'Shooting star' leadership: Identifying the key attributes for IT leaders during chaotic times

The increasing impact of organizational change and the decreasing cycle time between these changes have become permanent trends within technology-based functions. Recent circumstances such as the prolonged economic recession and corporate accounting debacles have brought to light the inadequacies of today's information technology (IT) leadership—it is indeed the end of the Leadership Refuge, where extreme profitability and organizational success covered up the shortcomings of leadership. Technology leadership must be enhanced in order to prove the strategic value of IT within every organization. This study uses a mixed method approach to refine and reinvent the optimal attributes for technology leaders. Interviews and surveys within a Fortune 500 organization provide the research data, resting on a solid and exhaustive literature review. The outcome of the research is a comprehensive and contemporary technology change leadership model, validated through the course of the study. The dissertation concludes with recommendations regarding how to develop these characteristics in current and future leaders. The ultimate objective of this dissertation is to improve management practice in technology organizations by enabling leaders to be more successful when faced with continual and turbulent change in their organizations.