Context and Timing in Bad News Reporting: An Exploratory study in IS projects

Failure to report bad news at the right time has been one of the major contributors to IS project failures. While prior studies have identified many factors that can affect bad news reporting, there is a dearth of research on how context and timing affect the perception and reporting of bad news. Furthermore, little is known about how individuals perceive and process different types of bad news that can emerge during a project’s lifecycle. In this study, we employ a multiple case study approach to address these important theoretical gaps that exist within the bad news reporting literature. Our aim to shed light on how context and timing affect bad news reporting in IS projects

The Impact Of Relationships And Confucian Ethics On Chinese Employees’ Whistle-Blowing Willingness In Software Projects

One of the reasons why software projects suffer from high failure rate is that employees working on the project are often reluctant to blow the whistle informing the upper-level management about the failing status of the project. In this study, we examine the impacts of organizational commitment, interpersonal closeness, and Confucian ethics on the employees’ whistle-blowing intentions in the Eastern culture context. Based on data collected from 144 Chinese MBA students, we found that the relationship with the organization and that with the wrongdoer both significantly affect the employees’ willingness to blow the whistle. With respect to the influence of Confucian ethics, we found that the employee’s ethical disposition on loyalty between sovereign and subject positively affects the whistleblowing willingness, and the employee’s ethical disposition on trust between friends positively moderates the relationship between closeness with the wrongdoer and the whistle-blowing willingness

Bad News Reporting on Troubled IT Projects: The Role of Personal, Situational, and Organizational Factors

An individual’s bad news reporting behavior has been studied from a number of perspectives and has resulted in a variety of research streams including the MUM effect (or reluctance to transmit bad news), whistle-blowing, and organizational silence. While many scholars in different areas have studied reporting behavior, it has not been widely discussed in the information systems literature. This dissertation research addresses an individual’s bad news reporting behavior (and its antecedents) in the troubled IT project context. Many social phenomena are multi-causal (Hollander 1971). The silence phenomenon involved in an individual’s bad news reporting behavior is multi-causal too. While prior research has identified many antecedents to the bad news reporting behavior, it has not provided any systematic approach for categorizing them. In this dissertation, the antecedents are categorized into three different levels: personal factors (i.e., individual-level factors), situational factors (i.e., project-level factors), and organizational factors. This research empirically investigates how the antecedents at different levels affect (i.e., encourage or discourage) an individual’s decision to report or not report bad news in the IT project context. The dissertation follows a multi-paper model, and includes three independent, empirical studies, each with its own research model focusing on personal, situational, and organizational factors

The Dynamics of IT Project Status Reporting: A Self-Reinforcing Cycle of Distrust

Accurate project status reporting is important to avoid the problem of information technology (IT) project escalation and to successfully manage and deliver IT projects. One approach that some organizations have taken is to audit their IT projects to avoid surprises that are frequently associated with inaccurate status reporting. Little is known, however, about the effects that such auditing arrangements can have on the dynamics of project status reporting. To examine the process of IT project status reporting in this context, we followed a grounded theory inspired approach in which we investigated nine IT projects in one U.S. state’s government agencies. All of the projects we studied were subject to the state’s IT oversight board. Based on 118 interviews with a variety of stakeholders including technical personnel, managers, users, and contractors, we present a grounded theory of project status reporting dynamics in which the reporting process can best be characterized as a self-reinforcing cycle of distrust between the project team and the auditors. Specifically, in some projects, we observed a pattern whereby project teams interpreted the auditor’s scrutiny as unfair and as not adding value to their projects. As a result, they responded by embracing some defensive reporting tactics. The auditors interpreted the project team’s actions as indicating either deception or incompetence, and they then increased their scrutiny of the reports, thus exacerbating the situation and further fuelling the cycle of distrust. We discuss implications for both theory and practice

Mapping IS failure factors on PRINCE2® stages: an application of Interpretive Ranking Process (IRP)

YesThe social, political and cultural issues faced by organisations and their senior management team in the delivery and adoption of strategic projects, is highly complex and problematic. Despite a mature body of literature, increasing levels of practitioner certification, application of standards and numerous government initiatives, improvements in success have been minimal. In this study, we analyse the key underlying factors surrounding the failure of Information Systems (IS) projects and explore the merits of articulating a narrative that focuses on senior management embracing practical pessimism. Specifically, we develop a hypothesis supported by empirical study that leverages expert’s views on the dominance and interrelationships between failure factors within PRINCE2® project stages using an Interpretive Ranking Process. Our findings establish how the concept of dominance between individual failure factors can necessitate senior management to make key informed and timely decisions that could potentially influence project outcomes based on an empirical derived, interpretive predictive framework

Affect and Decision Making in Troubled Information Technology Projects

IT project failure is an enduring problem which has often been associated with bad news reporting and escalation of commitment. The literature in bad news reporting has focused on identifying factors (e.g., organizational climate of silence) that could influence one’s reporting decision. Similarly, the de-escalation literature has primarily investigated conditions or activities (e.g., changes in top management) which promote de-escalation. Nonetheless, what is missing in our understanding is how affect can influence bad news reporting and de-escalation decisions within IT projects. This represents a significant gap in bad news reporting and de-escalation research, as affect (i.e., mood and emotions) is recognized as a fundamental aspect of human life which strongly influences individual perceptions, judgment, and decision making. The aim of this dissertation to provide new insights regarding how affect can influence bad news reporting decisions and de-escalation of commitment within the context of troubled IT projects

Prospect Theory in Public Administration: does it matter in the Whistleblowing context?

