THE IMPACT OF LEADERSHIP PRACTICES TO TEAM MEMBERS’ SATISFACTION

Teamwork is becoming increasingly important to wide range o f operations. It applies to all levels o f the company. It is just as important for top executives as it is to middle management, supervisors and shop floor workers. Poor teamwork at any level or between levels can seriously damage organizational effectiveness. The focus o f this paper was therefore to examine whether leadership practices consist o f team leader behavior, conflict resolution style and openness in communication significantly influenced the team member's satisfaction in hotel industry. Result indicates that team leader behavior and the conflict resolution style significantly influenced team member satisfaction. It was surprising that openness in communication did not affect significantly to the team members' satisfaction.


Research Background
When a work group has at least one goal that is common to all members and when accomplishment of that goal requires cooperative interdependent behavior on the part of all group members, teamwork may be an appropriate intervention. Teamwork applies to all levels of the organization. As Maddux (1989) observes, it is just as important for top executives as it is to middle management, supervisors and shop floor workers.
-; • The idea of teamwork is not always an easy one to grasp. Most organizations organize their work force into group or people who work together but each have their own jobs to do and these are often referred to as teams. Essentially, the message of teamwork is delegation and empowerment. Teamwork is all about passing responsibility over to working teams, so that they can get on with what they have to do without continually having to refer to higjher levels in their organization. That means that the teams need to be given enough authority to make day-to-day decisions about their work and enough power to make sure that things are done properly (Hayes, 2002).
Team members satisfaction appears to have a significant impact overall well being of the team. Stewart et al. (1999) suggests that team members' satisfaction may be as important as their performance. They point out that most studies focus on performance but it is the satisfaction that members glean from their team experience that will determine if they will continue to work in that capacity or seek employment elsewhere. If an individual chooses to leave the team, costs will accrue to both the team and the organization in terms of productivity and turnover (Nerkar et al., 1996).
Positive teamwork gives people a sense of being valued and they all work better when they feel that their efforts are appreciated. Teamwork also encourages people to be more professional in their approach and to take their responsibilities seriously. They contribute new ideas and try to improve the way they do their work. The result is that the organization functions better internally, saves money and becomes more competitive (Hayes, 2002).
The essence of a positive teamwork is that each individual can contribute to it, so that the team benefits from the total skills and abilities of its members. A team leader who creates a working atmosphere in which that can happen even if it means actually standing back and handling responsibility to others from time to time is likely to contribute a great deal to the success of the team (Hayes, 2002). According to Gerstner and Day (1997), effective leadership has related to employee satisfaction. Leaders, who are supportive, provide an appropriate model, clarify their vision, foster common goals among their work groups, but do not convey every ambitious expectation are likely to generate high levels of employee satisfaction (Podsakoff et al., 1996). Piczak and Hauser (1996) observed that effective conflict resolution skills and communication capabilities appear to be core competencies, by which team leader communicates group goals, resolves disputes, and builds consensus. Conflict resolution is typically achieved through communication. Communication is vital to make sure that each team member realizes how every other person contributes to the task, which the team has to do (Lau and Lim, 2002). Show and Barret-Power (1998) suggest that willingness to communicate, openness, and a focus on relationship development has several benefits. First, individuals will be more able to work through their problems and communicate more effectively with one another about their differences. Team members will also be able to evaluate more accurately how their own behavior is affecting group processes. Finally, team members will be able to react to other group members differing attitudes and behaviors in a more realistic and less judgmental way. Effective team leaders need to make sure that their team members understand just what it is they should be doing something about, how it works and why it matters -but they need to let the team members go irom there. That way, they and the team can harness all that intelligence and thinking instead of expecting people to act like robots.
Clearly, team leaders must be able to communicate effectively and resolve conflicts if their teams are fulfill their objectives. Thus, developing an understanding of the importance of the team leader behaviors, openness in communication and the conflict resolution style on team members' satisfaction will help organizations to maximize productivity with their work teams.
The questionnaire distributed to employees fi-om each hotel's department. Each participant will be asked to respond to items designed to measure their own job satisfaction, their team leader behavior, conflict resolution, and openness in communication. The researcher distributed 120 questionnaires and had 94 questionnaires returned. Category of respondent based on their hotel departments was presented in Table 1.
- In analyzing the data, this research is using the multiple regression analyses. The purpose of the multiple regression analyses is to use the independent variables to explain the behavior of the dependent variable. Relating to this research, it is to examine the impact of team leader behavior, openness in communication and conflict resolution style to the team members' satisfaction.

