6. Leader

Question 1

Differences between a leader and a team in perceptions of the same social stimulus

Answer 1

Leader-team perceptual distance

Question 2

Effects of perceptual distance

Answer 2

Goal accomplishment
Constructive conflict
Decision-making autonomy

Question 3

Greater perceptual differences are associated with decreases in team performance

Answer 3

This effect is strongest when a team’s perceptions are more positive than the leader’s are (as opposed to the reverse)

Question 4

Perceptual distance between a leader and a team regarding goal accomplishment and constructive conflict

Answer 4

Nonlinear relationship with team performance

Question 5

A group of members with interdependent interaction and mutually shared responsibility for achieving specified outcomes

Answer 5

Work teams

Question 6

Example of perceptual difference importance

Answer 6

The team and the leader had very divergent perspectives regarding the actual progress made to date. Producing critical differences of opinion about the necessary priorities moving forward. As a result, the team and leader reached a considerable stalemate over how to proceed.

Question 7

Leadership and team processes reciprocally influence each other

Answer 7

It is necessary for a team and its leader to develop an awareness of each other’s perspective.

Question 8

Leaders influence team effectiveness through their effects on four general types of team processes

Answer 8

Cognitive
Motivational
Affective
Coordination

Question 9

Leader-team perceptual differences in team cognitive processes

Answer 9

Detrimental to team performance because these differences hinder the team from maximizing collective cognition and reaching its full potential

Question 10

Human beings experience other individuals phenomenologically because of the complexity of social stimuli and limitations in our information-processing capabilities

Answer 10

Social perceptual theory

Question 11

The perceptual process is influenced by

Answer 11

Many individual differences

Question 12

Individual differences

Answer 12

Variations in experience, personality, and cognitive complexity

Question 13

The perceptual process influences

Answer 13

Interests, values, and mental scripts.

These factors shape the frames and lenses through which people perceive and interpret the world, leading them to attend to certain stimuli but filter out others, or to recall some features and fail to mentally store others

Question 14

Given that individuals who work together in organizations often vary dramatically in experience, personality, skills, and values; and that the motivation to attend to stimuli may vary, any given set of perceivers may have different perceptions of the same phenomenon in the workplace

Answer 14

Teams and their external leaders may be particularly prone to forming different perceptions

Question 15

Perceptions help shape behavioral inputs into

Answer 15

Team processes

Question 16

The degree to which there are significant variations in perceptions of the same social stimulus

Answer 16

Perceptual distance

Question 17

Large vs. Small perceptual distances

Answer 17

Large perceptual distance imply great variations in perceptions of the same stimulus

Small perceptual distances imply only small differences in perception

Question 18

We focus on how much a leader’s perceptions differ from the perceptions of the team he or she leads

Answer 18

And how these differences relate to team performance

Question 19

Leader’s perception is

Answer 19

The perceptions of the leader external to the team, to whom the team reports

Question 20

Leader-team perceptual difference is an impediment to

Answer 20

Collective cognition

Question 21

Input-process-output model for groups

Answer 21

Process describes those things that go on in the group that influence effectiveness

Question 22

Leaders influence team effectiveness through

Answer 22

Their effects on group process

Question 23

A team possesses cognitive properties that are distinct from a combination of the cognitions of individual members

Answer 23

Collective cognition

Question 24

Phases of collective cognition

Answer 24

Accumulation
Interaction
Examination
Accomodation

Question 25

Accumulation (Collective Cognition Phase 1)

Answer 25

Groups acquire, perceive, filter, and store information

Question 26

Interaction (Collective Cognition Phase 2)

Answer 26

Retrieving, exchanging, and structuring information

Question 27

Examination (Collective Cognition Phase 3)

Answer 27

Members negotiate, interpret, and evaluate information

Question 28

Accommodation (Collective Cognition Phase 4)

Answer 28

Groups integrate, decide, and act on the information

Question 29

The cognitive properties of groups, including efficient movement through cycles of collective cognition, serve as significant predictors of group effectiveness

Answer 29

Movement from one major process phase to another is sometimes linear and sequential, but there can also be reciprocal relationships among phases and even a reversal of the cycle

Question 30

Differences in leader-team perceptions are detrimental to collective cognition because

Answer 30

The misunderstandings that arise distract the parties involved and use up valuable resources (time, energy, possibly even capital) that could otherwise be applied directly to achieving performance objectives

Question 31

Greater levels of perceptual distance deters the team from utilizing needed catalysts to collective cognition

Answer 31

Catalysts: feedback received about performance, recognition of conflict among members, and clarification of decision-making roles

Question 32

Teams progress through phases of collective cognition by making use of catalysts to

Answer 32

Break apart routine and habitual patterns of information use and behavior

Question 33

Comprises the core of our argument

Answer 33

The effect of perceptual distance on the catalytic mechanisms.

