Effect of project role, age and gender differences on the formation and revision of project decision judgements

• We examine how demography impacts the forming and revision of project judgements.
• We find that project judgements are not independent of project stage.
• We find that project role and practitioner age impact on project judgements.
• We find that gender does not have a significant effect on project judgements.

In this study, the authors examine how demographic variables such as project role, age and gender moderate the formation and revision of explicit decision judgements in a project by practitioners over the lifecycle of that project. Understanding the impact of these moderating factors on decisions made by project management practitioners can contribute to more effective managerial decision making; for example when decisions are being taken on whether or not to abandon a project. Empirical data are obtained from a quantitative survey of 1313 project management practitioners across seven countries. Data analysis is undertaken using log-linear modelling in SAS9.2. The results show that while project role and age of practitioners served as influencing factors when forming or revising decision judgements at any stage in the lifecycle, gender was not found to show any significant effect.1