A literature-based framework of performance-related leadership interactions in ICT project teams
In Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects, leadership interactions affect project team performance and so influence the outcomes of projects. While aspects of team performance have been vastly researched, leadership skills and interactions specific to the challenges of ICT project environments remain less investigated. A taxonomy of leadership interactions is developed and descriptions of interactions are collected to form a framework of leadership interactions that support team performance in ICT projects. A systematic literature review was conducted to find resources on supportive leadership interactions in ICT project teams, including categorization schemas of leadership functions and behaviors. The review was limited by the selection of sources to be searched and comprises articles from 1977 until early 2014. The developed taxonomy was compared to benchmark work on team leadership. Risks and challenges of leading ICT project teams as well as descriptions of interactions were collected. Throughout the search process, 2780 articles were examined, 218 of which were included in the review. 62 articles qualified to be accepted, 156 were rejected. 20 (including 4 meta-studies) papers holding leadership interaction categories were selected as taxonomy papers. The developed taxonomy holds 18 key dimensions of leadership team interaction. 13 areas of risks and challenges were discerned. 262 leadership interaction descriptions relevant in ICT project teams were retrieved. In collected studies, the categories systems sensing, planning and scheduling, coaching, as well as monitoring and controlling were highly developed. Many risks deal with project complexity and interpersonal processes. However, leadership interactions addressing these challenges are scarce, indicating a research gap. Furthermore, prominent leadership team interactions such as monitoring or consulting may need to be adapted to deal with challenges specific to ICT project teams. Few studies describe best-practice examples of leadership interaction in ICT teams.
leadership project team team performance interpersonal interaction classification clustering