**10. Narcissism and leadership competence**

of their lack of competence, generally perceive their performance to be not significantly infe-

This phenomena has also been described as the Unskilled and Unaware Problem (UUP) [45]. Essentially UUP argues that individuals that are unskilled in a particular domain overestimate their own competence in both absolute terms and relative terms. Top performers underestimate their absolute and relative performance. Kruger and Dunning [44] found that an unskilled person was more likely to dramatically misstate their absolute and relative competence. Ehrlinger et al. [46] have argued that UUP is a persistent feature of decision-making. Furthermore, and potentially much more concerning for complex IT projects, Kruger and Dunning [44] determined that the skills necessary to do the job, are the same skills necessary to identify competence in others. This facet of the UUP research is particularly important when an unskilled individual is placed in a position of decision-making authority, in this case with respect to an IT Project. Where an unskilled individual possesses neither the skills necessary to do the job, nor the skills necessary to identify competence in others they are not in a position to make informed decisions on complex issues. The application of this principle to the Queensland Health Payroll project would suggest that the Executive Director, the Department Secretary, and the governance boards lacked the skills needed to identify competence in others, and to comprehend informed advice when it was provided, preferring instead

Engelbrecht et al. [15] aimed to 'identify whether a causal relationship exists between the various components of business managers' IT competence and IT success'. What they found was that a 'business managers' IT competence can, and does, exert a substantial influence on project success'. They reported a 'surprising' finding where a lack of knowledge or competence was likely to have a negative impact on project outcomes, 'although one would have expected a positive relationship and a positive impact, it has been reported that the involvement of non-IT stakeholders can actually work detrimentally and confound and confuse proceedings,

Engelbrecht et al. [15] also found that 'business managers may be influenced by some suppliers or colleagues to whose IT knowledge they had access, and insist on a certain course of action. If that business manager is particularly influential in an organisation, then there could be similar confusions, delays, and even inappropriate decisions'. This finding is reflective of the behaviours referred to in the Witness Statements. The senior executives of Queensland Health deferred to the advice of the vendor, rather than their own staff. The researcher in this instance has neither the data nor the training to consider the role of amoral actors in this project, and has elected instead to make the assumption that the entire collective management must have been acting with the best intent for the Department (even if individual actors may have been compromised). This leads the researcher to conclude that it is a lack of knowledge of information technology projects, and the executives inability to parse the information being presented that lays the foundations of a theory to explain how the Queensland Health payroll

Given the importance of information technologies to business success, and their presence in almost every endeavour, one would expect to see an increase in technically literate, skilled or experienced managements to provide effective oversight and governance. Coertze and von-Solms [47] found that 10% of organisations had Chief Information Officer (CIO) or equivalent

rior to those who possess significant competence, training and ability (the experts).

38 Dark Sides of Organizational Behavior and Leadership

to rely upon those with similar personality attributes as themselves.

project became so dysfunctional and ended in failure.

even causing errors'.

Narcissism, in modern terms has been defined as 'a person who possesses an extreme love of the self, a grandiose sense of self-importance, and a powerful sense of entitlement' [49], and while generally applied to individuals, the concept of narcissistic personalities has also been applied to groups and organisations [50]. Of significance in this research is that 'the narcissistic personality is characterised by the denial of a difference between the ideal and the actual self' [50] which segues directly into the studies of competence versus confidence by Kruger and Dunning [44] and Ryvkin, Krajc and Ortmann [45]. The narcissistic leader that holds 'very inflated self-views and (is) preoccupied with having those self-views continuously reinforced [51], was a behaviour which was evident on the Queensland Health payroll project, where the evidence suggested that the project was in trouble this was discounted or ignored because it did not fit the 'self-image' of the project leader that everything was under control.

Narcissistic leaders in organisations are more likely to engage in behaviour which might lead to failing standards and reduced ethical and moral behaviour [52] which could be seen to be an antecedent for the 'normalisation of deviance'. As standards fall, decision by decision, what is considered normal behaviour slowly erodes until a 'new normal' gradually and almost imperceptibly emerges.

Narcissism is growing and becoming more prevalent and we can expect to see an increase in organisational narcissism as a direct consequence. Twenge and Foster [53] found that 'there has been a 30% tilt towards narcissistic attitudes in US students since 1979', and that 'The Narcissism Epidemic' [54] breeds 'the idea that being highly self-confident is the key to success'. Twenge and Campbell [55] were at pains to point out that there is no correlation between confidence and successful outcomes. Kremer [54] reported that 'over 15,000 journal articles have examined the links between high self-esteem and measurable outcomes in real life, such as educational achievement, job opportunities, popularity, health, happiness and adherence to laws and social codes' and found no correlation or causation. Highly confident, narcissistic project leaders are likely to exhibit behaviours that would put projects at risk. They over-estimate their own abilities, and are incapable of observing competence in others and learning by observing others. Narcissistic project leaders will be 'blind' to evidence that does not support their distorted view of their own abilities and of the status of the project for which they are accountable.

