Successful IS Project Leaders: A Situational Theory
Perspective.
Jacqueline Day and Milena Bobeva
Bournemouth University,Poole, UK
jday@bournemouth.ac.uk
mbobeva@bournemouth.ac.uk
Abstract: This paper discusses how the Hersey-Blanchard’s leader-follower relationship theory was used to
evaluate the linkage between the behaviours of IS project leaders and project outcomes. The study identified a
correlation between leadership and the successful achievement of project time and cost objectives but not with
system quality. The research confirmed that a leader is able to affect success by performing a different role,
depending upon the project situation.
Keywords: Evaluation, Leadership, Management, Project, Role, Team.
1. Projects and project
management.
The ISO 8402 definition of a project (cited by
Lockyer and Gordon, 1996 p1), states that it is:
‘a unique process, consisting of a
set of co-ordinated and controlled
activities with start and finish
dates, undertaken to achieve an
objective conforming to specific
requirements’.
This is an engineering view reflecting the
origins of project management in the
manufacturing and construction industries.
This perspective, which prevailed until
comparatively recently, sees a project as a
task-focused entity, proceeding in a linear or
similar way from the point of initiation to
implementation. However, project
management is now increasingly recognised
as a key generic skill for business
management (Fangel 1993), with
“management by projects” emerging as
general mode of organizing for all forms of
enterprise (Turner 2003). This change has
added further impetus to the study of the
human aspects of projects by academics and
practitioners (Sotiriou and Wittimer 2001 ;
Zimmerer and Yasin 1998).
In parallel with this development, work has
been done to clarify what is meant by the
‘success’ or ‘failure’ of an IS project
(Thompsett 1995 ; Wateridge 1998) and to
identify appropriate evaluative criteria. Most
writers, for example Schwalbe (2002), Tukel
and Rom (2001) and Wright (1997), promote
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the importance of on-time delivery, within
budget and to an expected standard of quality
but Hartman and Ashrafi (2002) extend this list
to ten measures of project success. One
conceptual problem underpinning these
differences is the need for a clear separation of
factors contributing to successful project and
those for the successful management of the
project.
The latter forms part of the total project and
though intertwined; each domain has different
stakeholders, time frames, objectives and
outcomes (Atkinson 1999 ; Geddes 1990 ;
Munns and Bjeirmi 1996 ; Shenhar, Levy and
Dvir 1997).
Figure One presents an open system view of a
project. The frame represents the context of
the project and within this boundary there are
two evaluative dimensions. The horizontal
perspective concerns the transformation of
business inputs to outputs i.e. benefits (Ward,
Taylor and Bond 1996) and is not the subject
of this paper. The vertical dimension is the
focus of the present study, which aims to
explore the way leadership affects the project
process. It takes as its thesis, a socio-political
ideal that the successful conduct of a project
depends upon how well the project addresses
the constraints (as political forces) by
mobilising counter-forces in the form of
resources. These may include the operation of
appropriate task mechanisms (processes), use
of finance, the deployment of development
technologies (platforms) but these mean little
without the fourth, most vital element - people.
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Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation Volume 6 Issue 2 (2003) 75-86 76

3. Team
Constraints

1. User The Management 2. User

Expectation of the Project Perceptions

4. Team
Resources

1 = needs, wants, requirements ; 2 = satisfaction, attributions, value-for-money

3 = timescale, budget, quality standards ; 4 = people, processes, platforms

Figure 1: The Evaluative Domains of an IS Project (after Maylor 1996)

