Understanding the soft side of software projects: An empirical study on the interactive effects of social skills and political skills on complexity – performance relationship

While prior research considers project complexity as a double-edged sword, researchers and practitioners still remain unclear whether project complexity serves as productive or counterproductive ingredient for project performance. Our research brings clarity on the dynamic nature of complexity-performance relationship by integrating social exchange theory with recent developments in project management research to develop and test a novel framework involving interactive roles of social skills and political skills in software-projects. Regardless of calls for further empirical studies, researchers have predominantly neglected the fundamental role of human efforts and human interaction in outlining performance particularly in complex projects. Drawing on a survey based sample of 242 project managers and use of variance based structural equation modeling, the findings illuminate theoretical and practical contributions in better understanding complexities in software-projects performance. In addition, prioritizing human-centric factors i.e. social skills and political skills in supporting complexity- performance relationship further enhances contributions of this research.