect on team identification （β=0.125*）. Besides, team identification partly mediated the relationship between team leaderauthenticity and team performance.Fifth, subordinates’ trust in leader modulated the effect of team leader authenticity onteam satisfaction （β=0.17**）. The effect was stronger when subordinates’trust in leaderwas higher rather than lower.Conclusion:Humble personality has significant effects on authentic leadership in the team.Authentic leadership in the team has significant effects on team performance and teaminnovation. In other words, in a team with higher leader authenticity, its performance andcreativity will increase accordingly. Team authenticity and team identification partlymediated the relationship between team leader authenticity and team performance. Teamauthenticity also partly mediated the relationship between team leader authenticity andteam innovation. That is to say, authentic leadership in a team could enhance teamperformance and team innovation through improving team authenticity atmosphere. Subordinates’ trust in leader modulates the effect of team leader authenticity on teamsatisfaction. Taken together, the current findings will have important implications forChinese organizations management to improve team atmosphere and team effectiveness.