There have been many studies of business
executives but far fewer investigations of
project leaders. Although the importance to an
IS project of a good (or poor) leader may
appear to be intuitively obvious, there is
disagreement between authorities about
whether, in fact, this assumption is totally valid.
Smith (1999) and Thite (2000) argue that there
is strong evidence that a project may fail
through lack of leadership and that these
problems are endemic to all types of project,
not just those concerned with information
systems (Frame 1994 ; Jiang 2001). This
conclusion is contested by other research,
which suggest that leadership is not a
particularly important success factor for project
success (Cooke-Davis 2002 ; The Standish
Report 1995). Perhaps, these diametrically
opposed positions stem (in part) from the
difficulty of elucidating exactly what ‘leadership’
means because the word is so value-laden,
reflecting the observer’s view of a leader in
action. As Bennis and Nanus (1985 p 23) wryly
observe:
“Like love, leadership continued to
be something everyone knew
existed but nobody could define.”
Leadership may be constructed as a state of
mind, a process, a skill or a function: it can
appear to be all these things and more.
However, the common factor for the different
conceptualisations is the requirement for there
to be a leader and a set of activities performed
by the leader, which creates and maintains a
link to individuals, who are the followers of the
leader (Buhler 1993). Accordingly, the
understanding that has been chosen as the
paradigm for the present research, is that
leadership is conceived as:
“a relationship through which one
person influences the behaviour
or actions of other people”
(Mullins, 1999, p253).
A second issue to obscure the nature of
leadership has been the debate surrounding
the differences between managers and leaders
(Kotter 1990 ; Sadler 1997 ; Zalenik 1992). In
practice, the terms are often used
interchangeably, since the nature of projects
always requires both ways of working
(Hickman 1992). The term ‘managerial
leadership’ (Robinson 1999) incorporates both
the technical task-orientated and people-
focused elements of the IS project leader’s job
and is consistent with the generic bilateral

