Introduction
Organizational management is a rapidly evolving field of professional human activity due to its unique mixture of interacting human factors and precise numerical data. Team management becomes more complex and nuanced yearly, and old leadership theories become outdated and less effective. Kunnanatt (2016) notes that “modern organizations have become increasingly complex … making it difficult for any one of these theories to singularly address the challenge of providing strategic guidance to team managers, particularly in today’s dynamic global business environment” (p. 30). That is why novel leadership concepts and strategies are being developed, and authentic leadership is among the most promising new ones. Many academics are interested in the potential of authentic leadership theory, and Lyubovnikova et al. (2017) are among such scholars who decided to investigate the impact of the new approach on team effectiveness. This paper will review their article with a particular focus on team performance and productivity.
Academic Article Summary
As mentioned above, the researcher’s work is about how authentic leadership contributes to a better collective organizational team performance, namely its aspect of team reflectivity. The academic paper begins with a theory section where Lyubovnikova et al. (2016) smoothly introduce readers to such concepts as authentic leadership, team reflexivity and performance, and their interrelationships. They emphasize that concepts such as the influence of authentic leaders on collective behavioral patterns and “determinants of reflexivity” are still poorly understood (Lyubovnikova et al., 2016, p. 60). The theory section also contains three hypotheses that the authors have developed. Lyubovnikova et al. (2016) describe their intervention and explain the data interpretation processes. The ending part of the article discusses the potential practical benefits of the findings and topics for subsequent studies.
Critique of the Academic Article
It can be safely argued that the scholarly article reviewed here is well-done research with almost zero mistakes. The theory part complements the practical one by gradually introducing and explaining one thematically relevant concept after another. The survey includes a diverse sample of many individuals and teams belonging to different organizations (Lyubovnikova et al., 2016). The only flaw is the lack of business organizations from regions such as Asia, North America, and Africa. Both Greece and the United Kingdom belong to the same cultural and economic sectors; therefore, the researchers’ inferences may be wrong in relation to other regions. All theoretical frameworks, data gathering, and interpretation strategies are applied correctly, which is another merit worth mentioning.
Performance, Productivity of Organizational Teams and Authentic Leadership
It is obvious that the author’s findings and inferences are of particular value for team leaders and organizational managers. Academics empirically prove that the team reflectivity that authentic leadership promotes contributes to improving collective professional behavior and other introspection practices (Lyubovnikova et al., 2016). Consequently, the authentic leadership theory boosts corporate teams’ performance and productivity (Lyubovnikova et al., 2016). It also makes the workplace climate more friendly, inspiring, and engaging for collective workers, which is crucial for team morale and, as a result, effectiveness.
Conclusion
The subject of this review is “How Authentic Leadership Influences Team Performance: The Mediating Role of Team Reflexivity” by Lyubovnikova et al. Their academic article explores how new organizational management theories, specifically authentic leadership, and the practices it implies influence team performance. The topics the authors explore are not thoroughly researched yet, and the knowledge they present in the article is still new and ready for application.
References
Kunnanatt, J. T. (2016). 3D leadership–Strategy-linked leadership framework for managing teams. Economics, Management, and Financial Markets, 11(3), 30-55. Web.
Lyubovnikova, J., Legood, A., Turner, N., & Mamakouka, A. (2017). How authentic leadership influences team performance: The mediating role of team reflexivity. Journal of Business Ethics, 141(1), 59-70.