Charismatic leadership and user acceptance of information technology

Abstract

Although there is widespread agreement that leadership has important effects on information technology (IT) acceptance and use, relatively little empirical research to date has explored this phenomenon in detail. This paper integrates the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) with charismatic leadership theory, and examines the role of project champions influencing user adoption. PLS analysis of survey data collected from 209 employees in seven organizations that had engaged in a large-scale IT implementation revealed that project champion charisma was positively associated with increased performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating condition perceptions of users. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed, and suggestions for future research in this area are provided.

Keywords:

• unified theory of acceptance and use of technology
• charismatic leadership theory
• project champions
• enterprise systems
• implementation success
• field survey
• partial least squares

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Derrick J Neufeld

About the authors

Derrick Neufeld is an associate professor at the Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. His research examines IT-facilitated distributed work arrangements, including consequences for employees (telecommuting), groups (virtual teamwork), and managers (remote leadership). His research has appeared in a variety of leading journals such as Communications of the Association for Information Systems, The Leadership Quarterly, Information & Management, DATA BASE for Advances in Information Technology, and the Journal of Engineering and Technology Management.

Linying Dong

Linying Dong is an assistant professor of Information Technology Management, Faculty of Business, Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. She received her Ph.D. from The University of Western Ontario. Her research focuses on information system implementations, leadership, and privacy. She won a best paper award at the Americas Conference on Information Systems for her work on enterprise systems implementations.

Chris Higgins

Chris Higgins is a professor at the Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. Higgins’ research focuses on the impact of technology on individuals, including such areas as computerized performance monitoring in the service sector; champions of technological innovation; office information systems; alternative work arrangements; and, most recently, work and family issues and their impact on individuals and organizations. Higgins has published articles in several top journals including The Journal of Applied Psychology, Communications of the ACM, Administrative Sciences Quarterly, Sloan Management Review, Information Systems Research, and Management Information Systems Quarterly.