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Project Managers' Practical Intelligence and Project Performance in Software Offshore Outsourcing: A Field Study

Author

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  • Nishtha Langer

    (Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, 500032, India)

  • Sandra A. Slaughter

    (Ernest Scheller Jr. College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30308)

  • Tridas Mukhopadhyay

    (Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213; and Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Education City, Doha, Qatar)

Abstract

This study examines the role of project managers' (PM) practical intelligence (PI) in the performance of software offshore outsourcing projects. Based on the extant literature, we conceptualize PI for PMs as their capability to resolve project related work problems, given their long-range and short-range goals; PI is targeted at resolving unexpected and difficult situations, which often cannot be resolved using established processes and frameworks. We then draw on the information processing literature to argue that software offshore outsourcing projects are prone to severe information constraints that lead to unforeseen critical incidents that must be resolved adequately for the projects to succeed. We posit that PMs can use PI to effectively address and resolve such incidents, and therefore the level of PMs' PI positively affects project performance. We further theorize that project complexity and familiarity contribute to its information constraints and the likelihood of critical incidents in a project, thereby moderating the relationship between PMs' PI and project performance.To evaluate our hypotheses, we analyze longitudinal data collected in an in-depth field study of a leading software vendor organization in India. Our data include project and personnel level archival data on 530 projects completed by 209 PMs. We employ the critical incidents methodology to assess the PI of the PMs who led these projects. Our findings indicate that PMs' PI has a significant and positive impact on project performance. Further, projects with higher complexity or lower familiarity benefit even more from PMs' PI. Our study extends the literatures on project management and outsourcing by conceptualizing and measuring PMs' PI, by theorizing its relationship with project performance, and by positing how that relationship is moderated by project complexity and familiarity. Our study provides unique empirical evidence of the importance of PMs' PI in software offshore outsourcing projects. Given that PMs with high PI are scarce resources, our findings also have practical implications for the optimal resource allocation and training of PMs in software offshore services companies.

Suggested Citation

  • Nishtha Langer & Sandra A. Slaughter & Tridas Mukhopadhyay, 2014. "Project Managers' Practical Intelligence and Project Performance in Software Offshore Outsourcing: A Field Study," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(2), pages 364-384, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:25:y:2014:i:2:p:364-384
    DOI: 10.1287/isre.2014.0523
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    2. Shyamali Satpathy & Violeta Cvetkoska & Gokulananda Patel, 2021. "The Impact of Organizational Stress on Financial Performance: Evidence from Software Development Companies," SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, University of Piraeus, vol. 71(3-4), pages 122-140, July-Dece.
    3. Bent Flyvbjerg & Alexander Budzier & Jong Seok Lee & Mark Keil & Daniel Lunn & Dirk W. Bester, 2022. "The Empirical Reality of IT Project Cost Overruns: Discovering A Power-Law Distribution," Papers 2210.01573, arXiv.org.
    4. Nishtha Langer & Ram D. Gopal & Ravi Bapna, 2020. "Onward and Upward? An Empirical Investigation of Gender and Promotions in Information Technology Services," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 383-398, June.
    5. Keumseok Kang & Jungpil Hahn & Prabuddha De, 2017. "Learning Effects of Domain, Technology, and Customer Knowledge in Information Systems Development: An Empirical Study," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 797-811, December.

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