Does Shared Leadership Inspire Team Citizenship Behaviour Through Team Psychological Capital?

Abstract

Understanding organisational citizenship behaviour at the team level has gained importance in recent years, as organisations place greater emphasis on teams and teamwork. Although contemporary literature acknowledges shared leadership as a significant antecedent of organisational citizenship behaviour, existing studies rarely consider the underlying mechanisms through which shared leadership produces organisational citizenship behaviour. This study investigates the influence of team psychological capital on the relationship between shared leadership and team citizenship behaviour using data collected from team members and supervisors belonging to 48 teams from diverse industries in India. An analysis using the team as the unit of analysis and partial least squares structural equation modelling technique revealed that team psychological capital acts as a partial mediator in the relationship between shared leadership and team citizenship behaviour. Based on the insights from this study, the authors suggest that managers should nurture both shared leadership and team psychological capital to promote team citizenship behaviour.