Literature Review 2.1. Definition of Teamwork
A very broad definition of team has been adopted: A Team is a group of people coming together to collaborate. This collaboration is to reach a shared goal or task for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. A team is a group of people with a high degree of interdependence geared towards the achievement of a goal or completion of a task.
Teamwork can be defined as the ability of team members to work together, communicate effectively, anticipate and meet each other's demands, and inspire confidence, resulting in a coordinated collective action. However, a clear and direct answer to the question "what is teamwork?" has not been provided. According to Mclntyre and Salas (1995), teamwork is a critical component of team performance and requires an explanation of how a team behaves. There are four key behavioral characteristics that compose teamwork: a) Performance monitoring; b) Feedback; c) Closed-loop communication; and d) Back-up behaviors.
The first requirement of teamwork is that team members monitor the performance of others while carrying out their own task. Monitoring ensures that members are following procedures correctly and in a timely manner, while also ensuring that operations are working as expected. Feedback on the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of performance is passed along to members being monitored. Team members must feel ease when providing feedback for teamwork to be effective. No obstacles (i.e. rank, tenure) should stand between members who are giving and receiving this vital information.
Teamwork involves the effective communication between a sender and receiver. Closed-loop communication describes the information exchange that occurs in successful communication. There is a sequence of behaviors that is involved in closed-loop communication: a) The message is initiated by the sender; b) The message is accepted by the receiver and feedback is provided to indicate that it has been received; c) The sender double-checks with the receiver to ensure that the intended message was received Back-up behaviors (i.e. the willingness, preparedness, and liking to back team members during operations) are required for effective teamwork. Team members must be willing to help when they are needed and must accept help when needed without feeling they are being perceived as weak. This requires that members know the expectations of their jobs while also knowing the expectations of others with whom they are interacting.

Team Leaders' Behavior
Perhaps this research should make it clear at this point that throughout this paper; researcher is making no distinction between the team leader and the team's manager. The team leader and/or the manager belong to the team and operate fi*om within it. Such a leader takes responsibility for giving the team direction and vision and also, if it is appropriate, for representing the team to the rest of the organization. It is the leader's responsibility to ensure that the team functions well and the leader operates from the standpoint of an involved member of the team (Mathebul and Roseline, 2004). The main principle of team leadership include keeping the goals clear, building confidence, commitment and skills, creating opportunities for team members and doing real work (Hayes, 2002).
The amounts of effort subordinates expend on the job, as well as their performance and work satisfaction, are influence by the attitudes and behaviors of these leaders (Klimoski and Hayes, 1980). The finding was also confirmed with the research of Glaser (1980) that suggests that a relationship between the team leader and members can be expected to affect both productivity and satisfaction (Glaser, 1980). Katzenbach and Smith identify two things that good team leaders never do (Hayes, 2002). First, the Leaders do not blame -they recognize that mistakes do happen sometimes. When errors do occur, good team leaders deal with them without increasing the pressure on the individual concerned. That does not mean that they just let it pass; instead, they focus on encouraging the team and the individuals concerned to learn from those mistakes, so that they will not happen again. They also do not spend time blaming or reprimanding that person. Good team leaders use mistakes as a way of looking at the situation to see what lessons can be learned. They look for constructive ways of overcoming the setback. These might be individual ones, such as securing additional training for that person or making sure that the person has an opportunity to do something else challenging, so that their working confidence does not become eroded. Alternatively, they might be team-focused solutions: ways that the team as a whole can overcome the skill gap which has been revealed, or seeing whether new patterns of working or communication need to be established so that the weakness in the system (not the person) is taken care of.
Second, the other thing which good team leaders never do is to excuse away shortfalls in the team's performance. The leaders acknowledge that the team has not managed to achieve what it set out to do and look constructively for ways to sort out the problem. By taking responsibility for the team's failure as well as its success, the leader consolidates the sense of teamwork and commitment of the team members and encourages each team members to work freely, and to the best or their ability.

