Charismatic leadership, intra-team communication quality, and team performance: The role of average leadership perceptions and their homogeneity

Abstract

This team-level study investigated whether team members’ perceptions of charismatic leadership are related to team performance via team communication quality. We differentiated between average perceptions of charismatic leadership (APCL) and within-team homogeneity in team members' perceptions of charismatic leadership (HPCL). We hypothesized that APCL and HPCL would be positively related to team performance via intra-team communication quality. In addition, we hypothesized that the positive indirect effect of APCL on team performance would be moderated by HPCL. Our mediation and conditional mediation hypotheses were tested using data collected at two time points in a sample of 54 work teams. The results showed that the indirect effect of HPCL on team performance via intra-team communication quality was statistically significant, whereas the indirect effect of APCL was moderated by HPCL (the indirect effect of APCL was significant only at medium and high levels of HPCL).