Stretching role breadth: Overachieving IT managers in underperforming IT organizations

We addressed both the well documented perception that information technology (IT) organizations fail to maximize returns on the significant investments firms make in them - and the paucity of empirical evidence about how IT professionals contribute to the problem . We focused on people, seeking to shed light on the competencies of professionals overseeing or executing IT projects in three multinational firms operating in North America in distinctly different industries. Our findings revealed differences between two tiers of IT professionals - individual contributors (ICs ) and managers -appraised by their organizations as achieving two levels of performance - average and superior. Results demonstrate that technical ability, the basis on which most IT professionals are promoted, is trumped by role based self efficacy as a predictor of IT role effectiveness. Our findings may help firms to select and promote people best suited to manage and contribute to IT organizations.