Impact of shared leadership on team performance through team reflexivity: examining the moderating role of task complexity

Abstract

Purpose To react quickly and to be flexible to respond to environmental uncertainty, working in teams is preferable. However, leadership must be decentralised for effective team performance. This paper aims to examine the impact of shared leadership on team performance through team reflexivity with task complexity. Design/methodology/approach To test the hypothesised relationships, a quantitative research design with purposive sampling technique was used. Data were gathered from employees working in teams. A total of 351 valid responses were analysed via SPSS PROCESS macro. Findings The findings signify that shared leadership positively impacts team reflexivity, which, in turn, has a significant impact on team performance. Results also revealed that team reflexivity strongly affects team performance in the presence of shared leadership and complex tasks. Originality/value Research related to effective team performance is scarce. Similarly, a review of a recently published article revealed that team reflexivity could work as a mediating mechanism in the relationship between shared leadership and effective team performance. Moreover, the concept of task complexity in the existing literature is scattered and needs to be integrated.