Role of leadership competencies and team social capital in it services

As the nature of work changes into team-based knowledge work, the social capital among team members becomes more and more critical. This study applies social capital theory to IT service team environment. The research model of this study includes emotional, cognitive, and social intelligence competencies of project managers (PM) as they lead to the project performance, while team social capital is posited as a mediator between these leadership competencies and team project performance. A PLS analysis of 285 data points collected via a validated questionnaire revealed the followings: (1) emotional intelligence competencies of PM directly influence the project performance, (2) social intelligence competencies of PM indirectly influence project performance only via team social capital, and (3) cognitive intelligence competencies of PM maintains direct influence on project performance in shorter term projects, but indirect influence only via the accumulated team social capital in longer term projects. The analysis also reveals that it takes time to grow team social capital. Implications of the findings are discussed, and further studies are suggested.