Control Style Matters: Improving control Agreement and Transmission in Internal Information Systems Development Projects

This study draws on the idea that in information systems development (ISD) projects not all formal controls transmit consistently from project managers to team members. And even if team members understand enacted controls properly, there is no guarantee that they will agree with those, potentially leading to resistance behaviors and hindering project progress. Still little is known about what project managers can do to improve control transmission and agreement in an attempt to drive task and eventually project performance. Based on matched-pair survey data of 83 project manager-team member dyads, our study offers empirical evidence that ISD project managers’ use of an enabling control style significantly improves the consistent transmission of outcome control and the agreement on behaviour control. Further, we find that consistent outcome control transmission and behaviour control agreement are associated with an increase in team members’ task performance. Our study extends existing research by investigating the effects of control transmission and agreement at the individual level, as well as by emphasizing the important role of an enabling control style in ensuring that ISD project managers and team members are ‘on the same page.’

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