Do Work-Group Diversity, Identification and Shared Leadership affect inter-organizational governing team (IGT) effectiveness?

Introduction. Firms that join in alliance or consortia have to coordinate their activities in order to reach their goals. An inter-organizational governing team (IGT) is a team governance system formed by entrepreneurs or representatives of the firms participating in the collaboration. This study hypothesizes that age group diversity (an input variables) has a direct influence on Shared Leadership, Team Identification and Team Communication Network Density (team process variables) which influence perception of Team Performance and Work Group Satisfaction. The study also investigates if Shared Leadership improves perception of IGT managerial capacities and the satisfaction for work group activities. Method, Participants and Data Analysis. A questionnaire was submitted 28 IGTs, for a total amount of 101 respondents. A cross-sectional research design with distinct sources of information was implemented. Muethel and Gehrlein (2009) scale was used to measure Shared Leadership; Bergami and Bagozzi (2000) scale was used to measure Team Identification; answers were aggregated at the team level. Social Network Analysis was used to measure Communication Network Density. Main Results. Age diversity positively affects team Shared Leadership and through this perception of Team Performance. In addition, Work Group Identification is positively related to Shared Leadership, which mediates the relationship between Identification and perception of Team Performance and Group Satisfaction. Implications. Findings show that psychosocial input variables and also team processes affect IGTs’ effectiveness. Such comprehension may help entrepreneurs, managers and counselors to design and to manage more effectively IGTs.