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structure of managerial roles proposed by
Mintzberg (1992). The effects of this duality
resonate throughout this study of leadership.
2. Leadership theories.
Adair (2002 p59) states: “that the Anglo-Saxon
root of the words lead and leadership is ‘laed’,
which means a path or road.” The nature of
leadership as a form of path-finding was first
examined by Socrates and later explored by
Hegel and Carlyle but the first complete
perspective on leadership was the Trait
approach (Taffinder 1995). This theory sought
to identify personal attributes of leaders and
how these differed from followers (Chemers,
1997 ; Northhouse 1997). A study of traits
conducted by Edgemon (1995) was focused
upon IS/IT projects and looked at the
effectiveness of technical teams. The
investigation concluded that successful IS
project leaders were adept at problem solving,
giving of trust, recognising achievement and
coping with stress. However, there are
problems with associating personality types
with real-life examples of successful leaders or
providing a satisfactory explanation for the
non-emergence of leaders (Kirkpatrick and
Locke 1991; Steyrer 1998). Consequently,
attention moved to leadership style theories
(Mintzberg 1998; Tannenbaum and Schmidt
1973).
A development of style theory that recognised
the context for the exercise of leadership led to
the emergence of a third perspective –
contingency or situational theories. These
models consider leadership as an exercise in
socio-political influence (Griffin 1999) by which
some leaders are successful in particular
circumstances but not in others. These
circumstances, or situations, are the
intervening or contingent conditions for the
exercise of leadership (Toveda 1994). By
combining some of the ideas of traits and style
theory, situation models can be used to
analyse adaptive behaviours within a changing
environment. This is what is often found within
IS/IT projects. These are characterised by
intensive team-working, where individuals may
be geographically dispersed and have only a
part-time commitment and may not be ready to
participate (Buttrick 1997). In this context,
situational theory gives a good insight into the
exercise of leadership, because it is predicated
upon the socio-political dynamics of
interdependence (Kelly and Thabaut 1978) by
recognising the importance of interpersonal
communications within the team.
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Jacqueline Day & Milena Bobeva
A variant of situational theory created by
Hersey and Blanchard (1993) develops this
idea by placing the relationship of the leader
and followers (the team) at the locus of a
model. Cartwright and Zander (1968) explain
this bond is a form of contract. The leader
attempts to satisfy both the goals of the group
and the individual. The followers ‘reward’ the
leader for this contract, by donating
commitment, trust and ceding power-based
status to the leader. However, not all theorists,
for example, Cooksey (2003), are fully
convinced by leader-follower paradigm,
expressing strong doubts about its general
validity and universality.
3. Empirical research.
The aim of the research was to find possible
linkages between behaviour of IS project
leaders, team members' experiences of those
behaviours and project lifecycle/process
management outcomes. The Hersey-
Blanchard (HB) model has been
operationalised (Cairns et al. 1998) in a form of
an instrument for evaluating different styles of
leadership. These principles were used to
investigate project leadership within the IS
development department of a financial
outsourcing company that manages
investment portfolios for national and
international clients.
At the case study site a sample of project
teams and projects was purposefully selected
using two criteria:
1. Informants had participated from start to
finish within a particular project.
2. These projects were completed between
December 2001 and January 2003.
The research sample reflected the project
leader- team structure. Firstly, project leaders
were approached to acquire evidence about
the project leader's dominant leadership style.
The data was collected using the instrument
mentioned above. This consists of a
questionnaire with twelve questions, each with
four possible answers, carrying a score of
either –2, -1, +1 or +2.
A scale from negative twenty-four to positive
twenty-four was used to represent the
adaptability of the project leader. The
leadership style was measured along four
dimensions: High Task-Low Relationship; High
Task-High Relationship; High Relationship-Low
task and Low Task-Low Relationship. Before
distribution to the informants, the questionnaire
was piloted to establish its appropriateness for
an IS project. Although no significant changes
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Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation Volume 6 Issue 2 (2003) 75-86
were needed to the instrument its design was
altered slightly to include demographic details
about the leader, such as gender, age,
management/leadership training received and
length of service at the company.
A second sample group represented members
of the project team, the leaders of which, were
the subjects of the study. Here data was used
for identifying differences between the
leadership style as determined by Hersey and
Blanchard's model and the perceptions of team
members, as the ‘followers’ of that leader. Due
to time limitations and problems of access,
only one person was randomly chosen as a
representative of each team. Where a member
declined to take part, a second person was
selected from the team, again randomly.
Lastly, project time, cost and quality data was
collected from internal reports about each of
the projects managed by the participating
project leaders. This data detailed time, costs
variances and also problems associated with
the system during the first two months of ‘live’
operation. The latter was interpreted as
indicative of the quality of the project
management process.
3.1 Data analysis method.
The project leaders were ranked in order of his
or her score of overall adaptability, as
assessed by the HB instrument. Then each
project was analysed for:
(i) variance to scheduled elapse time
(ii) variance to monetary budget
(iii) operational system quality
A spreadsheet was created with the leaders
sorted in descending HB score order and with
the project rankings listed in another three
columns. A software package (SPSS) was
used to calculate the bivariate correlation of
adaptability versus each of the project
management process outcomes stated above.
Spearman’s correlation co-efficient was
chosen for this because of the ordinal nature of
the variables and its ability to provide
information about relationships in a wide range
of circumstances.
3.2 The project sample.
The sampling criteria identified fifteen IS
project cases. The characteristics of the
sample have been compared below with the
results of a national survey of nearly six
hundred IS project managers and projects
undertaken by Sauer and Cuthbertson (2003).
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78
3.2.1 Time: predicted completion date
versus actual completion date.
The duration of the selected projects ranged
from six weeks to a year, with an average of
five months. Although the average time
variance was three weeks late, four projects
exceeded the scheduled time scale by more
than ten percent. The national survey showed
that approximately one third of projects took
less than six months; one third took between
six months to one year, and the balance took
from one to five years. Therefore, the sample
projects were of a shorter duration than the
