Abstract
Multinational organisations continue to operate and invest in Information Technology (IT) projects across numerous national borders in order to expand the business operations, increase performance and meet the needs of stakeholders. The implementation of global IT projects requires adherence to multiple governance frameworks, as well as appropriately managing stakeholders’ expectations. It is evident that the implementation of governance frameworks is still not followed in most of the multinational organisations. Meeting the heterogeneous stakeholders’ needs and expectations across different countries, adds to the complexity of managing global IT projects. This study explores the multinational organisations’ perceptions and practices of the governance and stakeholder management practices in global IT projects. The study examined the key governance structures followed during the implementation of global IT projects. It determined what key stakeholders required from the governance structures for global IT project performance and how they were managed. In order to establish the relationship of the governance frameworks and stakeholder management, a conceptual framework was developed to ensure global IT project performance. A qualitative method was used in this study to collect the data. Interviews were conducted with project managers and practitioners, who had implemented global IT projects for multinational organisations. The data were analysed using Atlas.ti. Causal loop diagrams were developed to determine the causal relationship between the performance factors. The key findings of this study were that governance structures, global factors and stakeholder management processes were inseparable when managing global IT projects. The theoretical implication of this findings are that both local and foreign governance frameworks, as well as the stakeholders in the global perspectives, are key for global IT project performance. The practical implications of this findings is that proposed conceptual framework provided a good understanding for project managers to proactively identify, analyse, engage and monitor the key stakeholders from the corporate governance-, IT governance- and project governance frameworks, as well as the global factors.
Ph.D. (Information Technology Management)