Openness in Communication
If a team is to function well, it needs reliable information. Having the access to the information can be vital if the team's decision-making is to realistic, and it can also be essential in identifying when and where a problem may exist. While each member of a team must fulfill his/her individual responsibilities and obligations to the objectives of the team, independence and constructive communication between all members of the team is essential. It is therefore important to make sure that teams have access to through, reliable information in order that they can work effectively.
A study by Bass (1990) showed that employees who had easy access to information made better decisions. When a leader gives not only horizontal but upward communication will allow the employees to gain more information and solve problems easier. A leader who provides access to information and resources to the team will also help them with unfamiliar tasks and allow them to take chances with minimal risk (Bass, 1990). The more the team member and the leader communicate the more interdependence there will be between the two. As a result, the leader and the team will be able to influence each other. Studies have shown that more open communication leads to better job satisfaction (O'Reilly dan Robert, 1976).

Conflict Resolution Style
Conflict, differences, or disagreements are a natural result of people working together. According to Wynn and Guditus (1984), the presence of conflict in a group can increase the frequency of high quality solutions to problems. Groups experiencing conflict more frequently employ creative alternatives than group without it. Groups in crisis show more effective decision-making performance than group free of conflict. The greater the conflict aroused by a crisis, the greater consensus once the decision is reached Kirschenbaum andWeisberg, 2002 andVigoda, 2002).
Conflict, therefore, may best be seen as a vital source of team energy but it has to be harnessed for the team's benefit. How the conflict is managed will determine whether the conflict is constructive or destructive. Too often, conflict is smoothed over by a team leader and is not resolved; the end result is a building up of resentment between team members that deteriorates the team's performance level. The key issue in dealing with team conflict is for the team to realize that the focus is not to reduce conflict, but to handle it in a constructive manner (Rayeski and Bryant, 1994). Therefore, it is important for the parties in teams to manage conflict effectively so that the positive consequences of conflict can be realized (Rahim, 1986). From this perspective, the role of the team leader and its capacity to manage conflict behaviors are important (Yukl, 1989). Good team leaders look for constructive ways of overcoming the conflict. The leaders acknowledge that the team has not managed to achieve what it set out to do and look constructively for ways to sort out the problem.

Team Members Satisfaction
-^ Evaluations of teamwork such as employee satisfaction have emerged from several studies. The majority of these seem to support the suggestion that employees working under this kind of regime are more satisfied and motivated than those who are employed under more "traditional" work arrangement. For example, Pil and MacDuffie (1996) are convinced about the value of teamwork: two decades of research provides "considerable evidence that workers in selfmanaged teams enjoy greater autonomy and discretion, and this effect translates into job satisfaction. Geary (1993) reports that those involved in the autonomous work groups he studied at Mandel felt that his had led to higher levels of job satisfaction. Even those studies that are more critical of the concept, arguing that work has been intensified under teamwork, report that employees fmd it more satisfying and enjoyable. For example, Scott (1994) indicates that employees on a line in the frozen food works he studied felt that teamwork had "made their jobs more interesting and enjoyable" and had promoted harmonious relations among workers. Employees at the factory also felt that work had been intensified, but was both more satisfying and acquired greater responsibility and trust.
Satisfaction with the team is the extent to which team members believe that the team processes and outcomes meet their expectations. Team member satisfaction is an in[q)ortant outcome because it affects the degree to which team members will be motivated to advocate and implement the team solution (Clugston, 2000 andTesta, 2001). Barczak and Wilemon (2001) identified that communication skills, effective team leaders, and manageable levels of conflict lead to greater team members' satisfaction.

