To lead or not? The role theory perspective on the moderating roles of transformational and laissez-faire leadership in shared leadership teams

There is ongoing debate in extant empirical work on whether vertical leadership acts as a facilitator or an inhibitor of shared leadership teams and whether shared leadership acts as a substitute for vertical leadership. This study adopts role theory to clarify formal leaders’ role in shared leadership teams by simultaneously considering both transformational leadership and laissez-faire leadership. Using a sample of 68 work teams varied in functions in high-tech firms in Taiwan, the results support most of our predictions. Specifically, this study provides empirical evidence that transformational leadership can significantly facilitate activities of shared leadership teams that are highly goal-committed. Our findings also suggest that shared leadership does not substitute for transformational and laissez-faire leadership to influence team adaptive performance. Instead, a high level of transformational leadership would strengthen the effect of shared leadership teams on adaptive performance whereas a high level of laissez-faire leadership would result in shared leadership teams decreasing team adaptive performance.