The act of blowing the whistle is seen worldwide as a fundamental instrument to tackle the diffusion of a wide range of illicit phenomena that take place inside public and private organizations. The continuous evolution of the UE and US legislations confirms this view; nevertheless, whistleblowing rates are still very low. This discrepancy between the huge legislative efforts and the poor results in terms of witnesses’ trust towards the whistleblowing instruments explains the academics’ active interest and their awareness about the need for further research, in order to understand what prevents people from reporting and which policies could be effective to change their behavior and convince them to actively expose themselves. Among the instruments that influence the propensity to report, this thesis focuses on the role that information provision can have in shifting the individual beliefs and attitudes, as perfect and common information is an assumption that rarely holds in real life. Such incomplete knowledge partially explains why agents with the same self-declared willingness to report may act differently when they witness a misconduct in their working environment. Given the role of subjective perceptions and knowledge –and the fact that the same given information could provoke very different individual responses depending on how it has been framed and perceived– this thesis combines the whistleblowing literature with psychology theories (e.g. Cognitive Theory, Prospect Theory), in order to better interpret the processes behind the whistleblowing decision. Specifically, the aim is to test the role of how information is provided in terms of its framing, in order to understand if only the content matters or also its presentation, in light of the Prospect Theory findings. Given the importance of the agents’ active involvement, the content of such information concerns the concrete individuals’ benefits (costs) for whistleblowers from an economic and psychological perspective if they do (not) report a case of misconduct. One of the novelties of this work is that it constitutes a converging point between two streams of literature, that respectively analyze the relevance of Prospect Theory in the Public Administration context and in the whistleblowing panorama. In terms of methodology, in order to better test the effectiveness of this policy, the chosen approach consists in the exploitation of experimental designs. Thanks to this setup it is possible to infer causality, and claim whether the framing of the economic and psychological consequences for the civil servants if they do (not) report actually influences their behavior. The three chapters represent the different stages of analysis of the phenomenon of interest, ranging from the introduction to the topic and the related literature, the development of an experiment to test a new and specific hypothesis and the replication of the same survey, in order to better generalize and provide conclusions in light of an increased external validity. These stages are organized as follows: • Chapter 1 reviews all the contributions that analyze determinants of whistleblowing through experimental designs, to better understand the topic and provide the state of the art about how this approach has already been exploited. Particular attention is given to those papers that manipulate elements linked to public sector contexts; • Once a general panorama has been obtained, the second chapter empirically tests in a specific context if the individual attitude towards reporting some wrongdoing is influenced by whether and how the information has been delivered; • Given that experimental contributions are able to infer causality but, at the same time, can suffer from limited external validity, chapter 3 focuses on replicating the same experiment in another context and testing whether national culture matters and to what extent

Establishment of an information technology risk management framework within food manufacturing enterprises in South Africa

Enterprises of all kinds, regardless of the sector, are directly or indirectly dependent on Information Technology (IT) to carry out their daily activities. With this in mind, and correlated with the problem statement that it is “the lack of IT governance principles that lead to exposing enterprises to IT-related threats, vulnerabilities, and risks”, the objective of this study was to establish an Information Technology Risk Management Framework for enterprises within the Food manufacturing industry in South Africa that will ensure that IT-related threats, vulnerabilities, and risks are properly managed. In order to accomplish this, the research followed a process called design science research. The design science research paradigm was used to create a design artificial artefact in the form of a framework. The Nelson Mandela University – Design Science Framework Methodology (NMU-DSFM) was adopted since the objective of the study was to develop a framework. The study has revealed that enterprises within the sector are indeed lagging behind in terms of IT governance principles, hence an artefact called the IT Risk Management Framework for Enterprises within Food Manufacturing Industries in South Africa was developed

Establishment of an information technology risk management framework within food manufacturing enterprises in South Africa

Enterprises of all kinds, regardless of the sector, are directly or indirectly dependent on Information Technology (IT) to carry out their daily activities. With this in mind, and correlated with the problem statement that it is “the lack of IT governance principles that lead to exposing enterprises to IT-related threats, vulnerabilities, and risks”, the objective of this study was to establish an Information Technology Risk Management Framework for enterprises within the Food manufacturing industry in South Africa that will ensure that IT-related threats, vulnerabilities, and risks are properly managed. In order to accomplish this, the research followed a process called design science research. The design science research paradigm was used to create a design artificial artefact in the form of a framework. The Nelson Mandela University – Design Science Framework Methodology (NMU-DSFM) was adopted since the objective of the study was to develop a framework. The study has revealed that enterprises within the sector are indeed lagging behind in terms of IT governance principles, hence an artefact called the IT Risk Management Framework for Enterprises within Food Manufacturing Industries in South Africa was developed