norm but nevertheless can be considered
representative of shorter term projects.
3.2.2 Cost: budgeted cost of the project
versus actual cost of the project.
The cost of the sample projects ranged
between £25,000 to £1.5 million, with an
average of £400,000 cost and an average
positive variance of around £28,000 (seven
percent). These figures are comparable to the
results in the national sample. Two projects
were completed under budget, and two
projects exceeded their budget by more than
fifteen percent. It was not possible to examine
the correlation between cost and duration
because project costs included other non-
payroll items, such as expenditure on
hardware and software used to support the
development of the application.
3.2.3 Quality: number of support calls
with in the first two months of live
operation.
Over a two-month period the average number
of calls made to the help desk was fifteen and
with a range from three to fifty-five. Six projects
received fewer than ten calls and three
projects received more than twenty calls.
Although the highest incidence of calls was
associated with the most complex and
expensive system implemented within the
sample period, there was no general
correlation between project duration, cost and
number of calls. No comparative statistics
about quality were available from the large-
scale survey referred to above.
The conclusion was reached that the sample
was representative of the IS UK project
experience and could be used for the study.
3.3 IS project leaders.
Fifteen IS development project leaders (ten
males and five females) met the sampling
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requirements and agreed to take part in the
research. The average age of the participants
was thirty-eight years and the average length
of service was four years. However, two of the
project leaders had worked for the company for
over ten years. These characteristics may be
compared to the national survey average of
forty-one years of age and current employment
of seven years. Therefore the study sample
included project leaders that were younger and
probably less experienced than the norm.
Mean Distribution Across Four Quadrants
12.00
10.00
8.00
Frequency
6.00
4.07
3.4
4.00 2.73
1.8
2.00
0.00
1 2 3 4
Dominant Leadership Style
Figure 2: Distribution of Project Leadership Styles.
3.4 IS Project Teams.
The evidence from the team member
questionnaires supported the idea that the
leadership style affected outcomes for eight
projects, six of which had a positive affect and
two with negative influence. In another two
projects the evidence was contradictory. One
team member said the leadership style
positively effected the time-scale, but had a
negative affect on the budget. For another
project it was the opposite case: the individual
felt that the leadership style impacted
negatively upon the schedule of the project,
which was completed late, but positively
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Jacqueline Day & Milena Bobeva
The mean adaptability score for the fifteen
project leaders was six out of twenty four
maximum (Figure Two). The highest
adaptability score was positive twenty-one and
the lowest minus six. The dominant style was
High Task - High Relationship. The least
popular leadership style was the Low Task -
Low Relationship, which included one leader.
Only three of the participants recorded similar
scores across all quadrants: the optimal
adaptability profile.
+24
+6
-24
Legend For Graph
Quadrant 1 = High Task, Low Relationship
Adaptability Range from 0 to 8 ; High = 8
Quadrant 2 = High Task, High Relationship
Adaptability Range from 1 to 11 ; High = 11
Quadrant 3 = Low Task, High Relationship
Adaptability Range from 0 to 8 ; High = 8
Quadrant 4 = Low Task, Low Relationship
Adaptability Range from 0 to 8 ; High = 6
affected the cost of the project, which was
completed to the budget.
In the remaining five projects, the team
members felt that the leadership had no effect
on the outcome of the project. Interestingly, all
these projects were late and over budget.
Out of the six projects that were on or under
budget, analysis of team opinions indicated
that leadership had affected the conduct of the
project. Ten team members felt that quality
was not affected by the style of leadership.
The opinion of the five other team members
was that leadership had a positive affect on
quality of the final deliverables.
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Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation Volume 6 Issue 2 (2003) 75-86
Relationship Between Leader Ranking and Project Ranking
16
14
12
10
Ranking
8
6
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Leader & Project Number
Figure 3: Project Leaders and Project Outcomes.
4. Analysis of results.
4.1 Project leader adaptability.
The results did not suggest a correlation
between leader’s age and his/her adaptability,
nor between the gender of the leader and
adaptability. The failure to link leadership to
gender (in a given project situation) is
consistent with a previous study conducted by
Cartwright and Gale (1995). However, the data
shows a weak correlation between experience
and adaptability of the project leader (at the
ten-percent level). This result may be taken as
a tentative confirmation of the common sense
view that experience allows a repertoire of
styles to be developed as the leader matures.
This facility seems to have little to do with
formal project management training. Those
that were trained in project planning and
control techniques were not necessarily the
most adaptable. Further work is needed to
explore whether or not current training
practices are producing good managers but
poor leaders of IS projects!
4.2 Achievement of project
management goals.
4.2.1 Meeting time and cost objectives.
A linkage between all the project leaders and
the corresponding IS development projects
was identified but this was not statistically
significant. However, when the one extreme
result where the project with the worst outcome
and the corresponding project leader was
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80
Project
Leader
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
removed from the data set, the results showed
significance (at the five-percent level). Thus
the evidence from this limited study is that the
attainment of cost and time goals is linked to
the extent to which an individual is able to
modify her or his approach to team leadership.
For the case study organisation, the favourite
mode of project leadership was that of High
Task - High Relationship focus. This result can
be interpreted to suggest that in the main,
project teams have the intrinsic morale and
motivation to do well but possibly feel that they
lack the knowledge, skills and political backing
(resources) to meet the objectives of the
project. The next most popular mode was the
converse style – that is, Low Task - High
Relationship orientation. This occurs when the
team perceives it is capable to do the job but
lacks the commitment to the project or
confidence about the project situation. There
were far fewer instances where the optimum
condition applies (team are both able and
willing) or where a project had totally
unmotivated and insecure staff. Given these
conclusions the following propositions are put
forward for confirmation or rejection through
further research:
P1: Leadership style adaptability can
influence the chances of success, if the
project is not behind schedule and/or
over-budget.
P2: Leadership style adaptability cannot
influence the chances of success, if the
project is behind schedule and/or over-
budget.
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81 Jacqueline Day & Milena Bobeva

