Title: Ongoing performance, resource slack and risk perceptions in projects

Authors: Hélène Delerue; Hélène Sicotte

Addresses: Department of Management, ESG-UQAM, Montreal, Canada ' Department of Management, ESG-UQAM, Montreal, Canada

Abstract: A project may be conceived as a coalition of absorbed and unabsorbed resources that are allocated by the organisation. As such, a project may be subject to constraints in terms of certain resources combined with excesses (i.e., resource slack) in terms of others. This paper builds on the behavioural theory and the prospect theory to understand the role of resource slack in projects by exploring: 1) how distinct bundles of absorbed and unabsorbed slack influence project managers' risk perceptions; 2) how the impact of slack on risk perceptions differs according to ongoing project performance. Hypotheses are tested by regression analysis in a sample of 106 project managers. The results show complex effects of project slack on project managers' risk perceptions.

Keywords: ongoing performance; absorbed resource slack; unabsorbed resource slack; risk perception.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPOM.2023.134967

International Journal of Project Organisation and Management, 2023 Vol.15 No.4, pp.451 - 477

Received: 14 Jan 2022
Received in revised form: 02 Aug 2022
Accepted: 25 Aug 2022
Published online: 22 Nov 2023 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article