Does equality really lead to happiness in information systems development (ISD) teams? To date, research on leadership in ISD teams has assumed that all developers are treated equally by their team leader, ignoring the power of differentiated leader–member exchange (LMX) to enhance team and project outcomes. Filling this important research gap, James Y. L. Thong of HKUST and colleagues show how ISD teams can leverage the benefits of LMX differentiation for all members.
“Interpersonal relationships with team leaders are regularly seen as the top criterion influencing developer satisfaction,” the researchers note. Developers’ satisfaction can improve organizational performance and reduce absenteeism and turnover. With the rise of agile ISD methods, which require self-organization by and collaboration among team members, ISD team leaders are in especial need of guidance on managing their interpersonal relationships with team members.
An important yet understudied route to enhancing developer satisfaction may be LMX differentiation, defined as the variability in a team’s LMX relationships. “Given that software companies recognize developers as their most valuable assets and invest heavily in improving developer satisfaction,” say the authors, “we particularly need to understand how LMX differentiation influences developers’ satisfaction.”
They conducted a multilevel 3-stage surveys of 1,894 developers in 217 teams, interviews with 40 members of five ISD teams, and two focus groups of developers and team leaders to explore how social exchange relationships between team members and specific team processes help ISD team members benefit from LMX differentiation, both individually and collectively.
The results shed light on how to manage the relationship between team leaders and developers in agile ISD teams. The researchers identify three team processes enacted through agile ISD practices—“collectivization of resources, visible appreciation of privileges, and freeing up leader capacities”—that can help realize the advantages of LMX differentiation for all team members. These findings offer valuable guidance for enhancing ISD team dynamics and thus organizational success in today’s highly competitive business environment.