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Daniel Weimar will present his paper on "O Captain, My Captain!: The Impact of Formal Leadership on Individual Behavior, Team Performance and Team Efficiency" at the UZH Business Economics Research Seminar.
Tuesday, December 3, 12.00 - 13.00 in room HAH-E10 (UZH)
Abstract:
For investigating of the effect of formal leadership several information is required. In this regard, formal leadership might affect a leader`s effort as well as his performance in the first place. In the second place, the question arises whether team performance is affected by the behavior change of the leader or by the leadership skills of the leader. Investigating this holistic relationship of formal leadership requires a setting were the formal appointment of a leadership is evident, were individual effort and performance is observable and were team performance is measurable. Moreover, to draw causal interpretations, a new leader`s behavior must be observed before and after the appointment of a leadership. Past research failed to address all these requirements in one setting to investigate the impact of formal leadership as a whole. Therefore, we gathered data from professional football, were captaincy clearly indicates a formal leader. The football setting allows us, to test for changes in a captain`s behavior before and after the election as team leader. Besides individual effort and performance data (N= 49,294), data about team performance is also observable (N= 4,260). In-season captain changes are used as spontaneous emergence of new leaders. Effectivity (FE OLS) as well as efficiency (DEA) of captaincy were estimated. Although captaincy is assumed to be an important determinant of team success, we found no effects of formal leadership. Neither captaincy affected a captains` s effort and/or performance nor team performance changed significantly. Thus, the human capital of a team seems to be more important than motivation by a formal leader or informal leadership is more important.
