ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1605603
The Impact of Motivation to Lead on Team Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Leaders' Role Satisfaction in China and Germany
Provisionally accepted
- 1Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
- 2Rheinische Hochschule Köln, Köln, Germany
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Previous research has shown that the motivation to lead (MTL) is an important predictor for leadership effectiveness. To investigate the differential effects of affective, calculative, and normative motivation to lead on team effectiveness and team climate, we (1) conducted a study with a leader sample from Germany and (2) a study with follower samples from Germany and China. Our results replicated the findings that the three different MTL facets show differential effects on the outcomes, but we also found specific patterns. More precisely, we found consistent positive effects of affective MTL, while calculative MTL and normative MTL showed mixed effects, depending on the boundary conditions, namely (a) the leader vs. follower perspective; and (b) culture with more positive perceptions of normative and calculative MTL in the Chinese sample. Finally, we found support for our hypothesis of role satisfaction with the leader role as a mediator, but only in the German samples. Possible explanations and implications of these findings are discussed.
Keywords: Motivation to lead, Role satisfaction, team effectiveness, Team climate, culture
Received: 03 Apr 2025; Accepted: 01 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Braun, Semenkova, Lalla, Van Dick and Hernandez Bark. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Stephan Braun, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
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