Leadership Ambiguity and Role Conflict in Multidisciplinary Academic Teams: A Case Study

This case study analyzes leadership and coordination challenges within a multidisciplinary academic project team composed of a senior supervisor, a doctoral researcher, and a post- doctoral collaborator from distinct disciplinary backgrounds. It examines how ambiguous communication, intermittent engagement, and selective reward exchanges foster dependency, defensive behavior, and inequity. Drawing on organizational-behavior and anthropological perspectives—including Salisbury’s theory of reciprocal but asymmetric power exchange—the paper proposes alternatives and concludes with implications for leadership practice in research settings.