Seeing the Trees or the Forest? The Effect of IT Project Managers’ Mental Construal on IT Project Risk Management Activities

Abstract

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.