Factors influencing the high performance of IT staff

Permanent information technology (IT) teams are a stable and enduring part of the organization, and their performance is critical to business success. However, project (temporary) teams and their members are typically the focus of the scarce extant research. Therefore, there is a lack of empirical research regarding the factors that influence the high performance of IT function members. To fill this theoretical gap and help organizations improve their IT function, we identified several factors that influence high performance from the perspective of IT professionals. We conducted an exploratory multi-case study of the IT function in four companies and used qualitative analysis. The factors influencing high performance (mostly human-centric, transversal to IT and non-IT professionals) were organized into five dimensions (management/leadership, work environment, affective/emotional, work cognition, and personality traits). The results align with and extend (to the permanent IT team member level) prior research on the factors for the high performance of IT project teams.