Leader delegation, task significance and trust in global software development teams

Suling Zhang, Marilyn Tremaine, Richard Egan, Allen Milewski, Jerry Fjermestad, Patrick O'Sullivan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Partially distributed global teams form an important work structure in software development projects. However, little is known about the challenges such team structures create in supporting team members' motivation and maintaining member job satisfaction. This study investigates the effects of leader delegation, task significance and trust between local and distributed members of a team on team member motivation and job satisfaction. The paper also proposes a research model and a set of hypotheses regarding these effects. A pilot study performed on student teams is described which tests portions of the research model. The study found that distributed software team leaders delegate more to competent teams and that delegation is positively correlated with team member satisfaction with their leader and with team member motivation. The results form this work suggest both that global team leaders need to assess team competence when delegating tasks and also that organizations putting together global teams should strive to create highly competent teams since member distribution entrains higher delegation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationAssociation for Information Systems - 13th Americas Conference on Information Systems, AMCIS 2007
Subtitle of host publicationReaching New Heights
Pages1001-1013
Number of pages13
StatePublished - 2007
Event13th Americas Conference on Information Systems, AMCIS 2007 - Keystone, CO, United States
Duration: Aug 10 2007Aug 12 2007

Publication series

NameAssociation for Information Systems - 13th Americas Conference on Information Systems, AMCIS 2007: Reaching New Heights
Volume2

Other

Other13th Americas Conference on Information Systems, AMCIS 2007
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityKeystone, CO
Period8/10/078/12/07

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Computer Science Applications
  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Information Systems
  • Library and Information Sciences

Keywords

  • Global software team
  • Leader delegation
  • Motivation
  • Trust

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