Does appointing team leaders and shaping leadership styles increase effort? Evidence from a field experiment

Abstract This paper presents the results of a randomized experiment varying the method of selection of team leaders (appointment versus self-selection), the characteristics of the appointed leaders and their leadership styles. I find that appointing high-ability and hard-working leaders increases effort, knowledge-sharing and team performance. I find even greater effects for another intervention that attempted to shape leadership style by providing detailed instructions on how to coordinate the team based on previous observation of free-riders’ behavior in teams. This indicates that the coordinating abilities of leaders are particularly important in a context of a non-routine cognitive task where knowledge spillovers and the flow of creative ideas are required.