Learning Outcomes in Leadership Teams: the Multilevel Dynamics of Mastery Goal Orientation, Team Psychological Safety, and Team Potency

A sample of 166 individual participants in 47 school leadership teams was used to investigate the multilevel relationships between individual learning outcomes and two dimensions of individual mastery achievement goal orientationmastery approach goals (MAP), and an emotionally modified measure of mastery avoidance goals (MAV)and two group-level emergent beliefs, namely, team potency and team psychological safety. All variables were independently positively related to individual learning; however, team potency had no incremental effect above team psychological safety. MAP and team potency interacted negatively on individual learning, indicating that the emergence of high potency in teams may compensate for low average level of MAP in teams. When running the complete research model, MAV and team psychological safety remained positively related to individual learning, in contrast to team potency and MAP. The implications of the findings for leadership teams are discussed.