GROUP & ORGANIZATION MANAGEMENT Sivasubramaniam et al. / TEAM LEADERSHIP, GROUP POTENCY A Longitudinal Model of the Effects of Team Leadership and Group Potency on Group Performance NAGARAJ SIVASUBRAMANIAM WILLIAM D. MURRY Duquesne University BRUCEJ.AVOLIO Binghamton University DONGI.JUNG San Diego State University Inthecurrentstudy,theauthorsexaminehowleadershipwithinateampredictslevelsofgroup potencyandgroupperformanceovertime.Theauthorspredictthatgroupsthatratedthemselves high on transformational team leadership behaviors soon after the groups were formed would seethemselvesasbeingmorepotentovertimeandalsowouldachieveahigherlevelofgroup performance.Thesepredictionswereconfirmed.Theimplicationsofthecurrentstudyforfur- ther research on leadership within teams are discussed. IthasbeenestimatedthatnearlytwothirdsoftheFortune500organizations utilizesomeformofteamsintheirorganization.Motorola,forexample,has approximately 4,000 teams operating in its facilities around the globe. Researchevidencehasdocumentedtheorganization-widebenefitsofimple- menting self-managed work teams (Cohen & Bailey, 1997). Nevertheless, theuseofteamsinbothlargeandsmallorganizationshasraisedanumberof issuesregardingthedevelopmentandintegrationofsuchteamsintoexisting organizationalstructuresandcultures,anditsimpactonleadershippractices (Avolio,Jung,Murry,&Sivasubramaniam,1996;Kozlowski,Gully,Salas, & Cannon-Bowers, 1996). Leadership(orlackofit)hasbeenidentifiedasoneoftheleadingcauses of failures in implementing a team-based work system (Katzenbach, 1997; This was research was conducted while Nagaraj Sivasubramaniam and William Murry were affiliated with Binghamton University. Group & Organization Management,Vol.27No.1,March2002 66-96 © 2002 Sage Publications 66 by guest on September 27, 2016 gom.sagepub.com Downloaded from