Enacting Clan Control in Complex IT Projects: A Social Capital Perspective

Abstract

The information technology project control literature has documented that clan control is often essential in complex multistakeholder projects for project success. However, instituting clan control in such conditions is challenging as people come to a project with diverse skills and backgrounds. There is often insufficient time for clan control to develop naturally. This paper investigates the question, "How can clan control be enacted in complex IT projects?" Recognizing social capital as a resource, we conceptualize a clan as a group with strong social capital (i.e., where its members have developed their structural, cognitive, and relational ties to the point that they share common values and beliefs and are committed to a set of peer norms). We theorize that the enactment of clan control is a dual process of (1) building the clan by developing its social capital dimensions (structural, cognitive, and relational ties) or reappropriating social capital from elsewhere and (2) leveraging the clan by reinforcing project-facilitating shared values, beliefs, and norms, and inhibiting those that impede the achievement of project goals. We explore how clan control was enacted in a large IT project at a major logistics organization in which clan control was quickly instituted to avoid an impending project failure. Our research contributes to theory in three ways: (1) we reconcile the two differing views of clan control into a single framework, (2) we explain the role of controllers in enacting clan control, and (3) we clarify how formal control can be employed to develop clan control.

The effective promotion of informal control in information systems offshoring projects

“…Informal control promotion in IS offshoring projects Previous research has found that deployment of clan control fosters social cohesion and norm-based alignment of behaviours in (IS) project teams, facilitating project team success (Kirsch 1996(Kirsch , 1997Ouchi, 1980;Chua et al, 2012). Recent studies show that clan control can be successfully promoted not only in internal project contexts (Kirsch et al, 2010) but also in distant offshore settings (Persson et al, 2012).…”

“…These common IS project attributes are enhanced in the context of IS offshoring projects, which require cooperation between two distant organizations, and where complexity and uncertainty on both sides of the relationship are channelled through the client-vendor interface. Here, clan control can be particularly useful, partly because it facilitates cooperation and partly because clan control improves control adaptiveness, thus positively affecting project performance (Kirsch et al, 2002;Kirsch, 2004;Kohli & Kettinger, 2004;Chua et al, 2012). First, successfully promoted clan control between the client and vendor managers fosters continuous communication and bilateral knowledge transfer (Kirsch et al, 2010).…”

“…In this study, we therefore view clan control as the mechanisms the client manager uses to cultivate a work environment with the vendor contact conducive to aligning behaviours. In such an environment, shared norms and values supportive to the project are retained and reinforced, whereas norms and values that impede the achievement of project goals are inhibited (Chua et al, 2012). For example, client managers can actively participate in project meetings or promote mutual site visits in order to cultivate shared goals, norms, and values.…”

“…Formal controls involve the specification and evaluation of desired behaviours and outcomes (Ouchi, 1979), whereas informal controls rely on social or people-based strategies (Kirsch et al, 2002;Choudhury & Sabherwal, 2003). Although formal mechanisms often dominate the control portfolio, there is strong consensus on the importance of informal control mechanisms (Kirsch, 2004;Kohli & Kettinger, 2004;Jaworski, 1988;Chua et al, 2012). For instance, Kirsch (2004) shows that the addition of informal controls to the control portfolio can help mitigate cultural and priority differences between organizational units in the context of globally distributed IS projects.…”

Getting the Right Balance in IS Project Management: Seven Guidelines for an Equal Emphasis on the Sociocultural Aspects

“…A review of journal publications 2011 and 2012 reveals a number of case studies that draw attention to their neglect. For example, [1] discusses the importance of 'collective mindfulness' including "continuous learning from failures and the willingness to consider alternative perspectives in developing complex sociotechnical systems", [2] discuss how 'clan control' is "often essential in complex multistakeholder projects for project success", [3] discusses "different societal and organizational cultures" in their action research projects, [4] draws attention to the importance of strategic alignment in their field study in 24 large Canadian companies: "the alignment of the IT function with business objectives must not only be understood, but constantly renewed and adjusted", [5] find that in their cases "rule-bending (rule-breaking) and partial-use (totally bypassing systems) can be behaviors that are primarily associated with work ethos and material constraints of work", [6] advises that "managers should plan strategies to construct and present an appropriate image of the system, in which stakeholders perceive that it meets their needs", and finally [7] reports on "influence of supervisors, performance evaluation schemes, intrinsic motivation, and perceived usefulness" as key drivers to success" in their case studies,…”