Uncovering leadership styles performed in Open Source Software Communities

Open source software (OSS) communities have a distinct way of organising of dispersed individuals and mobilize these individuals for producing the software products. The success of these communities is dependent on the presence and contribution of the participating volunteer individuals in the community. The leaders of the OSS community are the key members in keeping the contributing developers together, facilitating collaboration, and sustaining communities. Therefore, firstly we aim to enhance the understanding of OSS leadership by developing an integrative framework. This framework aims to consolidate all the attributes or cues associated with OSS leaders and provide a coherence understanding of OSS leadership. Secondly, the research endeavors to methodologically operationalize this framework of OSS leadership and shed light on real OSS leadership practices. Finally, the research further aims to provide granular insights on the actual performance of the specific OSS leader.