A garbage can model of government IT project failures in developing countries: The effects of leadership, decision structure and team competence

Government IT projects in developing countries face a number of unique challenges. However, there has been a paucity of research addressing government IT project management in developing countries. Based on the garbage can model, this research discusses and addresses how government IT project in developing countries should be managed from a leadership and decision structure perspective. With samples drawn from 433 IT project participants in Semarang municipal government, Indonesia, this research finds that leadership style is a major predictor of decision structure used in government IT projects. Decision structure, in turn, influences IT project success. Specifically, participative decision structure is positively associated with project success, whereas hierarchical decision structure hurts project performance. Empowering leadership is positively related to participative decision structure, while transactional leadership is positively related to hierarchical decision structure, and laissez-faire leadership is positively associated to specialized decision structure. Finally, team competence moderates the relationship between hierarchical decision structure and project success so that when team competence is low, hierarchical decision making is less negatively related to project success versus when team competence is high. Our findings contribute to the theoretical discourse of garbage can theory by extending it to include leadership style as a key predictor of decision structure in organized anarchy. The implications for government IT project management in developing countries are also discussed.