Michael Carr

Date of Graduation

Spring 2013

Degree

Master of Science in Psychology

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Thomas Kane

Abstract

This study investigated intra-team leadership as a way to capture leadership actions taken by members of teams, regardless of authority, intended to benefit other team-mates, team success, or the broader organization within which the team is embedded. The theoretical bases for intra-team leadership were then summarized along with possible antecedents and consequences. It was hypothesized that teams who set goals for performing intra-team leadership behaviors are likely to have higher group and individual outcomes including satisfaction, cohesion, collective efficacy, coordination, supportive behaviors, and performance. Participants consisted of 219 undergraduate students from psychology courses at a mid-west state university who met in groups of three and were assigned to one of three conditions: intra-team leadership framed, framed to perform their personal best, or no-framing (control). Participants in all three conditions then had two attempts to play a sentence completion task including an intersession for strategizing how to improve their performance. Following the task, participants evaluated the group and individual outcomes of their teams. No significant differences between framed groups and control groups were found. As more evidence is collected about the impact framing team members as leaders has on group effectiveness, interventions may be designed for teams which promote behaviors intentionally performed to benefit others.

Keywords

team leadership, goal setting, group performance, group processes, group dynamics

Subject Categories

Psychology

Copyright

© Michael Carr

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