ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B
主办:中国心理学会
   中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

心理学报 ›› 2019, Vol. 51 ›› Issue (3): 366-382.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00366

• 研究报告 • 上一篇    下一篇

权力层级与团队绩效关系:权力与地位的一致与背离

季浩1,2, 谢小云2(), 肖永平3, 甘小乐3, 冯雯2   

  1. 1宁波大学商学院, 宁波 315211
    2浙江大学管理学院, 杭州 310058
    3江西经济管理干部学院工商管理系, 南昌 330088
  • 收稿日期:2017-12-21 发布日期:2019-01-22 出版日期:2019-03-25
  • 通讯作者: 谢小云 E-mail:xiexy@zju.edu.cn
  • 基金资助:
    * 国家自然科学基金项目资助(71772159);国家自然科学基金项目资助(71372056)

Does power hierarchy benefit or hurt team performance? The roles of hierarchical consistency and power struggle

JI Hao1,2, XIE Xiao-Yun2(), XIAO Yong-Ping3, GAN Xiao-Le3, FENG Wen2   

  1. 1 Business School, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
    2 School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
    3 The Department of Business Administration, Jiangx Institute of Economic Administrators, Nanchang 330088, China
  • Received:2017-12-21 Online:2019-01-22 Published:2019-03-25
  • Contact: XIE Xiao-Yun E-mail:xiexy@zju.edu.cn

摘要:

本研究致力于探讨在权力与地位不一致的背景下, 权力层级与团队绩效研究的分歧。本研究提出权力层级与团队绩效的关系取决于团队的层级一致性——权力与地位的匹配度。具体地, 当层级一致(权力与地位匹配)时, 权力层级促进团队绩效; 当层级不一致(权力与地位不匹配)时, 权力层级抑制团队绩效。本研究结合问卷、实验和二手数据方法来验证假设, 研究1通过对46个大学生创业实践团队的两阶段问卷调查, 发现层级一致性对权力层级与团队绩效的关系具有调节作用。此后, 研究2通过一项涉及64个团队的实验来揭示因果关系, 发现权力争夺在权力层级和层级一致性的交互与团队绩效的关系中起中介作用。最后研究3通过203个观测值的互联网公司二手数据重复验证了层级一致性的调节作用, 并提升了本研究的生态效度。本研究为权力层级的研究做出了一定的贡献, 并为团队管理提供了启示。

关键词: 权力层级, 层级一致性, 权力争夺, 团队绩效

Abstract:

Whether power hierarchy benefits or hurts team performance is a paradoxical question in the current literature. While functionalists contend that power hierarchy is likely to resolve conflicts and promote coordination within teams, in turn improving team performance, dysfunctionalists argue that power hierarchy can entail struggle and conflicts, in turn impairing team performance. This study suggests that this discrepancy can be reconciled by considering the effect of hierarchical consistency. Hierarchical consistency describes the degree of alignment between power hierarchy and status hierarchy within a team. We propose that hierarchical consistency may moderate the relationship between power hierarchy and team performance. Specifically, when status hierarchy and power hierarchy are aligned, power hierarchy will produce elevated team performance. Meanwhile, when status hierarchy and power hierarchy are misaligned, power hierarchy is likely to attenuate team performance. Furthermore, we suggest that the interaction of power hierarchy and hierarchical consistency may impact team performance via the mediating effect of power struggle.
We tested our hypotheses through a multimethod approach that included survey, experiment, and archival data analysis. In Study 1, we collected data from 46 student teams in a four-week entrepreneurial practice program. The power and status of the team members were measured using the round-robin method, where each team member was asked to rate his or her teammates’ power and status. The data were collected through surveys at the beginning of the third week of the entrepreneurial practice program. Team performance was measured based on the overall profit of each team earned from this program. The financial data were collected at the end of the entrepreneurial practice program. In Study 2, we conducted a 2 (power hierarchy: power differentiation vs. power equality) × 2 (hierarchical consistency: consistent vs. inconsistent) between-subject design with a multiparty negotiation task. Overall, 192 undergraduates and postgraduates participated in our experiment, and they were randomly assigned into 64 three-person groups. Each group was randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions. Finally, in Study 3, data from 203 observations from 169 listed companies in the Internet industry were collected to retest the moderating effect of hierarchical consistency on the relationship between power hierarchy and team performance. In this study, we measured power hierarchy based on the difference in equity among TMT members, hierarchical consistency was calculated through the absolute difference between TMT members’ equity and team tenure, and team performance was measured based on return on equity (ROE).
We used hierarchical linear regression, ANOVA, a fixed effect model, and bootstrapping methods to test our hypotheses. As predicted, we found that the effects of power hierarchy on team performance are contingent on the degree of hierarchical consistency in Study 1. That is, when status hierarchy and power hierarchy were aligned, the power hierarchy was positively related to team performance; yet when status hierarchy and power hierarchy were misaligned, power hierarchy was not significantly related to team performance. The results of Study 2 showed that power struggle played a mediating role between hierarchical consistency combined with power hierarchy and team performance. Specifically, power hierarchy was likely to attenuate power struggle in the presence of a high level of hierarchical consistency, and hence improved the team’s performance. However, power hierarchy had no significant impact on power struggle and team performance in the presence of a low level of hierarchical consistency. In Study 3, we found that power hierarchy was not significantly related to team performance when hierarchical consistency was high, while power was negatively related to team performance when hierarchical consistency was low.
Our study contributes to the literature in several ways. First, our findings help to reconcile the antithetical arguments and evidence in research on the relationship between power hierarchy and team performance. Although power hierarchy can increase team performance in the presence of high hierarchical consistency, it is likely to decrease team performance in the presence of low hierarchical consistency. Second, this study suggests that the legitimacy of a power hierarchy may be influenced by its alignment with a status hierarchy. Third, this study extends the research on hierarchical consistency. While contemporary studies focus on the effects of power and status consistency at an individual level, this study is among the first to introduce hierarchical consistency into group-level research and empirically test its important effect on the relationship between power hierarchy and team performance.

Key words: power hierarchy, hierarchical consistency, power struggle, team performance.

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