Team Power Asymmetry, Egalitarianism, and Learning: The Moderating Effect of Experienced Hardships

Team power asymmetry, defined as formal power differences among team members, is a ubiquitous structural reality for teams in many organisations. Such power differences have the dual potential to both hurt and benefit team outcomes (Van der Vegt et al., 2010). Recent research suggests that the relationship between power asymmetry and learning behaviours in teams is complicated and likely contingent on contextual factors. We explore one such contingency factor of “Experienced Hardships” and show that team power asymmetry can, under certain circumstances, have a positive and generative effect of creating a sense of egalitarianism which thereby can promote team learning. We integrate theories of adversarial growth and sense breaking/making to specifically propose that teams with high power asymmetry are likely to develop a psychological sense of egalitarianism when they experience hardships, and this egalitarianism, in turn, promotes learning. We find support for our arguments in two field samples of teams. ...