SMEs' leaders: Building collective cognition and competences to trigger positive strategic outcomes.

Abstract : This chapter explores leadership processes within SMEs emphasized as a unique opportunity to observe the genesis of collective cognition and its transformation into collective competence. We argue that a close examination of SMEs' interactions between leaders and employees reveals that these interactions strongly contribute to building collective cognition and competences that further impact strategic business outcomes (Kozlowski, 1998). Collective competences significantly contribute to strategic management in SMEs contexts. SME leaders build a strategy coordination system on the basis of collective cognition and competences that articulates three different phases: the communication of the leader's vision and its evolution/transformation, the assessment of the structure, processes, business model and functioning of the enterprise, and the development of internal and external interpersonal and business interactions. We examine bricolage leaders, experimental leaders and entrepreneurial leaders in the context of this strategy coordination system.