The Impact of Collectivism on the Deaf Effect in IT Projects - Research in Progress

Project management is still a problematic area in the IS field. One source of concern is that of project escalation, a continued commitment of resources to a failing course of action. One explanation for escalation is the deaf effect response to bad news reporting which is when a decision maker does not hear, ignores, or discounts a report of bad news. This research extends existing prior work by adding the effects of societal collectivism to the existing model proposed by Cuellar, Keil and Johnson (2006; 2007). It also explores the use of the GLOBE cultural values frame in IS research and the Ford, Connelly, Meister (2003) approach to using the cultural values frameworks in a research setting. This research develops hypotheses regarding the effect of societal collectivism on the deaf effect. The expanded model and associated hypotheses will be tested using matching laboratory experiments conducted in the U.S., Germany, China, South Africa and Saudi Arabia.

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