The Binding and Blinding Influence of Project Commitment

Abstract

Proper management of information technology (IT) projects remains important within organizations; they require tremendous investment and consume valuable resources. To enhance one's understanding of IT projects and the continued issue of project failure, this study develops a model of the psychological influences of IT project commitment for individuals working on IT projects and its influence on intentions to continue an IT project (ICITP). Survey responses from 232 individuals across several organizations were obtained, and structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Three forms of project commitment (affective, continuance, and normative), subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control – internal were significant predictors of ICITP, explaining 64% of the variance. Additionally, continuance commitment and perceived behavioral control – internal were found to explain 46% of the variance in affective commitment. Implications and directions for future research are provided.

Normative commitment in an information systems project environment

“…Since this study extends prior research, the proposed model includes intention to continue as a dependent variable. Its inclusion provides consistency with existing findings that have shown normative commitment to be a significant predictor of intention to continue an IS project (Korzaan and Brooks, 2015). The antecedents and proposed relationships for this study are provided in Figure 1.…”

“…This will be accomplished by specifically looking at individual psychological state-like factors that influence the normative commitment of project team members in IS projects. Essentially, this study will extend prior research findings on IS project commitment (Korzaan and Brooks, 2015) by proposing and testing a model that focuses on predicting and explaining the normative commitment construct. In addition, the moderating effect of problem-solving competency will be tested to examine the impact on both normative commitment and intention to continue with an IS project.…”

“…Individuals with high self-efficacy have a stronger commitment toward achieving goals (Jani, 2011). Although Korzaan and Brooks (2015) tested the effect of this construct on intention to continue and found a significant positive relationship, they did not consider the potential role that it might play in influencing normative commitment; therefore, this research is positioned to investigate and fill that gap.…”

“…Project-specific self-efficacy (PSSE) This section builds upon a prior research study (Korzaan and Brooks, 2015), which tested a traditional intention model based upon the foundational theories of the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and theory of planned behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991). The study found perceived behavioral control-internal (PBCI) to have a significant, positive relationship with intentions to continue an IS project.…”

“…The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1753-8378.htm team performance and project success (Araujo et al, 2018). In contrast to this positive effect on performance, commitment has also been identified as a factor in runaway projects through its effect on increasing the behavioral intention to continue with the project as planned even when it should be canceled or redirected due to warning signs of impending failure (Korzaan and Brooks, 2015;Newman and Sabherwal, 1996). These contrasting effects reveal the complexity in the influence of commitment in IS projects and indicate a need for more research on the nature and role of this psychological phenomenon within the IS project domain.…”