Crosscurrents at Sea

Abstract

As a precursor to making effective prescriptions for leaders of teams, a descriptive study was conducted. Leaders were videotaped while their teams physically executed the task of racing a sailboat. The videotaping enabled skippers to be observed every 15 seconds during practice races ( N = 28) using the Operant Supervisory Taxonomy and Index—by Sequence. The Operant Supervisory Taxonomy and Index—by Sequence highlights the two supervisory behaviors of monitoring and providing consequences shown to be related to effectiveness in a variety of work settings. Time-series analyses indicated both level and slope changes in the leaders’ supervisory behaviors in response to the changing requirements of the task. The findings suggest the need to take into account the temporal patterns of leaders’ behaviors and the dynamics of the task when conceptualizing effective leadership.