**11. Situational incompetence**

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

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.

aligns with the observations of narcissism in leadership positions.

tent but less-confident colleague.

isfactory outcomes where:

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

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 compe-

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 unsat-

in Human Resources.

40 Dark Sides of Organizational Behavior and Leadership

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 identified in the literature.

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 test theories against observable project related behaviour.

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 they were presented with.

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 trying to hold the vendor to its contract), were interfering in the project senior executives of the Department ordered their removal, at the specific request of the vendor. No credibility was assigned to the concerns of the departmental staff, and no investigation appears to have been undertaken by senior management as to why the vendor was unhappy.

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

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Engelbrecht et al. [15] suggests that inexperienced managers will seek advice and guidance from inappropriate sources. Kruger and Dunning [44] offer the observation that the Unskilled and Unware [45] are incapable of identifying their own failings, incapable of independently observing and learning from the competence of others, and incapable of identifying competence in others.

These findings have led this researcher to postulate a new theory: Situational Incompetence.

Situational Incompetence applies when an otherwise experienced executive is placed in a position of authority or accountability for which they lack experience, training or specific skills. In this new role they are effectively incompetent and incapable of providing reasoned advice, guidance or management.

Situational Incompetence has implication for how leaders are selected for complex tasks requiring specialist IT domain knowledge and technical competence, it may also apply to the disciplines requiring specific knowledge of the technology in that domain (e.g. accounting, medicine, engineering, science).

Kruger and Dunning point to potential approaches to remediate this failing. They experimented with providing simple mathematical training to unskilled test subjects which resulted in marked improvements in their ability to recognise competence in others, and to more accurately assess their anticipated performance on a comparison scale.

It is proposed that future research test this theory and apply specific training in information technology to senior executives and measure the impact that has on project outcomes for which those executives have a governance, oversight and user-engagement accountability.

'Someone implementing IT needs to know which levers to pull, in which context, and at what time' [58]. `uring out which levers to pull, in which context and at what time requires competence and the intuition borne of experience - without this we are left with Situational Incompetence.
