본 연구는 팀제 조직의 구성원이 보이는 적응성과 및 지속적 학습활동을 파악하기 위하여 팀 리더의 리더십 요인, 팀 풍토 요인, 개인 요인의 영향력을 검증하였다. 적응성과 및 지속적 학습활동에 대한 선행변수로서 개인수준에서 학습목표성향, 팀 수준에서 실책관리풍토를 고려하였다. 또한, 학습목표성향과 실책관리풍토의 선행변수로서 변화지향적 팀 리더십의 관련성을 검증하여 팀 맥락에서 적응성과와 지속적 학습활동을 높일 수 있는 방법을 살펴보았다. 개인수준과 팀수준의 영향을 분석하기 위하여 팀 단위로 자료를 수집하여 62개 팀의 317명에게 설문조사를 실시하였다. 위계선형모형(Hierarchical Linear Modeling)을 활용한 다수준(multilevel) 분석방법을 적용하여 분석한 결과, 개인수준에서 학습목표성향과 적응수행 및 지속적 학습활동은 정적으로 관련되어 있었다. 또한 팀 수준의 실책관리풍토와 적응성과 및 지속적 학습활동이 정적으로 관련되어 있었고, 이러한 학습목표성향과 실책관리풍토에 대하여 변화지향적 팀 리더십은 유의미한 영향을 보였다. 마지막으로 변화지향적 팀 리더십과 적응수행 및 지속학습활동의 관계에서 실책관리풍토는 매개효과를 보였다. 이러한 결과를 바탕으로 팀제 조직의 구성원이 변화가 필요한 직무에 효과적으로 적응하는 과정에 대한 이론적 논의와 조직 현장에 대한 시사점을 제시하였다.
The purpose of this study is to investigate adaptive performance and continuous learning activity in team contexts. To meet the changing nature of work and work environment, workers in today’s organizations need to be more adaptive to demands in their job and proactive to learn future requirements. This study examines the two organizational behaviors and test the effects of individual motivation in terms of goal, team climate factor, and team leadership on those outcome variables.
Following a multilevel approach, the study examines the predictor variables at two levels- individual and team levels. As an individual-level predictor, this study examines learning goal orientation. Given the previous argument that individuals’ motivational state induced by goal influences the direction, intensity, and duration of behaviors, adaptive performance and continuous learning may be explained by the individual motivation associated with goal orientation. Workers with high learning goal orientation focus more on developing new skills, understanding their tasks, and successfully achieving self-referenced standards for mastery (Dweck, 1986). Thus, its’ positive effect on adaptive performance and continuous learning was predicted in this study.
Regarding the cross-level effect from team level on the two criteria, this study consider team climate as a team characteristic. Team climate is defined as the shared perceptions of organizational policies, practices, and procedures, both formal and informal (Carr, Schmidt, Ford, & DeShon, 2003). Although it is closely associated with behavior and performance of members in teams, more specific types of climate have been suggested for more detailed explanation. Thus, this study examines the error management climate that is defined as a shared climate under which team members openly communicate and strategically find solutions based on shared knowledge about errors (Van Dyck, Frese, Baer, & Sonnentag, 2005). Reflecting the nature of the climate and previous research that it is effective to adapt to changing environment (Keith & Frese, 2008), its’ positive effects on adaptive performance and continuous learning was predicted in this study.
This study also investigates change-oriented team leadership as the source of learning goal orientation at the individual-level and error management climate at the team-level to predict adaptive performance and continuous learning activity. Team leaders play critical roles in team decision-making (Yukl, 2004), and so team leadership has substantial influence on members’ behaviors. Because of the environmental turbulence driven by technological change, global challenges, and cultural clashes increasingly happening in organizations, it is important to consider a new role of the change-oriented team leadership factor in addition to traditional leadership roles (Yukl, Gordon, & Taber, 2002). Regarding the leadership role on individual goal orientation, a number of studies suggest that goal orientation is the attitudinal state factor that is formed through authority and evaluation/ recognition processes. Leadership is also one of the primary factors that determine climate. Therefore, this study examines the multilevel mediation processes of the effect of change-oriented leadership on the outcome variables through learning goal orientation at individual level and error management climate at team level.
The hypotheses to test the multilevel mediation effects in this study are as follows.
H 1：Learning goal orientation will positively influence adaptive performance.
H 2：Learning goal orientation will positively influence continuous learning orientation.
H 3：Error management climate will positively influence adaptive performance.
H 4：Error management climate will positively influence continuous learning orientation.
H 5：Change-oriented leadership will positively influence learning goal orientation.
H 6：Change-oriented leadership will positively influence error management climate.
H7：Error management climate will be mediation variable between change-oriented leadership and adaptive performance.
H8：Error management climate will be mediation variable between change-oriented leadership and continuous learning activity.
H9：Learning goal orientation will be mediation variable between change-oriented leadership and adaptive performance.
H10：Learning goal orientation will be mediation variable between change-oriented leadership and continuous learning activity.
Using a survey data were collected from 317 employees of 62 teams in various South Korean organizations. Findings are as follow.
First, there were positive effects of learning goal orientation on the adaptive performance and the continuous learning activity at individual level (H1 & H2). These results are consistent with a previous study results (e.g., Han, 2003) and suggest that individual motivation associated with goals toward learning and self-development is important in making workers reach higher levels of adaptive performance and exert more continuous learning activity, by which current organizations manage changing environment effectively.
Second, the study found positive cross-level direct effects of the error management climate at team level on adaptive performance and continuous learning activity (H3 & H4). These results mean that members in teams with high level of error management climate well adapt to changing requirements by handling the information about errors and by sharing errors among team members with open mind (Wong, 2007). The results also indicate that members in team with stronger error management climate continuously learn current and future competencies with less fear of making errors (Heimbeck, Frese, Sonnentag, & Keith, 2003).
Third, there were positive effects of the change-oriented team leadership on learning goal orientation and error management climate (H5 & H6). Also, error management climate had cross-level mediation role between the change-oriented team leadership and individual criterion variables (H7 & H8). However, the individual-level mediation effects of learning goal orientation between the change-oriented team leadership and individual criterion variables were not supported (H9 & H10). The results indicate that adaptive performance and continuous learning activity can be encouraged by team leader’s positive attitude toward change through proactive team climate toward errors collectively.
Based on the findings above, theoretical and practical implications of the study are as follows. Research in organizational behavior has emphasized the importance of the integrative investigation across micro and macro level of analyses. By testing meso-mediational relationships among variables at individual and team levels, this study provides a theoretical insight into change-related behaviors. The study also provides organizations with practical implications regarding team level interventions (e.g, team training, team leader training) and individual level intervention (e.g., individual training, personnel selection) to improve adaptive performance and encourage continuous learning.
