Team Reflexivity and Boundary-Spanning: The Role of Cognitive Appraisals and Empowering Leadership

Drawing on team-level cognitive appraisal theory, we develop and test a theoretical model that explicates whether, when, and how team reflexivity translates into team boundary-spanning behavior (TBSB). We argue that team reflexivity is a team-level stressor that shapes TBSB through distinct appraisal processes. Specifically, we examine the mediating roles of challenge and hindrance appraisals, as well as the moderating role of empowering leadership. Using multi-source, multi-wave data from 591 members nested in 140 teams, our results show that team reflexivity promotes TBSB via challenge appraisal while undermining it via hindrance appraisal. Moreover, empowering leadership conditions these relationships.