Millennial Leadership: The Oppositional Relationship between Leadership Type and the Quality of Database System's Development in Virtual Environments

Millennial Leadership: The Oppositional Relationship between Leadership Type and the Quality of Database System's Development in Virtual Environments

C. Matt Graham, Harold Daniel, Brian Doore
Copyright: © 2015 |Pages: 20
DOI: 10.4018/ijec.2015070103
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Abstract

The development of information systems is a difficult process that often ends in failing to meet the project's initial goals. Typical outcomes for information systems development projects include delivering promised products & services on time and within budget. These pressures are now compounded by the use of virtual teams that present a new set of challenges related to the cohesion, organization, and functioning of the team process. Specifically, virtual teams must contend with problems in team formation, the organizational environment in which the team operates, and the technology used for collaboration and communication. As more organizations use virtual teams, these problems present real and pressing obstacles to the successful completion of database systems development. The goal of the study was to determine whether leadership type, transformational, transactional, or management-by-exception was significantly related to leadership effectiveness in a virtual team tasked with developing a database management system. This study targeted millennial students at the Maine Business School who were assigned to virtual teams tasked with developing a database management system. Specifically, this study sought to answer three hypotheses: 1) what is the effect of leadership type, as self-reported through the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire on the quality of completed team projects?; 2) What is the impact of type of leadership on virtual team effectiveness as measured by the Virtual Teams Survey?; and, 3) Are there interactions between leadership style and virtual team effectiveness on the quality and uniqueness of the completed team project? Findings suggest leadership style and virtual team effectiveness did predict project quality, Transformational and Management-by-exception leadership styles had a negative relationship with virtual team effectiveness. Findings further suggest that Transactional leadership style influenced project quality directly, while transformational and management-by-exception styles influenced project quality indirectly through their direct influence on virtual team effectiveness. These findings suggest that traditionally effective leadership types do not work well for Millennial Generation teams in virtual environments
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Literature Review

According to Dalcher and Drevin (2003), the greater part of database systems development projects end in failure. Warkentin, Moore, Bekkering, and Johnston (2009) stated that up to 80% of all systems development projects failed for a variety of different reasons. These include: the system was not developed on time, system development went over budget, and the system developed did not meet the planned project’s criteria. These failures are further compounded by the use of virtual teams to complete projects.

Hannola and Ovaska (2011) stated that information systems development in general is labored with obstacles hindering successful completion. Hannola and Ovaska stated that the objective of an information systems development project is to “develop and modify systems that satisfy customers’ and end users’ needs on schedule and within budget.” (p. 66). Hannola and Ovaska continued by stating that “the early activities involved in information systems development are recognized by the industry as critical and important steps. Poor execution of these activities will almost guarantee failure of the final information systems project” (p. 66). Hannola and Ovaska also stated that one of the major failures in systems development is due to projects finishing late.

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