Abstract

Within an IT program, a key source of conflict has been the competition among project managers over scarce resources necessary for the completion of their own individual projects. To succeed in the overall implementation of their program, however, program managers must consider methods for effectively monitoring resources when designing projects. The shared cognition theory suggests that a shared understanding of tasks among all program members would serve as a solid foundation for the effective monitoring of resources. However, would a shared understanding alone be sufficient to achieve the needed level of resources monitoring among individual teams? Drawing from the social interdependence theory, we propose that goal interdependence is a critical condition for integrating multiple projects into a program. We argue that shared goal understanding leads to heightened levels of resources monitoring which in turn leads to greater efficiency in the implementation of the IT program. However, this relationship may be moderated by the goal interdependence among projects within the program. To empirically test the model, an instrument has been developed while data collection nears completion.

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