Hypotheses
Based on the literature above, the questions proposed for the research remains as follow: a) Do team leader behaviors affect members satisfaction?; b) Does the way the team leader solves the conflict determine the satisfaction of team members?; c) Does openness in communication within the team influence the team members satisfaction?; d) Do team leader behavior, openness in communication and conflict resolution account for a considerable portion of the variance in team member satisfaction? The figure below depicts the role of team leaders' behavior, openness in communication and conflict resolution style in the team members' satisfaction.

Openness in Communication Team Members Openness in Communication H, ^ Satisfaction Satisfaction
Conflict Resolution

Figure 1. The Research Model
Hi: Team leader behaviors will affect satisfaction of team member. H2: The way the leader solve the conflict will determine the team member satisfaction. H3: Openness in communication has an influence on team leader on team member satisfaction. H4: Team leader behavior, opemiess in communication, and conflict resolution will account for a considerable portion of the variance in team member satisfaction.

Data Measures 3.1. Dependent Variable: Team Member Satisfaction
Team member satisfaction refers to the satisfaction members receive from interactions with other team members. The measure used was developed by Warr et al. (1979). The item will be measured by using a seven-point Likerttype scale with 1 corresponding with extremely dissatisfied and 7 being extremely satisfied. <

Independent Variable a) Team Leader
Behavior. Team leader behavior is an overall assessment of the extent to which the team leader keeping the goal clear, building confidence, commitment and skills, creating opportunities for team members and doing real work. The measure was adapted from Katzenbach and Smith (1993). The items will be based on a five-point Likert-type scale with I for strongly disagree, to 5 for strongly agree. b) Satisfaction with Team Leader Conflict Resolution Style. This variable tapped team members' satisfaction with their leader's conflict resolution style through the use of a one-item measure that was developed for survey. The team members will be asked to respond to the statement "The leader promotes constructive conflict and resolution". Responses will be measured ^ on a five-point Likert-type scale with 1 representing strongly disagree and 5 representing strongly agree, c) Openness in Communication. Openness in communication refers to the accuracy and amount of information sharing between the team leader and team members. This variable measure developed by O' Reilly and Robert (1976). Responses will be based on a seven-point O'Reilly and Robert = (1976) Likert-type scale, with 1 denoting strongly disagree and 7 denoting strongly agree. >^ In order to interpret the analysis, the respondent answer based on 5-point and 7-point Likert scale wil be categorized based on the value of interval. The interval can be calculated by using the formula described below: .
, Highest Score-Lowest Score Interval = Total Possible Score

Testing the Goodness of Data
In this research, the approach used to test the vahdity of each factor was Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) by ruiming SPSS version 11.5 for windows. The purpose of EFA as a test of construct validity is to predict the unidimensionality of the questionnaire used.
An item is said to have the characteristic of unidimensionality if such item explicitly measures only one variable in which it is based on and not becomes a part of other variables. This can be shown on the factor loading of the item in which it has high value only at one variable.
According to Hair et al. (1998), to be valid, the factor loading must be larger or equivalent to 0.40 (> 0.40). To test the reliability of each item, this research used coefficient Cronbach's alpha. Hair et al. (1998) recommended that to reliable, Cronbach's alpha must be greater or equivalent to 0.70 (> 0.70).

Research Methods 4.1. Descriptive Statistics
Descriptive statistics such as means, standard deviations and variance were obtained for the independent and dependent variables. The results are shown in Table 2 below: It has been mentioned that variable of Team Member satisfaction and Openness in communication were tapped on a 7-point scale. Team leader behavior and conflict Resolution Style were measured on a 5-point scale. From the results, it can be seen that the mean on Team member satisfaction is slightly high (4.714 on a 7-poin scale). Team leader behavior and conflict resolution style are perceived as high (4.026) and 3.255 respectively on a 5-point scale. The mean on openness in communication is also high (5.423 on a 7-point scale).

