The Effect of Vision, Artifacts, and Leader Values on Contextual Performance Behavior and Success in Technology Challenging Projects: Qualitative Evidence

Abstract

In high-tech projects, which we refer to as technology challenging projects, all or mostly new technologies are used. While an e®ective project manager may be the source for a project team's spirit, there are other possibilities, like the satisfying nature of the technical challenge of hightech projects or the opportunity for new learning on the job. In the current case study, we center on the views of partakers' in successful and failed technology challenging projects, and examine the importance of maintaining and managing a project's spirit, regardless of the level of spirit partakers bring to the project, and irrespective of the satisfying level of the technical challenge. The project cases highlight the value of managing employees' emotions, attitudes and behavioral norms that are focused on expected project outcomes, termed spirit, in technology challenging projects. Qualitative¯ndings imply that leaders can be trained to execute behaviors that generate spirit in high-tech projects, which boosts contextual performance behavior and increases success.

Fostering Innovation Through Humble Leadership and Humble Organizational Culture

“…Researchers have noted that workplace innovation flourishes in environments in which key leadership activities are conducted (Chapman, 2007;Moussa et al, 2018) and leaders are a critical factor in the promotion of innovation and creativity (Aronson et al, 2014;Montes et al, 2005;Mumford et al, 2002). More specifically, innovation is supported in humble leadership environments (Ye et al, 2020) that embrace personal faults and mistakes as well as recognizes contributions and positive performances as employees sometimes transition into new roles and responsibilities.…”

“…Companies are well aware that they need to innovate to stay competitive in the ever-changing business environment, but innovation is not as simple as thinking of a great idea and then implementing it. Successful innovation requires supportive actions from leaders and the firm especially when the innovation is as complex as implementing new technology (Aronson et al, 2014). One type of complex technology that more firms are implementing is the use of robots to perform repetitive manual processes via robotic process automation (Seasongood, 2016).…”