Effects of Project Complexity and Managers' Breadths of Experience on Knowledge Work Performance

Abstract

Improving performance of knowledge workers constitutes one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century and the main asset of knowledge workers is their knowledge, accumulated through experience. Thus this study examines how managers’ experience influences knowledge workers’ performance under varying levels of project complexity. Using data from 34,228 software maintenance projects, we find that project complexity moderates the curvilinear relationship between performance and managers’ breadth of experience. More specifically, we find that the detrimental effects of having too much breadth are manifested earlier as the project complexity increases. Furthermore, we analyze the relationship at two levels: level of project analysis, which is performed by the managers, and level of project execution, which is performed by the supervised workers. The comparison between levels shows that the detrimental effect of breadth is manifested earlier at the execution level. This difference is explained by the additional complexity associated with the supervision of group of workers. Our findings highlight the importance of examining the effects of managers’ experience and the effects of its interaction with projects complexity at multiple organizational levels and have practical implications for the work design of supervisory roles.