| Abstract: |
Leadership styles significantly influence team effectiveness across organizational contexts, yet comprehensive synthesis of empirical evidence remains limited, particularly for Indian organizations. This systematic review examines the relationships between transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles and team effectiveness by analyzing 45 empirical studies published between 2015-2025. The review objectives include identifying consistent patterns in leadership-effectiveness relationships, quantifying effect sizes across studies, and examining contextual moderators including national culture and industry sector. A systematic methodology was employed, searching major academic databases using predefined criteria, extracting data from qualifying studies, and synthesizing findings through narrative and meta-analytic techniques. The synthesis revealed that transformational leadership consistently demonstrates the strongest positive associations with team effectiveness across contexts (average r=0.71), followed by transactional leadership (average r=0.48), while laissez-faire leadership shows consistent negative relationships (average r=-0.29). Discussion highlights that transformational leadership's effectiveness transcends cultural boundaries while showing enhanced impact in collectivist cultures like India. The findings provide evidence-based guidance for organizations developing leadership capabilities and suggest that integrating transformational and transactional approaches yields optimal team outcomes in diverse organizational settings. |