4.2.2 Meeting quality standards. approach, using the number of support calls as
a surrogate for project process quality. This
The study was not able to demonstrate linkage approach was a failure for several reasons.
of leadership with system quality. Perhaps this Firstly, it conflated the project success
result is not surprising, because the invisibility measures of outcomes with that of
of software deliverables makes this element of management process. That is, in terms of
an IS project difficult to measure in meaningful Figure One, it confused the horizontal and
ways (Affoumado 1998). At the study site vertical perspectives. The second reason is
complete records were kept of project time and that operational system quality is an amalgam
costs, but there was no comparative base of of technical elements (functional quality) and
knowledge about the quality of project how it is delivered to the users (service quality)
deliverables. Indeed, the measurement of (Whyte and Bytheway 1996). To compound
quality varied widely in form and content: the this problem, faults sometimes emerge months
exigencies of each project dictating what after an apparently successful implementation.
system components were quality-assured and The measurement period was probably too
reworked. To address this problem with short to properly assess the affects of process
quality-in-development, the study attempted to management on quality.
use quality-in-operation as the evaluative

High Low

II HB II IV HB IV

1 Coach (5) Captain (1)

Control of Constraints
(HB) Relationship

I HB I III HB III

Supporter (3) Therapist (6)

Low High Low

Control of Resources
Low
(HB) Tasks

Figure 4: Project Situations, Styles and Leadership Roles.

circumstances and context of the project

5. A situational model of IS project (Tjosvold and Wong 2000). Each quadrant has
leadership. been labelled with a name reflecting the
adaptive role suggested for the leader in a
The case study data allows the different particular project situation. The figures shown
leader-follower modes to be mapped to the in brackets are the number of projects (in the
situations for each project at the case study sample of fifteen) that were judged fit a
site. The sample set of fifteen projects have particular situation (I – IV) at the point in time
been divided into groups that reflect the the leader-follower questionnaire was
balance between control of resources and completed. The figure also shows how the
control of constraints, thus reflecting the suggested categories correspond to the
project leaders ability to manage risks to the quadrants in the HB model. The dimensions of
project (Jiang 2000). The results of the the latter are drawn in grey and the quadrant
adaptability study can be developed into a number (Figure Two) positioned in grey ovals.
simple framework (Figure Four) that positions
different leadership roles, depending upon

