By Fon Sundaravej
The Effects of Information Technology Project Complexity on Group Interaction
By Tom L. Roberts, Paul H. Cheney, Paul D. Sweeney, and Ross T. Hightower
This study investigates a relationship between tasks and social interaction by
examining the effects of two different information technology (IT) project complexities
on group interaction in terms of expectation/ integration, power struggle, organization,
noninvolvement, and communication. Prior research only concentrates on group
performance and results. This is insufficient to completely understand the group
interaction processes. IT projects are employed in this study because IT project groups
generally face more rapid changes, which generate diverse levels of project complexity,
than other functional groups in an organization.
The authors construct five hypotheses based on five aspects of the group
interaction. On account of a greater challenge to group integration in complex projects, it
is assumed that complex projects result in a perception of lower integration of group
skills and abilities and lower expectation of cohesive work environment that lead to an
optimistic performance consequence. The authors also claim that complex projects
encounter more struggle or conflict in a project group since each member introduces
different opinions regarding group tasks. In addition, a pervious study shows that many
project failures derive from the lack of ability to organize proper resources for those
projects. As a result, more complex projects need more effort to manage tasks. The
authors believe that groups will be less effective in organizing more complex tasks
compared to lower complex tasks. Another study demonstrates a substantive relationship
between group participation and group success. Group participation appears to positively
IS 7894: Theoretical Foundations of Information Systems Research
1
By Fon Sundaravej
affect group performance. Accordingly, successful project completion requires an
excessive involvement of all group members. The authors draw a presumption that
complex projects tend to have higher degrees of member noninvolvement. Finally,
several studies confirm an association of project succeeds and effective communication
among group members. The last hypothesis infers that the more complex the group
project, the lower the level of group communication.
The task complexity is used as a treatment variable. This case study divides the
task complexity into highly and moderately complex. LAN and WAN projects are
considered as highly complex, whereas a HTML project is moderately complex. The
complexity of these three projects is classified by the number of tasks and subtasks
required to complete each project. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) appears no
significant difference in complexity between LAN and WAN projects but demonstrates
more complexity in LAN and WAN projects than HTML project. ANOVA also shows no
significant effect in the order of the three projects.
For this study, the data are collected from a hundred senior management
information systems (MIS) students by assuming that they have the same levels of
knowledge, skills, experience, and abilities as entry-level IS position. Individual course
experience, which is the technical skill level each group member acquires previously, is
used as a control variable. To indicate that the individual course experience does not
influence the project group interaction processes, each student has to complete the same
number of MIS courses prior to participation in this project and has to meet the same rate
of current knowledge in HTML, LAN, and WAN projects. ANOVA presents no
significant difference in the amount of knowledge that students bring to each project.
IS 7894: Theoretical Foundations of Information Systems Research
2
By Fon Sundaravej
The initial hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) is used to estimate and test effects
involving multiple variables (expectation/ integration, power struggle, organization,
noninvolvement, and communication and participation) that are measured at several
levels. This procedure is conducted to determine the validity of ANOVA results. The
factor analysis results prove that all components of group interaction are applicable.
ANOVA and Tukey HSD are used to analyze the data. The result of the study
indicates that the HTML project produces higher ratings for integration/ expectation,
organization, and communication/ participation, but similar ratings for power struggle
and noninvolvement as the LAN and WAN projects. This finding can be interpreted that
the moderately complex technical project generates higher group process components of
integration and expectation, organization, and communication and participation than the
highly complex technical project. Groups increase more expectation and integration,
manage more effective tasks, and report more frequent communication from less complex
projects. However, projects with any complexity encounter problems in both power
struggles and member noninvolvement. Such findings reveal the effect of IT project
complexity on group interaction.
In the future, the methodology of this study may apply to the same type of project
with different complexities. That means, instead of measuring project difficulty between
HTML and LAN or WAN projects from the assigned number of tasks, we could apply
the same methodology to only the HTML project but distinguish the project into different
degrees of complexity such as basic, intermediate, and advanced HTML. By doing so, we
can make sure that the individual course experience of each participant is a truly strict
controlled variable for the study.
IS 7894: Theoretical Foundations of Information Systems Research
3