Task-Enabling CEOs: Implications for an Effective Implementation of New Technology

This article addresses the question of the conditions under which chief executive officer (CEO) leadership may enhance the effectiveness of new technological implementation (NTI) and the mechanisms by which they may do so. Using a structured questionnaire collected from multiple source informants in 89 small- and medium-sized firms (89 CEOs, 65 implementation managers, and 305 employees), we consider a specific leadership style, labeled task-enabling leadership, and examine how task-enabling CEOs can facilitate the NTI process. The findings of multilevel structural equation modeling analysis indicate that CEO task-enabling leadership creates socio-psychological conditions of safety and availability which in turn enhance NTI effectiveness, and that this indirect effect of task-enabling leadership on NTI effectiveness, via socio-psychological conditions, is significant when the implemented technology is radical.