Task Interdependence, Team Identity and Team Performance: A Bottom-Up Multilevel Model

Abstract

Most research on social identity theory has been separately examined either at the team or individual levels. This paper aims to expand the use of the social identity theory and illuminates an emerging mechanism of task interdependence at the individual level that can affect the nature of the team identity by testing how team power distance act as a moderator Iraqi universities, this study employs multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) with Mplus 7.2 to test the model. The results reveal a positive indirect relationship between individual-level task interdependence and team performance through team identity. In addition, team power distance does not moderate a positive relationship between individual-level task interdependence and team identity. This study illuminates the link between task interdependence and team identity, which can eventually occur through a bottom-up mechanism to obtain high team performance. This study is novel for several reasons. First, this study finds a bottom-up mechanism between task interdependence at the individual level to team performance through team identity. Second, this study offers new empirical findings that, in the context of a middle east culture known as the high level of power distance, team power distance (i.e., contextual variable) does not associate with the interdependence of an individual to perform tasks and team identity. In addition, this answers the research call to investigate the dynamic interactions between individuals in teams and team-based overall, which has not been discussed in previous studies.