Test of Assumption
Several assumptions of Multiple Linear Regression Analysis are that residual/error must have normal distribution or near to normal and multicollinearity must not exist. Kolmogorov-Smimov and Shapiro Wilk test were used to test the assumption of normality. The normality assumption cannot be achieved if ^ values of Kolmogorov-Smimov and Shapiro Wilk test are less than 0.05. On the other hand, the assumption can be achieved if the p values are more than 0.05. Based on the result of normality test, that the p of Kolmogorov-Smimov (Sig. 0.200) and Shapiro Wilk (Sig. 0.05) were greater than 0.05. Therefore, it can be concluded that normality assumption was achieved.
Multicollinearity could be detected by using the variance inflation factor (VTF). According to Gujarati (1995), for multicollinearity to be exist, VIF value of each independent variable must be larger than 10. The test revealed that VIF value for independent variables of team leader behavior was 1.167; Team leader conflict resolution style was 1.098; and openness in communication was 1.067. Since there was no VIF larger than 10, it was concluded that there was no multicollinearity among the independent variables. By this conclusion, the next step to test the hypotheses using Multiple Linear Regression analysis can be respectively conducted.

Multiple Linear Regression
By using Statistical Package for Social Science for Windows Release 11,5, the result of Multiple Linear Regression Analysis was obtained. The R^ (0.73), which is the amount variance explained in the dependent variable by the independent variables, is actually the square of the multiple R (0.52)^. It means that 27.3 percent variation in the team member's satisfaction is explained by team leader behavior, team leader conflict resolution style and openness in communication. The result of ANOVA showed F = 11.254 (5.570/0.495). This F value is significant at the 0.000 level. This is implies that the data provides sufficient information and at least one of predictor variables (Team Leader's Behavior, Openness in Communication and Conflict Resolution Style) contributes significant information for the prediction of Team Members' satisfaction.

Hypotheses Analysis
Four Hypotheses were developed in this research to examine the impact of team leader behavior, conflict resolution style and openness in communication to team members' satisfaction. The next table, titled Coefficients, lists which among the three independent variables influences most the variance in team members' satisfaction. The result is then applied to test the hypotheses that have been formulated on above. Hi: Team leader behaviors will affect the satisfaction of team member.
The coefficient for variable team leader behavior (Bl) was 0.546 and it had positive value. The result of significance for this coefficient value with ttest showed that t = 4.113 and p (Sig.) = 0.000. With the confidence level is at 10 percent (0.1), and p (Sig.) produced is less than 0.1 (<0.1), it can be concluded that hypothesis 1 is supported This suggests that team leader behavior contributed to team members' satisfaction.

H2:
The conflict resolution of leader will determine the team members' satisfaction.
The coefficient for variable Conflict resolution style (B2) was 0.100. The result of significance for this coefficient value with t-test showed that t = 1.676 and p (Sig.) = 0.097. With significant level is at 10 percent (0.1), and p (Sig.) produced is smaller than 0.1 , it can be concluded that hypothesis 2 is supported. In other words, the way the conflict is resolved determines the team members' satisfaction. ^

