Start Date
11-12-2016 12:00 AM
Description
Successful management of IT projects remains a challenge for many organizations. Given the cross-functional nature of IT projects, one of the primary and most difficult tasks for project managers is coordinating the activities of a diverse group of project stakeholders. Using the pluralist perspective of power as a lens for understanding project conflict, this paper asserts that a key factor in accomplishing this task is project manager decision-making authority. The results of this study provide evidence that an organization’s dependence on information systems to provide strategic value, a project manager’s vertical position within a firm’s hierarchy, and the project organizational structure adopted for IT initiatives are all significant predictors of an IT project manager’s decision-making authority. In turn, decision-making authority has significant positive relationships with the IT project performance variables of budget, schedule, and functionality, as well as the product performance variable of organizational IT satisfaction.
Recommended Citation
Setterstrom, Andrew J., "IT Project Manager Decision-Making Authority: An Empirical Examination of Antecedents and Consequences" (2016). ICIS 2016 Proceedings. 8.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2016/ManagingIS/Presentations/8
IT Project Manager Decision-Making Authority: An Empirical Examination of Antecedents and Consequences
Successful management of IT projects remains a challenge for many organizations. Given the cross-functional nature of IT projects, one of the primary and most difficult tasks for project managers is coordinating the activities of a diverse group of project stakeholders. Using the pluralist perspective of power as a lens for understanding project conflict, this paper asserts that a key factor in accomplishing this task is project manager decision-making authority. The results of this study provide evidence that an organization’s dependence on information systems to provide strategic value, a project manager’s vertical position within a firm’s hierarchy, and the project organizational structure adopted for IT initiatives are all significant predictors of an IT project manager’s decision-making authority. In turn, decision-making authority has significant positive relationships with the IT project performance variables of budget, schedule, and functionality, as well as the product performance variable of organizational IT satisfaction.