Job characteristics affect shared leadership: The moderating effect of psychological safety and perceived self-efficacy

Shared leadership is characterized by exercising lateral leadership influence depending upon the task and the adroitness required for the task. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of job characteristics on shared leadership and explore the moderating effects of perceived self-efficacy, and psychological safety on the relationship between job characteristics and shared leadership.

The authors applied hierarchical regression and social network analysis using a sample of 23 teams consisting 219 employees from an Indian-based multinational BPO.

Results indicate that skill variety, task significance, autonomy and feedback are significant precursors for shared leadership, and psychological safety and perceived self-efficacy act as moderators.

The study extends the literature associated with job characteristics in relation to shared leadership. Managers can encourage shared leadership using job design and by creating a psychologically safe environment to enhance performance of the team. The cross-sectional nature of the study and data from a single organization question the generalizability of the results.

The authors provide an initial understanding of the impact of job characteristics in a team for the development of shared leadership, which has not been studied so far. Also, psychological safety and self-efficacy of individuals in teams have not been explored in the past, moderating the job characteristics and shared leadership relationship.