Governance and Ethics in Temporary Organizations: The Mediating Role of Corporate Governance

The impact of multilevel level governance on the frequency of ethical issues in temporary organizations (TOs) is investigated. A structural equation model, based on a global survey, showed that behavior control, as a governance mechanism at the temporary organization (TO) level, reduces the frequency of ethical issues. This relationship is partly mediated through corporate governance, which controls ethical issues by following good governance principles. Using institutional and agency theory, we identify a substitution effect, where micro level (TO) governance substitutes for ‘holes’ in the macro level (corporate) governance. Situational contingencies for the synchronization of governance efforts across macro and micro levels are discussed.

[1]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[2]  W. Ouchi,et al.  Organizational Control: Two Functions. , 1975 .

[3]  M. C. Jensen,et al.  Theory of the Firm , 1976 .

[4]  W. Ouchi,et al.  Types of organizational control and their relationship to emotional well being. , 1978 .

[5]  William G. Ouchi,et al.  Markets, Bureaucracies, and Clans. , 1980 .

[6]  E. Fama,et al.  Separation of Ownership and Control , 1983, The Journal of Law and Economics.

[7]  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,et al.  Control: Organizational and Economic Approaches , 1985 .

[8]  P. M. Podsakoff,et al.  Self-Reports in Organizational Research: Problems and Prospects , 1986 .

[9]  Bart Victor,et al.  The Organizational Bases of Ethical Work Climates , 1988 .

[10]  A. Demb,et al.  The corporate board: confronting the paradoxes. , 1992, Long range planning.

[11]  Jan B. Heide.  Interorganizational Governance in Marketing Channels , 1994 .

[12]  Daniel J. McAllister.  Affect- and Cognition-Based Trust as Foundations for Interpersonal Cooperation in Organizations , 1995 .

[13]  L. Hosmer.  TRUST: THE CONNECTING LINK BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY AND PHILOSOPHICAL ETHICS , 1995 .

[14]  C. Lane,et al.  The Social Constitution of Trust: Supplier Relations in Britain and Germany , 1996 .

[15]  R. Lindsay,et al.  Instilling ethical behavior in organizations: A survey of Canadian companies , 1996 .

[16]  Bart Nooteboom,et al.  Trust, Opportunism and Governance: A Process and Control Model , 1996 .

[17]  Toward a New Understanding of Moral Pluralism , 1996, Business Ethics Quarterly.

[18]  J. H. Davis,et al.  TOWARD A STEWARDSHIP THEORY OF MANAGEMENT , 1997 .

[19]  K. Eisenhardt,et al.  The Art of Continuous Change : Linking Complexity Theory and Time-Paced Evolution in Relentlessly Shifting Organizations , 1997 .

[20]  G. Stoker.  Governance as theory: five propositions , 1998 .

[21]  T. Das,et al.  Between Trust and Control: Developing Confidence in Partner Cooperation in Alliances , 1998 .

[22]  N. L. Chervany,et al.  Initial Trust Formation in New Organizational Relationships , 1998 .

[23]  D. Hendrick,et al.  Introduction , 1998, Thorax.

[24]  J. Rodney Turner,et al.  The versatile project-based organization: governance and operational control , 1999 .

[25]  A. L. Minkes,et al.  Leadership and Business Ethics: Does It Matter? Implications for Management , 1999 .

[26]  N. Luhmann.  Familiarity, Confidence, Trust: Problems and Alternatives , 2000 .

[27]  Francis L. Jeffries,et al.  Trust and Adaptation in Relational Contracting , 2000 .

[28]  Magnus Mähring.  IT project governance , 2002 .

[29]  Anoop Madhok,et al.  INFORMATION PROCESSING MODERATORS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TRUST BASED GOVERNANCE OF INTER-FIRM R & D COLLABORATION , 2002 .

[30]  J. Sydow,et al.  Knowledge, Trust, and Control: Managing Tensions and Contradictions in a Regional Network of Service Firms , 2003 .

[31]  Dawn R. Elm,et al.  The Effect of Context on Moral Intensity of Ethical Issues: Revising Jones's Issue-Contingent Model , 2003 .

[32]  R. Müller,et al.  On the nature of the project as a temporary organization , 2003 .

[33]  Jeffrey H. Dyer,et al.  The Role of Trustworthiness in Reducing Transaction Costs and Improving Performance: Empirical Evidence from the United States, Japan, and Korea , 2003 .

[34]  R. Thornton.  Mediation , 2003, Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

[35]  Anoop Madhok,et al.  Special Issue: Trust in an Organizational Context: Information Processing Moderators of the Effectiveness of Trust-Based Governance in Interfirm R&D Collaboration , 2003, Organ. Sci..

[36]  C. Branford-White.  The Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance , 2003 .

[37]  R. Bachmann,et al.  Studying Trust in Virtual Organizations , 2003 .

[38]  Chao C. Chen,et al.  Special Issue on Corporate Transformation in the People's Republic of China: Guanxi Practices and Trust in Management: A Procedural Justice Perspective , 2004, Organ. Sci..

[39]  A. Kadefors.  Trust in project relationships-inside the black box , 2004 .

