Publication Type

PhD Dissertation

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

1-2025

Abstract

This study explores the mechanism by which team power disparity affects team efficacy, specifically analyzing the impact of team power disparity on team performance through a sequential mediating mechanism, which consists of team members’ perceptions of power legitimacy first and then team cooperation. Moreover, this study examined the boundary moderating role of team power distance in the impacts of team power disparity on team power legitimacy, as well as its subsequent impact on team cooperation and team performance. Through analyzing multi-timepoint data collected from 76 teams, the study found that team power disparity negatively affected team power legitimacy, thereby reducing the level of team cooperation, and further negatively impacting team performance. Further, this study discovered that power distance, serving as a key moderating variable, moderated the relationship between team power disparity and team power legitimacy, thereby subsequently shaping the indirect effect of team power disparity on team performance through successively affecting team power legitimacy first then and team cooperation. Specifically, the study found that in teams with lower power distance, team power disparity was not necessarily associated with team power legitimacy. Rather, the association between team power disparity and team power legitimacy was contingent upon team power distance. In teams with higher levels of team power distance, the association between team power disparity and team power legitimacy was not significant, whereas in teams with lower levels of team power distance, team power disparity was negatively and significantly associated with team power legitimacy. Given that team power legitimacy was positively associated with team cooperation first and ultimately team performance, team power distance also moderated the indirect effects of team power disparity on team performance via team power legitimacy and team cooperation, such that the indirect impacts of team power disparity on team performance negative and significant, particularly in teams with lower levels of team power distance. Based on the theoretical model and empirical results proposed in this study, it further discusses relevant theories and management practices, aiming to provide new insights into understanding the internal power dynamics within teams and their impact on team efficacy and to offer implications and references for practical management.

Keywords

team power disparity, team power legitimacy, team collaboration, team power distance, team performance

Degree Awarded

Doctor of Business Administration (Accounting and Finance)

Discipline

Organizational Behavior and Theory | Organization Development

Supervisor(s)

TAN, Hwee Hoon

First Page

1

Last Page

108

Publisher

Singapore Management University

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Author

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