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Motivating open source software developers: Influence of transformational and transactional leaderships

Yan Li, Chuan-Hoo Tan, Hock-Hai Teo, A. Talib Mattar

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary WorksRGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication)peer-review

Abstract

Open Source Software (OSS) is developed by geographically distributed unpaid programmers. The success of such a seemingly chaotic OSS project will largely depend on how the project leader organizes and motivates the developers to contribute. Grounded on leadership and motivation theories, we proposed and tested a research model that seeks to explain the behavioral effects of a leader on the developers' motivation to contribute. Survey data collected from 118 OSS developers on Sourceforge.net was used to test the research model. The results indicate that leaders' transformational leadership is positively related to developers' intrinsic motivation and leaders' active management by exception, a form of transactional leadership, is positively related to developers' extrinsic motivation. Copyright 2006 ACM.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSIGMIS CPR '06: Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGMIS CPR conference on computer personnel research: Forty four years of computer personnel research: achievements, challenges & the future
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages34-43
ISBN (Print)9781595933492
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2006
Externally publishedYes
Event44th Annual computer personnel research Conference (SIGMIS/CPR 2006) - Claremont, United States
Duration: 13 Apr 200615 Apr 2006

Conference

Conference44th Annual computer personnel research Conference (SIGMIS/CPR 2006)
PlaceUnited States
CityClaremont
Period13/04/0615/04/06

Research Keywords

  • Leadership
  • Motivation
  • Open Source Software Development

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