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Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation Volume 6 Issue 2 (2003) 75-86
Project Situation I – Leader as Team
Supporter.
This is ideal situation for a project, so the role
of the leader is to encourage continued self-
management by the team through delegation
by the leader to the team of virtually all of his
or her task-related powers. The idea is that in
situations where the leader has high control of
constraints and resources, maintaining stability
and harmony within the leader-team
relationship could be achieved through the
provision of a good working atmosphere.
This may be done through enhancement of
team social interactions and by removing
irritating elements in the working set up,
including the physical environment and
unnecessary bureaucracy.
Project Situation II – Leader as Team
Coach.
When there are severe time constraints upon
the project, the temptation is to cut corners but
an adaptive IS project leader does the
opposite. Not only by enforcing working
standards or policies, but also by organising
the work in such a way that tasks can be
performed more quickly. The leader helps task
management by regularly summarising for the
team the project situation, clarifying direction,
rapid adjudication of disagreements, through
development of collaborative teamwork and
tactics for completing development activities
and by closely directing work to meet project
goals.
Project Situation III – Leader as Team
Therapist.
Where constraints e.g. the schedule for the
project, are perceived to be tolerable,
relationships should be tuned through
development of confidence and resilience. The
sharing of a common vision and facilitating
ways to improve personal performance helps
to bring a focus to this role. Team members
have to be persuaded by the leader that a
good result is achievable, even though
resources are limited. The leader should adopt
a role that includes the massaging of egos
(bruised or otherwise) so as to prepare
individuals for the project ‘game’ ahead.
Project Situation IV – Leader as Team
Captain.
This situation was observed in only one project
within the sample. This was the most difficult
set of circumstances encountered. The
functionality of the product (which was a web-
based financial derivatives trading system)
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82
expanded beyond reason but the business
client was adamant about keeping to the
original implementation date. Furthermore, it
was not easy to add further developers and
other specialists to the international team.
Recovery from a crisis situation represents a
singular opportunity for a heroic leader but the
‘captains’ role is really that of the iconoclast
who takes power to break the established
barriers in the form of corporate and project-
specific rules and protocols. The actions need
to be symbolic and practical. For example,
enabling the direct communication of junior
team members with senior figures in the client
hierarchy, arranging the team to work in shifts,
acquiring temporary administrative support,
negotiating extra non-monetary rewards and/or
cash bonuses and by fragmenting the project
plan into a weekly delivery of products. In this
role, the project leader has to be everywhere,
doing tasks, directing others and maintaining
morale through the creation of clear and
realistic project expectations. However, this
frenetic pace cannot be maintained for long
and it is not a desirable style for most projects.
6. Leadership and IS project
success – Some conclusions.
Leadership or, more realistically, the lack
thereof, is found in everyday life and all types
of business activity. However, because of their
intensive nature, IS projects, in particular,
present an especially good laboratory for
seeing the affects of leadership with a clarity
and immediacy that is often missing from other
environments.
6.1 Implications for theory.
A limitation to this research is that the focus is
on the leader and critics may point to the
potential danger of over-emphasising the
importance of the leadership to success, with
the consequent neglect of other key factors.
That is, an individual may be important but is
he or she that important? Perhaps a more
realistic model is joint leadership, constituted
from the shared behaviours of the project
manager and all other members of the team. If
this philosophy is accepted, further research
would help to understand how the general
‘character’ of the team also adapts to reflect
changing project contingencies (Kloppenborg
and Petrick 1999).
A second issue is that the present study
investigated information systems development
but IS activities incorporate a variety of jobs:
development teams might be a special case.
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 83 Jacqueline Day & Milena Bobeva

