The Linkage Between Reporting Quality and Performance in Information Systems Projects

Recent research suggests that flawed status reporting is a serious concern in information systems projects. Several investigations have sought to understand the factors that lead project reporters to engage in misreporting. The main motivation for these studies has been the presumption that inaccurate reporting has a significant, negative impact on project performance. However, the linkage between reporting quality and project performance has not been empirically confirmed. The goal of this effort was to answer the following research question: Is reporting quality associated with project outcomes? Our investigation consisted of two complementary survey studies. The first study considered the perceptions of status report senders; the second study considered the perceptions of status report receivers. Both studies showed that reporting quality is positively associated with task and psychological outcomes. Moreover, the second study’s results suggest that reporting quality is also related to organizational outcomes.