Affect and Decision Making in Troubled Information Technology Projects

Over the past two decades, several studies have investigated the factors that lead to and away from individuals’ reporting of truthful status information on IT projects. These studies have typically considered the reporting decisions of an individual who is aware of negative status information that is attributed to others’ errors. These previous studies have seldom examined the situation in which the individual is considering whether to report information about his or her own self-committed error on the project. In this study, we consider this largely unexamined phenomenon. In this context, we focus on the influences that different affective states and a personality trait (conscientiousness) can have on error reporting decisions. Specifically, we investigate how different moods (i.e., positive vs. negative) and conscientiousness can influence error reporting decisions in the context of an IT project. Based on the results from a controlled laboratory experiment, we find that individuals in a negative mood are more willing to report their errors compared to individuals in a positive mood. Conscientiousness also positively influences individuals’ willingness to report errors, and it also has an indirect effect through costbenefit differential (i.e., one’s perceptions of benefits relative to costs). Additionally, mood is found to moderate the relationship between conscientiousness and willingness to report. We discuss the implication of our findings and directions for future research and for practice.