Public managers rarely manage alone, but how do management teams function? An article in Public Management Review explores the role of management teams in public sector organisations. It examines the internal team environment and how it relates to individual behaviour as well as job satisfaction. The article argues that the success of management teams depends on three factors: shared purpose, social support and voice.
Managers and management teams
Public managers are rarely solitary leaders. They often share their leadership with employees, stakeholders and collaborators. A core aspect of public leadership is the ability to engage collectively in actions that are characterised by:
- dispersed accountability and authority
- collaboration towards common achievements.
Public managers work in environments that include overlaps and mutual dependence. The interdependencies and support between public managers tend to be overlooked. Researching these issues can contribute to:
- a better understanding of how managers work together to create value
- how management team factors can be important for the team and for the individual leader.
What constitutes a management team?
Management teams must be able to work across hierarchical and organisational boundaries to solve complex and wicked problems. The article conceptualises a team as having the following characteristics:
- composed of two or more individuals
- exist to perform organisationally relevant tasks
- share one or more common goals
- have task interdependencies (i.e. workflow, goals, knowledge, and outcomes)
- interact socially (face-to-face or virtually)
- maintain and manage boundaries
- are embedded in an organisational context that sets boundaries, constrains the team, and influences exchanges with other units in the broader entity.
Management teams share these characteristics with work teams, but they also have distinct features. First, they have responsibility for the overall performance of a unit or organisation. Second, they need to coordinate and provide direction to these units and primarily create value through others. In pursuing public value for the common good, members of a management team are often highly interdependent, but they also face individual – and sometimes competing – responsibilities.
Internal team environment and team effectiveness
Research explains that teams do not make a difference due to their form but through their functioning. A strong internal team environment has three dimensions:
- shared purpose: this motivates individuals, directs efforts towards a common goal and give individuals a sense of empowerment.
- social support among members: this gives team members incentive to contribute to the team, maintains team cohesion and increases wellbeing.
- voice: open and frank communication within the team, allowing members to contribute and raise ideas and criticism.
While all three dimensions are important, the article argues that the shared purpose dimension is key in a public context.
About the research
The research looked at shared purpose in a management team and how it relates with managers’ and employees’ perceptions of visionary leadership. It also looked at whether shared purpose in a management related positively with the managers’ job satisfaction.
The research used a dataset that included all employees and managers in a medium-sized Danish municipality. It was possible to match managers with their employees and identify managers who share a management team. This meant manager and employee responses could be combined to examine team-level variables.
What the research found
Managers who have a sense of shared purpose in the management team also perceive that they exert more leadership behaviour themselves. However other management team members’ sense of shared purpose is not related with the leaders’ self-perceived leadership. In contrast, the employees’ perceptions of leadership are explained by the sense of shared purpose in the management team and not by their own leader’s sense of shared support in the leadership team.
If employee-perceived leadership is a more accurate reflection of actual leadership behaviour, it is also more closely related with the actual support a leader can receive from colleagues. This supports the argument that leadership depends on much more than the individual manager, and that managers are dependent on other managers in their management teams.
The bottom line
In times when managers are not lonesome heroes but rather players on a team who are dependent on the ability to share purpose and goals, we need concepts that can help us understand management teams. The management team’s ability to share a common purpose can be a prerequisite for the individual managers’ ability to engage in visionary leadership. When management teams are successful in sharing purpose, it can send more consistent signals to employees and improve alignment in work responsibilities.
Want to read more?
Love thy neighbour? Management team environment and effective leadership behaviour in public organizations – Caroline Howard Grøn and & Christian Bøtcher Jacobsen, Public Management Review, March 2025
Each fortnight The Bridge summarises a piece of academic research relevant to public sector managers.
- Published Date: 25 March 2025