H3:
Openness in communication has an influence on team member satisfaction. .
The coefficient for variable openness in communication (B3) was 0.121. The result of significance for this coefficient value with t-test showed that t = 1.598 and p (Sig.) = 0.114. With the significant level is at 10 percent (0.1), and p (Sig.) produced is greater than 0.1 , it can be concluded that hypothesis 3 is not supported It appears that the openness in communication does not influence team members' satisfaction.
These inconsistencies in the relationship between communication frequency and satisfaction could be due to the level of need for internal conflict resolution. Stogdill (1959) argued that groups could not operate efficiently until this internal conflict is resolved. Table Descriptive Statistics shows that the mean of conflict resolution is 3.26, which is on the average level. Teams may be communicating fi-equently to reduce conflict. Therefore the level of communication frequency could indicate that conflict in the group result in an abundance of meetings and memos that detract from the task at hand (Smith et al., 1994). Dissatisfied members from the unresolved internal conflict may not be motivated to perform their task well, which in turn can lead to lower performance and satisfaction about their job.
In addition, communication does take time. Both observational research and time-diary studies show that communication consumes the majority of the workday for both managers and professional (Panko, 1992). One danger is that the effort of communication may overwhelm teams and deflect them from monitoring their environments or actually doing work (Kiesler et al., 1994). Looking at the situation in hotel industry, every information (Kiesler et al., 1994), programs and activities are conveyed in daily briefing and that information are written in memos that are posted in each department. This mode of frequently sharing information can detract the members from task-oriented activities.
H4: Team leader behavior, openness in communication and conflict resolution will account for a considerable portion of the variance in team member satisfaction.
As ah-eady mentioned, the R Square (0.273), which is the explained variance, is actually the square of the multiple R (0.52)^. It means that 27.3 percent variation in the team members' satisfaction is explained by team leader behavior, team leader conflict resolution style and openness in communication. Therefore, it can be concluded that hypothesis 4 is supported. Team leader behavior, conflict resolution style and openness in communication all together considerably affect the team members' satisfaction.
To summarize, the findings showed that team leader behavior has contributed significantly to team members' satisfaction (Hi). Furthermore, the ways team leaders' handle the conflict within the team also determine the satisfaction of team members (H2). The finding showed a surprising result that openness in communication does not have the influence on team members' satisfaction (H3). However, putting all together, team leader behavior, openness in communication, and the way conflict is resolved affect the team members' satisfaction (H4).
The figure below depicts the role of team leaders' behavior, openness in communication and conflict resolution style in the team members' satisfaction.

Conclusions and Discussions
The study of the impact of team leader behavior, openness in communication and the way the conflict is resolved to the satisfaction of team members has produced some interesting results. The framework described on the previous chapters was still quite general. However, based on the result of the study, the relationship can be identified between leadership behavior and team members' satisfaction.
Considering the leadership behavior, it can be concluded that the ways the leaders behave are important to the improvement of team Members' satisfaction. The result regarding openness in communication shows a surprising result. Openness in communication does not influence the team members' satisfaction. A plausible explanation of why the influence could not be found is simply because the communication in the samples did not show an open communication. Alternatively, the relation was not found could be due to the level of need for internal conflict resolution. Teams may be communicating frequently to reduce conflict. Stogdill (1959) argued that groups could not operate cificiently until this internal conflict is resolved. Therefore the level of communication frequency could indicate that conflict in the group results in an abundance of meetings and memos that detract from the task at hand (Smith et al., 1994). Dissatisfied members from the unresolved internal conflict may not be motivated to perform their task well, which in turn can lead to lower performance and satisfaction about their job.
However, this does not imply that openness in communication would not be valuable. Further research needs to be done to find out if openness communication is indeed unnecessary for team members' satisfaction. This research needs to be done in organizations where communication is quite open between the leader and the members; and among the members of the team itself and where there is no unresolved internal conflict within the team.
Regarding the way the conflict is resolved, result shows that when the team leader promotes constructive conflict and resolution, it determines the team members' satisfaction. The finding is consistent with Rayeski and Bryant (1994) that the idea behind managing conflict is not reduce conflict, but to handle it in a constructive manner.
Based on the literature and the finding of the study, it seems clear that how a leader behaves affects the team members' satisfaction. Manz et al. (1997) recommend seven specific steps a team leader can follow: a) Become an effective team self-leader; b) Model team self-leadership for team members; c) Encourage team members to set their own goals; d) Create positive though patterns; e) Reward team self-leadership and promote constructive feedback; f) Promote "team think" among team members; g) Facilitate a team selfleadership culture. The analyses show that teams may be communicatmg frequently to reduce the conflict. Once the internal conflict has been resolved, an agenda item for a team in terms of communication may be "how do we improve the level of communication within our group?". ...