The beauty in ambiguity: How and when leader indirect communication facilitates team performance

Abstract

In leadership studies, explicit, straightforward communication has traditionally been advocated and perceived as an effective style for leading teams and organizations. Contrary to this prevailing notion, the present paper integrates the social information processing theory with the motivated information processing in groups (MIP-G) model to elucidate the conditions and mechanisms under which leader indirect communication can be beneficial, especially in facilitating team reflexivity and subsequent team performance. We employed a three-wave, multi-source survey encompassing 87 work teams, consisting of 676 members and their corresponding 87 leaders in a large high-tech company. The results show that when leaders adopt a subtle, indirect communication style, teams with stronger team member exchange (TMX) are more inclined to engage in deeper team reflexivity, which subsequently enhances both team task and creative performance. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our research, along with its limitations.