Internal Reporting System for Outsourced IT Services

This research was conducted as a part of an internal development project, which aimed to improve the reporting practices in Capgemini Finland. The research problem and the primary question of this study was to find out, how and through which processes the internal reporting can be improved in an IT service company. The goal was to find several ways to reduce costs of the reporting and make a well argued proposal for the company. Other goals were reducing the work of the service delivery managers and analyzing the differences between automatic and mechanical reporting. The final research methods that were selected were literature review, interviews, process modeling, documentation analysis and observing. This was a constructive multi-method single case study, which aimed to find solutions for the given problems by using qualitative data, which meant that empirical studies played a big role when the overall conclusions were made. The given proposal advises Capgemini Finland to move its reporting processes to a more standardized system. Besides this a bigger part of the current tasks should be moved to India, which is one of the greatest long time goals for the company itself. The proposal starts with building a team for developing the reporting and provides a three phase solution that shows the first steps towards implementation. The implementation will be done during a period of six months and should be started immediately. By following the proposed steps the company will be able to save money and resources, both in Finland and in India. In order to gain more credibility for the project management support is needed. The final outcome of the whole developing process will be a cost reduction in addition to transferring the standardized tasks to India. What is more is weekly report that the production teams will get about their performance. The given proposal includes calculations that support the ultimate solution. The research can be seen very useful for the company, since it raised points that need improvement and gave solutions for these. These improvements will most likely be taken into action in the near future. Even though the research raised at least as many questions as it answered to, it is mainly a positive thing; the topics for the further analyzes have been found: studying the possibilities of full automation and making financial calculations for the whole company are something that need researches of their own. /Kir12Tämä tutkimus tehtiin osana Capgemini Finlandin sisäistä kehittämisprojektia, jonka tarkoituksena oli parantaa raportointikäytäntöjä yrityksen sisällä. Tutkimuksen ongelma ja perimmäinen kysymys oli, miten ja mitä keinoja käyttämällä sisäistä raportointia voidaan parantaa IT-palveluja tarjoavassa yrityksessä. Tavoitteena oli löytää useita keinoja, joilla pystytään vähentämään raportointikustannuksia ja tehdä hyvin perusteltu ehdotus yritykselle. Muut tavoitteet liittyivät palvelupäällikön tehtävien vähentämiseen ja erojen analysointiin automaattisen ja mekaanisen raportoinnin välillä. Lopulliset valitut tutkimusmenetelmät olivat kirjallisuustutkimus, haastattelututkimus, prosessin mallinnus, dokumentaatioanalyysi ja havainnointi. Tutkimus oli konstruktiivinen, monimetodinen kertaluontoinen tutkimus, joka pyrki ratkaisujen löytämiseen laadullisen datan avulla. Tästä johtuen empiirinen tutkimus oli suuressa roolissa, kun tutkimuksen lopulliset johtopäätökset tehtiin. Ehdotettu ratkaisu ohjeistaa Capgemini Finlandia muuttamaan raportointikäytäntöjään entistä standardoidummiksi. Tämän lisäksi suuri osa nykyisistä tehtävistä tulisi siirtää Intiaan, mikä on myös yksi yrityksen suurimmista pitkän ajan tavoitteista. Annettu ehdotus alkaa raportointiin keskittyneen tiimin rakentamisella ja tarjoaa 3-vaiheisen, 6 kuukautta kestävän ratkaisun implementaation käynnistämiseen. Noudattamalla annettua ehdotusta yritys pystyy säästämään rahaa ja resursseja, niin Suomessa kuin Intiassakin. Jotta projektin uskottavuus säilyy, on sen saatava taustalleen yrityksen johdon tuki. Kehitysprojektin lopputuloksena ovat kustannussäästöt, joiden lisäksi osa raportoinnista saadaan siirrettyä Intiaan. Lisäksi tuotantotiimeille pystytään tarjoamaan viikoittaiset raportit heidän suorituskyvystään. Annettu ehdotus sisältää myös taloudelliset laskelmat, jotka tukevat lopullista ratkaisua. Tehty tutkimus voidaan nähdä erityisen hyödyllisenä Capgemini Finlandille, koska se nosti esiin kohtia, jotka vaativat parannusta ja sisälsi ehdotukset ongelmien ratkaisemiseksi. Annetut ehdotukset otetaan luultavasti käyttöön jo lähitulevaisuudessa. Vaikka tutkimus nosti esiin myös uusia ongelmia, se voidaan nähdä myös positiivisena asiana: raportoinnin automatisoinnin ja tarkempien taloudellisten laskelmien tekeminen ovat hyviä aiheita jatkotutkimukselle