Resistant Use of Project Management Methodologies - Using Psychology to Rethink the Influence of Methodology Attributes

Even though practitioners and researchers generally agree that project management methodologies are very useful in managing IT-related projects, organizations are rarely able to motivate their staff to use them. Even when employees use these methodologies, the question of how they are being used still remains. To better understand the way in which employees use project management methodologies, we develop the construct “resistant use.” Applying a diffusion of innovations perspective, we develop a conceptual model to examine how methodology attributes interact with users psychological needs to influence a user’s resistant use behavior. Based on a sample size of 2645 participants, and using the structural equation modeling technique, we find that a user’s need for achievement and need for cognition moderate the impact of project management methodologies' attributes (relative advantage, complexity, and compatibility) on their resistant usage behavior.