Impact of Top Management Team's Transformational Leadership on Employee Cognitive Conflict Based on Evolutionary Game Theory

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the impact of transformational leadership exhibited by top management team (TMT) members on the cognitive conflict experienced by employees in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Drawing upon the theory of evolutionary economics, an evolutionary game model is constructed to analyze the strategic choices made by TMT members and employees. The findings reveal that cognitive conflict is most favorable when TMT members demonstrate transformational leadership and employees incur minimal costs while deriving significant benefits from their cognitive conflicts.