2019/08/30 by Jong Seok Lee, Mark Keil, Eliezer Shalev
Business, Management and Accounting · Computer Science · Psychology · #Information Technology Governance and Strategy #Software Engineering Techniques and Practices #Team Dynamics and Performance
paper · doi:10.1287/isre.2019.0853
openalex publication_date 2019/08/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
In this research, we focused on one of the core issues associated with Information Technology (IT) project management, namely the tendency to inadequately manage project risks. Project managers (PMs) surely must know by now that risks can derail projects and that tools and techniques are available to support the risk management process. Why, then, do many PMs seem unable or unwilling to adequately manage project risks? We believe that answering this fundamental question requires gaining a better understanding of how PMs construe risks. To gain this understanding, we examined key activities associated with the risk management process from a CLT perspective to determine the impact of construal on the judgment and decision-making of IT PMs when it comes to managing IT project risks. We found that IT PMs with a concrete mental construal (1) identify a greater number of project risks; (2) perceive a greater potential impact of project risks; (3) perceive that more effort and resources are required for risk management; and (4) are less willing to enact risk responses than IT PMs with an abstract mental construal. We demonstrate that IT PMs’ mental construal can affect activities that are important to risk management.