'Over the last 30 years confidence has replaced competence' [54]. Positive thinking has replaced knowledge. An increase in narcissism correlates with the unskilled and unaware problem (UUP) in that 'individuals become so self-obsessed they cannot identify their own weaknesses or learn from others' [44]. This narcissistic self-belief and confidence may go some way to explain why an executive with little knowledge of information technology and no formal training or experience in information technology would agree to take on the responsibility of running 'the largest organisational reform undertaken within the State Government' [28]. When it comes to the QHP project, it was stated very clearly by the Deputy-Secretary of the Department that the Executive-Director was not skilled in information technology but was a very experienced people manager with greater than 30 years in the public sector [56] mostly in Human Resources.

• managers who lack domain expertise will act the part that they perceive they need to adopt; • these managers tend to be incapable of identifying the skilled and competent individuals

Situational Incompetence: An Investigation into the Causes of Failure of a Large-Scale IT Project

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76791

41

• these managers will not have the cognitive or experiential tools to determine an appropri-

• these managers are likely to confuse confidence with competence and may be subject to

In summary, the Queensland Health Payroll project was potentially placed at significant risk by failing to appoint management, governance and oversight that comprised sufficient domain expertise appropriately matched to the size, complexity and nature of the project.

The question of most concern to this researcher has been to uncover why, despite all of the preceding research, publications, education, training and certification that is available to individuals and organisations undertaking project management of an information technology system, a project could still display all of the mistakes, errors and failings that have been

In order to understand what occurred on the Queensland Health payroll project, a case study analysis was undertaken following a multi-grounded theory approach. The purpose of the research being conducted in this manner was to allow themes to emerge from the data, and to

The theme that was the most consistent throughout the project was that senior management was repeatedly made aware of project risks and failings. Reports had been written about the whole-of-government project prior to the creation of the Queensland Health project that specifically enumerated the challenges and risks that needed to be kept front-of-mind to the QH project team [30, 57]. The literature provided no plausible explanation to describe the fact that senior executives responsible for the direct execution of the project, and departmental executives with governance and oversight accountability apparently ignored all of the advice that

What emerged from the data was that the executives in charge of the project, those executives that operated above the hands-on technical level, were manifestly incompetent when it came to issues of information systems project management. The executives simply did not understand the information that was being presented to them, and interpreted professional concerns raised by Queensland Health team members as 'personality conflicts'. These executives were presented with several formal reports outlining risks and issues, and acted in a manner that under conventional wisdom, would defy rational explanation - the witness statements and project documents provide no evidence of any action being taken to address the issues raised. In fact, when the vendor complained that employees of Queensland Health (that were

ate course of action when faced with a project related crisis; and

that can be trusted for expert advice;

**11. Situational incompetence**

identified in the literature.

they were presented with.

undue influence by other incompetent actors.

test theories against observable project related behaviour.

The potential risk that this lack of (Information Technology) domain expertise causes for Information Technology projects generally, and the Queensland Health project as a specific example is encapsulated by the Dunning-Kruger Effect, 'that incompetent individuals lack the metacognitive skills that enable them to tell how poorly they are performing, and as a result, they come to hold inflated views of their performance and ability'. They are therefore potentially prone to ignore mounting evidence of their contribution to project related issues, to over-estimate their own ability to diagnose and resolve issues, and to listen to and take advice from unreliable sources. All of which were evident in the witness statements.

Of even greater concern is the UUP findings [45] that not only do the domain illiterate individuals tend to overestimate their own ability relative to their actual performance, they are also at risk of being deficient in identifying relevant domain competence in others, 'participants who scored in the bottom quartile were less able to gauge the competence of others than were their top-quartile counterparts' [44]. Furthermore, they found that 'incompetent individuals fail to gain insight into their own incompetence by observing the behaviour of other people. Despite seeing the superior performances of their peers, bottom-quartile participants continued to hold the mistaken impression that they had performed just fine' [44], which also aligns with the observations of narcissism in leadership positions.

A possible explanation contributing to the Queensland Health Payroll project failure is that where managers are not technically competent, but perceive themselves as managerially capable, not only are they potentially at risk of overestimating their own ability and underestimating the relative competence of the skilled workers on the project, they do not have the skills to discern the quality of advice being given to them. Essentially, the evidence suggests that they are at high risk of not being able to assess the difference between the veracity of a confident but incompetent colleague or vendor providing advice, in comparison to a competent but less-confident colleague.

These managerial perceptions about domain expertise, confidence and competence carry the risk of significant contribution to poor project management decision-making and governance with implications for overall project failure and success. The decision-making senior project manager with accountability, responsibility and authority needs to be able to assess the information provided to them in order to make well-informed decisions. It is contended in the interpretation of the QH project data presented in this study that the consequences of placing domain-challenged persons in positions of project-critical authority is likely to lead to unsatisfactory outcomes where:


In summary, the Queensland Health Payroll project was potentially placed at significant risk by failing to appoint management, governance and oversight that comprised sufficient domain expertise appropriately matched to the size, complexity and nature of the project.
