Leadership, team and decision speed: empirical study using cross‐provincial data

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between leadership style, top management teams' (TMTs') behavioral integration, and strategic decision‐making speed. It reveals how leadership impacts on team progress and strategic decision‐making speed. Design/methodology/approach – The sample was collected from more than ten provinces/cities in China. Factor analysis and structural equation model (SEM) were used to conduct the data. Findings – The empirical study found that leadership style has a direct positive impact on the speed of strategic decision making, and an indirect positive impact on the speed of strategic decision making through the team behavior integration. The results of SEM show both leadership style and team behavior integration have a significant impact on strategic decision‐making speed. It demonstrates that transformational leadership and transactional leadership have both direct and indirect impact on the speed of strategic decisions. Moreover, transformational leadership has a greater impact than transactional leadership on team behavior integration and strategic decision‐making speed. Originality/value – The study enriches the empirical test on the relationship between leadership, team and decision speed, therefore helping us further understand how to improve the speed of strategic decision‐making.