The influence of Ethical and Autocrate E-Leadership on Employee Opportunism and Value Creation: Empirical Evidences from Software Development Projects

Abstract

Although a considerable attention has been paid to project leadership in prior literature, but the concept is still debatable. It is a common assumption that the effective leadership adds value to the project. However, it is more critical for the leaders to deal with their team members where projects are managed through geographically dispersed teams i.e. the leader is managing his/her team by using technological communication methods to communicate with team members instead of being present by him/herself at project site. The employees of such teams are more likely to practice opportunistic behavior. Therefore, the objective of this study is twofold; one to create value through effective E-leadership in software development projects, and second to decrease the employee opportunism in the team members of these software development projects. Data were collected from 191 employees of software houses of Pakistan. For data analyses, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through Smart PLS 3 have been used. Finding has shown that employee opportunism has negative impact on value creation but effective E-Leadership styles have significant impact on value creation. The findings will help not only Pakistan’s software firms but also those in developing countries to add value to their software development projects which are managed through virtual teams.  

Keywords: Electronic leadership; Autocratic leadership; Ethical leadership; Employee opportunism; Value Creation; Software Development Projects; Virtual Teams