Introduction
While conflict levels determine the efficiency of a team’s performance, it is highly essential to identify the underlying humanistic facets that contribute to both interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts for their minimization and effective management. At the same time, a team’s contextual factors and personal characteristics are among the facets that form job satisfaction as a measure of an employee’s contentment that determine the occurrence of conflicts, organizational behavior, and its concept of motivated behavior that determines team success (Robbins & Judge, 2016). In addition, the consideration of its level is especially essential for the building and appropriate performance of non-profit teams where financial remuneration is absent, and the motivation should exclude this option.
Setting the Tone for the Team
In the article “Setting the Tone for the Team: A Multi-Level Analysis of Managerial Control, Peer Control, and Their Consequences for Job Satisfaction and Team Performance,” Walter et al. (2021) address the impact of peer control on job satisfaction and team’s performance and its connection with managerial control. The authors define peer control designed and implemented by team members as a particular type of control “which occurs laterally between employees with no formal authority over one another” (Walter et al., 2021, p. 851). It has two distinct dimensions that determine its impact on employees – peer control may be direct and indirect. Direct peer control presupposes noticing employees’ behavior and the results of their performance and open response, including correcting mistakes, praising for a good job, discussing outcomes, or reporting dishonest members (Walter et al., 2021). In turn, indirect peer control refers to gossiping or avoiding peers whose performance is regarded as poor.
Due to the spread of self-managed team working in the present day, peer control has become increasingly common in various organizations. According to Robbins & Judge (2016), a self-managed team accepts supervisory responsibilities, such as work scheduling and planning, making and operating decisions, assigning tasks, and evaluating members. Thus, all these activities presuppose the existence of peer control within a team. In general, it may be regarded as the derivative of managerial control, and it occurs when the latter becomes ineffective. In this case, team members may initiate peer control by authorizing it through the delegation of control responsibilities to team leaders, creating behavioral norms, and restructuring work patterns. In addition, direct peer control has the characteristics of formal managerial control as it focuses on the transparency of task assignment, performance-oriented approach, feedback in relation to results, and strong leadership. Moreover, by serving as role models, leaders from team members promote appropriate organizational behaviors and contribute to the reduction of indirect peer control.
In their article, the authors identify the connection between peer control and job satisfaction as well. They state that direct peer control impacts five dimensions of a job that may be regarded as motivating and satisfying, including task significance, task identity, autonomy, skill variety, and feedback (Walter et al., 2021). Although multitasking and the assignment of complex tasks may negatively affect job satisfaction, with direct peer control that involves the articulation of goals and agreement upon them, motivation, and the analysis and correction of mistakes with interest in employees’ professional growth, job satisfaction increases. In general, the article emphasizes the significance of direct peer control for appropriate organizational behaviors and job satisfaction. Meanwhile, this control is directly associated with the leadership skills of a competent individual who may be chosen for this type of control. Thus, this paper supports the statement that effective leadership is one of the factors that lead to team success (Robbins & Judge, 2016). In a non-profit team, leadership that may improve job satisfaction by making employees more motivated and productive is even more essential as financial rewards are excluded.
Transformational Leadership, Organizational Climate and Job Satisfaction in Work Teams
In the article “Transformational Leadership, Organizational Climate and Job Satisfaction in Work Teams,” Gaviria-Rivera and López-Zapata (2019) examine the influence of transformational leadership on job satisfaction and performance. Transformational leadership is a particular leadership style that produces the most remarkable and profound effect on employees transcending their personal interests for the organization’s growth and development. Applying transformational leadership, leaders identify and articulate corporate vision and goals, demonstrate high-performance expectations, foster the acceptance of changes, provide individualized support, and focus on intellectual stimulation.
Transformational leadership focuses on people as the main source of corporate goal achievement. According to the latest research, its characteristics include a clearly articulated and positive vision of the future, the provision of support and employees empowerment, staff development, serving as a role model, a leader’s charisma, and innovative thinking (Gaviria-Rivera & López-Zapata, 2019). Transformational leaders pay particular attention to every employee’s unique developmental needs and address them in order to create new opportunities for development and problem solutions. This statement is supported by Robbins and Judge (2016), who identifies followers’ abilities, personalities, differences, and preferences as compositional factors that should be considered for team success. Although members should be chosen on the basis of their competencies, it is essential to see them as whole individuals with personal needs and demands that may contribute to team efficacy if managed appropriately.
According to the results, transformational leadership has a considerably positive impact on job satisfaction. As a matter of fact, job satisfaction reflects an employee’s inner contentment, which determines his attitude toward work and organizational behavior. When a person is satisfied with his occupation, he minimizes the risk of intrapersonal conflict and inappropriate behavior that may lead to interpersonal conflict as well. At the same time, transformational leadership creates a positive atmosphere in a team on the basis of mutual trust and respect essential for team success (Robbins & Judge, 2016). In addition, transformational leaders promote followers’ potential, capacities, integrity, and involvement in a common performance. They emphasize the significance of job satisfaction and address every worker’s need to guarantee it. In turn, job satisfaction contributes to general team performance and organizational climate. Thus, for efficient performance, team members should be chosen, taking into consideration the availability of transformational leadership skills among them.
Conclusion
Job satisfaction is one of the facets that have a major impact on motivation as a concept of organizational behavior, the reduction of intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts, and the creation of an efficient team, especially a non-profit one that does not presuppose the existence of financial remuneration. That is why it is highly essential to consider job satisfaction, identify its level, and apply leadership skills for its improvement if necessary. On the basis of the articles’ review, it is possible to conclude that job satisfaction and leadership are closely connected and affect team success. When a team is created, it is important to choose members with the attributes of transformational leadership for direct peer control. In this case, when a leader provides personalized support, articulates goals, and task requirements, serves as a role model, helps correct mistakes, addresses individual needs, manages conflicts, and empowers followers, job satisfaction will increase, impacting the team’s general performance.
References
Gaviria-Rivera, J. I., & Lopez-Zapata, E. (2019). Transformational leadership, organizational climate and job satisfaction in work teams. European Research Studies Journal, 22(3), 68-82.
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2016). Essentials of organizational behavior (13th ed.). Columbus, OH: Pearson.
Walter, J., Kreutzer, M., & Kreutzer, K. (2021). Setting the tone for the team: A multi‐level analysis of managerial control, peer control, and their consequences for job satisfaction and team performance. Journal of Management Studies, 58(3), 849-878.