Purpose
This paper aims to examine the levers of control (LOC) framework in the context of managing projects. The authors explore the impact of diagnostic systems, interactive systems, beliefs systems and boundary systems on project performance and explore the association between control levers.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data gathered from 113 project managers representing 38 organizations, the authors used the partial least squares path modelling algorithm to analyse the data.
Findings
The analysis validates the LOC framework in the context of managing projects and reveals the interrelatedness of control systems and their impact on project performance.
Research limitations/implications
The conclusions support the current emphasis on performance reporting and change control and highlight the need to consider the interdependencies between control levers.
Originality/value
This study re-conceptualizes project control by using the LOC framework in the context of managing projects as temporary organizations. This provides a model for investigating and understanding project management control systems that consider the interaction of control mechanisms. Furthermore, the associations between the four control systems and project performance are examined, rather than individual mechanisms in isolation.
This paper explores the accountability relationship between the Government of Canada and First Nations Bands arising from Program Devolution. Reporting requirements associated with this relationship have been characterized in a 2002 Report of the Auditor General of Canada as burdensome and of little use to many of the First Nations communities that are compelled to meet them. This study examines the reporting requirements used in the Auditor General ’s report and drawing on institutional theory and accountability literature develops a theoretically informed argument positioning Program Devolution, as it was practiced, as a colonizing undertaking that undermines self-government.<br /><br />
This article presents an historical study of the accounting issues and challenges arising from the creation of a new nation, the Dominion of Canada. We document the issues associated with combining the accounting of three separate pre-confederation political entities and describe how the first accounting system for Canada was put in place. The study identifies significant challenges resulting from a lack of formal accounting policies, the settling of accounts between the provinces and the new dominion, accounting for the division of responsibilities between the federal and provincial governments, and the poor quality of accounts from the former provinces. This study reveals that Canada’s first accounting system was not developed specifically for the new nation despite the creation of a new political entity, but was inherited from one of the former pre-confederation provinces.
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