A leader can assist a team in making use of catalysts, but if the leader and the team do not have common perceptions of relevant phenomena, they are unlikely to take advantage of them

Question 34

Teams and their leaders must

Answer 34

Communicate, coordinate, and interact regarding a myriad of issues related to work output and team functioning

Question 35

This perception is important in determining how well a team will make use of feedback-related catalysts for collective cognition

Answer 35

Goal Accomplishment

Question 36

Prompts examination activities (negotiating, interpreting, and evaluating knowledge) and enables consensus (agreement within the team) which results in better integration of knowledge into action (accomodation activities)

Answer 36

Constructive conflict

Question 37

When roles are clearly defined, each member understands where expertise, responsibility, and accountability lie within the team

Answer 37

Decision-making roles (Autonomy)

Question 38

Results: Leader-team perceptual distance is an important consideration in work teams

Answer 38

Leader-team perceptual distance had a greater predictive capacity than did within-team perceptual distance

Question 39

Results: Perceptual differences between a leader and a team should not simply be disregarded as error but can, in and of themselves, have effects on the functioning of teams

Answer 39

Although the incremental variance explained by leader-team perceptual distance is relatively small

Question 40

Results: For goal accomplishment and constructive conflict, performance is higher when leader-team perceptual distance is low

Answer 40

There is more of a performance advantage when the leader’s perceptions are slightly higher than the team’s perception than vice-versa

Question 41

Results: For goal accomplishment, performance is higher overall when the leader’s and the team’s perceptions are high rather than low

Answer 41

For constructive conflict, there is a positive relationship with team performance.

When the highest levels of constructive conflict are reached, there is a negative relationship.

Question 42

Results: For decision-making autonomy, performance is highest when both parties (leader and team) rate decision-making autonomy high.

And becomes progressively lower as ratings become more incongruent.

Answer 42

The relationship between the leader’s ratings and the team’s rating (of decision-making autonomy) and performance are not curvilinear

Question 43

Results: When leaders had slightly higher perceptions of goal accomplishment, this resulted in a slight performance advantage.

Whereas when teams had slightly higher perceptions of goal accomplishment, this resulted in a slight performance disadvantage.

Answer 43

When the team considers that its knowledge accumulation is sufficient, constructive criticism by the leader threatens the team’s sense of efficacy.

Question 44

Results: A performance advantage occurred when the leader had slightly higher perceptions of constructive conflict than the team.

A disadvantage occurred when the team had higher perceptions than did the leader.

Answer 44

When the leader is not comfortable with how disagreements are being handled by the team, the leader may intervene where he or she is not needed.

Question 45

Results: Solution to leader’s annoying or confusing intervention

Answer 45

Shared perceptions of goal accomplishment and constructive conflict between the leader and the team.

Question 46

Practical implications: Introduce and support procedures that ascertain whether the leader’s and the team’s perceptions of relevant stimuli agree

Answer 46

Suitable procedures can vary in degree of formality ranging from standardized, scheduled procedures to informal, discretionary ones.

Question 47

Practical implications: The leader and team could determine clear, explicit, and measurable criteria around goal accomplishment at the start of projects

Answer 47

To reduce the perceptual distance regarding goal accomplishment

Question 48

Practical implications: Agree on metrics that track the ongoing progress toward goals and mark milestones for discussing progress and providing feedback

Answer 48

Periodic surveys might then be administered to determine if the leader’s and the team’s perceptions agree

Question 49

Practical implications: Parties might also supplement this feedback process with informal dialogue sessions between the leader and the team that are fixed points on the project’s schedule

Answer 49

Feedback built around dialogue rather than simply survey instruments has the potential to provide a greater richness of data and offer more profound insights into why perceptual differences exist and how to resolve them.

Question 50

Conclusion: Teams and their leaders need to become more aware of the role of perceptions and their influence on team outcomes

Answer 50

This research demonstrates that leader-team perceptual distance is an important consideration in work teams

Question 51

Conclusion: Unfortunately, in the quest to be ever more productive, leaders often become focused largely on task accomplishment. As a byproduct, they fail to reflect on the impact of psychological forces and cognitive processes that may ultimately hinder what they are seeking…
An effective team.

Answer 51

To overlook such forces, however, means that a team may pay significant price when it comes to realizing its full pontential