In the recent years, the Indian IT and ITES industry has become a destination for educated and skilled workforce. At the same time, attrition level is higher than that in other industries. The major challenges faced by HR managers in this industry include fostering organizational commitment, enhancing creativity, effective team work, and more importantly, leadership at the team level. Earlier studies reported that leadership at the team level is pivotal for building successful teams. In the IT and ITES industry, it was observed that team leaders lacked the required leadership skills. This paper reviews various leadership development theories and suggests the adoption of transformational leadership theory for an ideal leadership development program through which the team leader would be able to identify the process, analyze and develop organizational commitment, creativity and team work amongst the team members.

In the wake of the changing global services landscape, Indian Information Technology (IT) and IT Enabled Services (ITES) continue to chart a remarkable double-digit growth, with industry revenue in FY 2004-05 expected to exceed US$28 bn (Nasscom, Strategic Review 2005). The IT and ITES-BPO industry has now become the biggest employment generator, introduced a number of ancillary businesses such as transportation, real estate and catering, and, almost single-handedly, contributed to the rising class of young consumers with high disposable incomes. The IT industry has brought in many impacts, some of which include the steady reversal of the brain drain, the evolution of e-governance in the country, and its potential for narrowing the digital divide between urban and rural India.