Articles

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 (when a decision maker doesn’t 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). In addition, this research examines a model of societal culture influence on individual decision making behavior based on Straub, Loch, Evaristo, Karahanna, & Srite (2002). 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. We expect to show how the deaf effect is influenced by differences in societal collectivism. At this point, data collection has been completed in all geographies except Saudi Arabia. Data from the USA, South Africa and Germany have been coded. Data from China are in the process of being coded. We are now beginning to analyze the data. At the time of presentation, we will be able to present the preliminary findings of our study. We will discuss how the response to bad news reporting is affected by societal collectivism. We will also demonstrate how the GLOBE cultural values framework can be used in IS cross-cultural research.