Good Critique Of The Article “Taking The Reins: The Effects Of New Leader Status And Leadership Style Article Review Example

on Team Performance” by Stephen J. Sauer.
Sauer, S. J. (2011). Taking the reins: The effects of new leader status and leadership style on team performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(3), 574-587.
The article by Sauer is a research of leader’s influence upon the team and the results of the team performance. It is very important that the research concerns only new leaders who are not acquainted with the team yet. Very often the new leader can considerably change the way of team’s performance because the team is not acquainted with his or her manner of leading. That is why the new leader may breathe a new trend into the usual things. The article is based on two experiments that show the cases of effective fulfillment of team’s assignments.
The results of the experiments were more or less predictable. In fact they presented some patterns of the best correlations of the new leader’s status and style. In my opinion the experiments were held properly and the results seem to be appropriate. Actually different types of people are expected to behave in a certain manner and if the leader acts inappropriately there will be an imbalance in the team and this will affect the results. However there can be the cases when the situation demands unusual salvation and the leader may change his or her style in the context of that problem. I agree that the rules and patterns should exist not to waste time to find the best way of leading out but still one should always consider the situation. It is important to remember that any rule to be kept has its exceptions. The author of the article marks that even the contingent of the participants can affect the experiments greatly. In this way the first group of participants who graduated only a couple of years ago assessed their new leaders higher that the second group of participants who graduated more than five years ago and already has work experience. To conclude the critique I can say that the research can be very helpful. It also gives many opportunities to investigate the question further and more detailed. As the main purpose of the research was to determine the relations between the new leader’s status and style it is completed in a full volume. I would further investigate other aspects of the research to find out their influence on the topic. They could be the participants’ age and education, the complexity of the work, or even the relations between team members.

References

Sauer, S. J. (2011). Taking the reins: The effects of new leader status and leadership style on team performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(3), 574-587.