Comarison of Four Leadership Theories

The Applicability of Four Contemporary Behavior-Based Leadership Theories

to Team-Based Organizations

Hierarchical, command-and-control based companies are facing global extinction as executives across industries implement more flexible and adaptable systems, structures, and processes to meet constantly changing market needs (Callanan, 2004; Hunsaker & Hunsaker, 2008). Organizations built for flexibility, performance, and speed are “ruled by high-performing teams with real decision-making clout and accountability for results, rather than by committees that pass decisions up to the next level or toss them over the wall into the nearest silo” (Guttman, 2008, p. 34). According to Day, Gronn and Salas (2006), existing leadership theories do not sufficiently address the unique challenges team-based organizations face. This paper examines Day et al.’s statement by analyzing the applicability of four contemporary behavior-based leadership theories to team-based organizations, comparing and contrasting the models’ potential effectiveness in team environments, and providing recommendations for further leadership theory development to meet the needs of modern organizations.

Characteristics of Team-Based Organizations

Researchers use different names for team-based organizations, including “networked” (Clawson, 2006, p. 25), “infocracies” (Clawson, p. 25), “adhocracies” (Luftman, 2004, p. 208), “horizontal” (Guttman, p. 33), and “participative” (Yukl, 2006, p. 82). This paper uses the term team-based organization to cover all organizational structures dominated by teams that meet the following five defining characteristics: (a) self-managing teams, (b) executives as mentors, (c) diversity, (d) process alignments, and (e) context management. Each of these characteristics is briefly described below.

Self-Managing Teams

In a team-based organization, teams have decision-making responsibility over projects and tasks, and full access to information and...