Managerial Control Over IT Projects: Control, Forms, Commitment, and Dominant Coalitions

This research in progress addresses how managers engage in controlling IT projects, which can be seen as an instance of a classical problem in organizational control: managing sensibly in situations where subordinates have superior task knowledge. Theories used in the study include control theory, theories on commitment and escalation, and theories on IS implementation. An in-depth, retrospective, interpretive case study forms the empirical basis of the study. Preliminary results include the importance of input control as a control form and the role of a dominant coalition of controllers. The functioning of the dominant coalition, as it evolves, is closely associated with the organizational commitment to an IT project. Findings on the influence of the project leader (controllee) over managers (controllers) indicate limitations of management control