For example, Park and Harris (2000) found scores would not be mapped to a quadrant
several team types commonly associated with (Figure Four) but rather to a location within a
research and knowledge-intensive work. cube enabling some further alignments to be
Applying these ideas to IS/IT work-groups made with the situated styles of executive
would mean there are three other forms that leaders identified by Goleman (2000).
might be investigated, other than IS (self-
managed) project teams: The third area where more research is needed
Intensive problem solving – IS/IT technical is the assessment of leadership influence upon
specialists such as 2nd/3rd line support the attainment of project quality targets. If this
Heterogeneous cross-functional - mixed were accomplished, it may then be possible to
business and IS Joint Application establish the HB instrument as an integrated
Development (JAD) or Rapid Application approach for evaluating the social and
Development (RAD) groups process-related aspects of project
management. There is likely to a linkage here
Highly directed - call centre/operational
between the former, which is constituted from
first line or help desk teams.
trust, commitment and efficacy, and the latter
Each type will have different objectives and that can be measured by time, cost and
ideals, implemented in a range of structural quality. Some interesting research could be
configurations, communications channels, carried out to see if these two ‘iron triangles’
external discretionary power and patterns of are fully congruent or not.
internal influence. More work is needed to see
if the findings concerning style adaptability are 6.2 Lessons for practice.
also true for these forms of IS/IT team.
The most important ingredient defining the
This exploratory study is supportive of relationship between people in an IT project
situational style as an intuitively reasonable group is the nature and frequency of
perspective for understanding IS project knowledge-based and affective interactions.
leadership. Although it was developed over The adaptive project leader is one who can
three decades ago, the Hershey-Blanchard dynamically and intuitively reconfigure the
instrument is a practical tool for evaluating communications structures depending upon
adaptability. However, the evidence from the the exigencies of the IT project to meet speed,
case study indicates that a more complete quality, stakeholder satisfaction etc. In the
understanding project leadership would be context of seeking adaptable individuals, there
developed thorough the addition of another are two circumstances where the HB
role dimension, the Cultural-Leader one (Hare instrument might be employed, to improve
2003). organisational activities that Proehl (1996 p. 9)
suggests are often done in ‘haphazard ways.’
Table 1: Extension to the Hershey-Blanchard Firstly, to help with the selection of individuals
Instrument. to lead IS projects. Candidates with a high
adaptability will likely be more successful than
Leadership Interactions Affect HB
those with a low adaptability score. The
(role) (with (on Instrument
followers) Project) Dimension
second use would be for assessing the affect
Worker- competence, goal task of training upon the project leader. However,
Leader power, attainment orientation this presupposes that leaders can be trained
knowledge (Wateridge 1997) and perhaps a more
Personal- trust, team relationship appropriate application, is for evaluating the
Leader friendship, integration orientation success of more tailored forms of personal
fidelity, development, such as job rotation and
empathy mentoring.
Cultural- vision, contextual not
Leader norms, fit covered at Finally, although an IS project may be viewed
shared present
values
as an open system, it is a metastable
environment that can rapidly and sometimes
If the Hershey-Blanchard instrument were catastrophically tip from state to another. In
developed to incorporate a third dimension this context, a successful IS project leader is a
corresponding, to Hare’s Cultural-Leader role person who, based on the changes to the
(Table One), then the instrument would then project situation, can dynamically reshape his
be able to evaluate the three macro factors of or her role to get the best from all members of
managerial leadership, transactional the team.
transformational and situational, suggested by
Flanagan and Thompson (1993). Adaptability

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Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation Volume 6 Issue 2 (2003) 75-86 84

7. Acknowledgement Project Management, Vol. 11, No. 2,

p72.
The authors would like express thanks to Flanagan, H.D., and Thompson, D.J.C (1993)
Michael Byrne for undertaking the survey work “Leadership: the Swing of the
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