Improving IT professionals job skills development: The use of management styles and individual cultural value orientation

This study examines how the effectiveness of new management styles (authoritarian, participative) may vary depending on individual cultural values of traditionality and contextual factors of innovative culture, why they moderate the relationship between new management styles and information technology engineers' professional skills. Hypotheses that assume such links are proposed and tested using the sample drawn from 280 research and development employees in high-tech industry. A 3-way interaction qualifies these main effects: in the environment of high innovative culture, new participative management style relates positively to technical specialties and technology management knowledge of professional skills for engineers low on traditionality. In the workplace of low innovative culture, new authoritarian management style relates positively to business function knowledge of professional skills for engineers high on traditionality.