[40]  Michael E. Brown,et al.  Managing to be ethical: debunking five business ethics myths , 2004, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[41]  R. Müller,et al.  Communication and co-operation on projects between the project owner as principal and the project manager as agent , 2004 .

[42]  Robert B. Cialdini,et al.  The Hidden Costs of Organizational Dishonesty , 2004 .

[43]  J. Swan,et al.  Embedding New Management Knowledge in Project-Based Organizations , 2004 .

[44]  K. Weick,et al.  Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking , 2005 .

[45]  O. P. L. C. Y. D. Económicos.  The OECD Principles of Corporate Governance , 2005 .

[46]  M. Kaptein,et al.  The Ethics of the Node versus the Ethics of the Dyad? Reconciling Virtue Ethics and Contractualism , 2006 .

[47]  Eric T. G. Wang,et al.  The influence of governance equilibrium on ERP project success , 2006, Decis. Support Syst..

[48]  John B. Cullen,et al.  Continuities and Extensions of Ethical Climate Theory: A Meta-Analytic Review , 2006 .

[49]  Jörg Sydow,et al.  How Can Systems Trust Systems? A Structuration Perspective on Trust-Building in Inter-Organizational Relations , 2006 .

[50]  S. Clegg,et al.  ‘The Ethics of Managerial Subjectivity’ , 2006 .

[51]  N. Foss,et al.  Knowledge Governance in a Dynamic Global Context: The Center for Strategic Management and Globalization at the Copenhagen Business School , 2007 .

[52]  J. H. Davis,et al.  An Integrative Model of Organizational Trust: Past, Present, and Future , 2007 .

[53]  S. Clegg,et al.  Business Ethics as Practice , 2007 .

[54]  Sushil S. Nifadkar,et al.  Great Minds in Management: The Process of Theory Development , 2007 .

[55]  W. Scott,et al.  Institutional exceptions on global projects: a process model , 2008 .

[56]  Vilmos F. Misangyi,et al.  Ending Corruption: The Interplay Among Institutional Logics, Resources, and Institutional Entrepreneurs , 2008 .

[57]  Ranjay Gulati,et al.  Interorganizational Trust, Governance Choice, and Exchange Performance , 2008, Organ. Sci..

[58]  Michael W. Morris,et al.  FROM THE HEAD AND THE HEART: LOCATING COGNITION- AND AFFECT-BASED TRUST IN MANAGERS' PROFESSIONAL NETWORKS , 2008 .

[59]  T. Hargrave.  Moral Imagination, Collective Action, and the Achievement of Moral Outcomes , 2009, Business Ethics Quarterly.

[60]  Gerard Delanty.  The Foundations of Social Theory , 2009 .

[61]  A. C. Fernando,et al.  Corporate Governance: Principles, Policies and Practices , 2009 .

[62]  S. Clegg,et al.  Embedded Ethics: Discourse and Power in the New South Wales Police Service , 2009 .

[63]  Jeffrey K. Pinto,et al.  Trust in projects: An empirical assessment of owner/contractor relationships , 2009 .

[64]  N. Foss,et al.  Governing Knowledge Sharing in Organizations: Levels of Analysis, Governance Mechanisms, and Research Directions , 2010 .

[65]  Ryan Womack,et al.  Introduction to R , 2010, IASSIST.

[66]  D. Crowther,et al.  Corporate Social Responsibility: A Broader View of Corporate Governance , 2010 .

[67]  R. Bakker.  Taking Stock of Temporary Organizational Forms : A Systematic Review and Research , 2010 .

[68]  Anne Barraquier.  Ethical Behaviour in Practice: Decision Outcomes and Strategic Implications , 2011 .

[69]  David C. Krehnke.  Corporate Governance , 2007, Information Security Management Handbook, 6th ed..

[70]  A. Sharma,et al.  IT in Governance in the 21st Century , 2011, IT Prof..

[71]  Witold J. Henisz,et al.  Toward a unified theory of project governance: economic, sociological and psychological supports for relational contracting , 2012, Public–Private Partnerships for Infrastructure Development.

[72]  Erling S. Andersen,et al.  The Interrelationship of Governance, Trust, and Ethics in Temporary Organizations , 2013 .

[73]  W. Richard Scott,et al.  The institutional environment of global project organizations , 2012 .

[74]  S. Kozlowski,et al.  Embedding Ethical Leadership within and across Organization Levels , 2012 .

[75]  Kjell Tryggestad,et al.  Perspectives on Projects , 2012 .

[76]  Kenneth H. Rose.  Book Review: Governance and Communities of PMOs , 2013 .

[77]  Marko Sarstedt,et al.  Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM): An emerging tool in business research , 2014 .

[78]  A. V. D. Ven,et al.  Process studies of change in organization and management : unveiling temporality, activity, and flow , 2013 .

[79]  Hildur Helgadottir,et al.  The ethical dimension of project management , 2014, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[80]  Eric G. Too,et al.  The management of project management: a conceptual framework for project governance , 2014 .

[81]  Øyvind Kvalnes.  Honesty in projects , 2014 .

[82]  Ralf Wilden,et al.  Multi-level project governance: Trends and opportunities , 2014 .

[83]  D. Walker,et al.  Client-side project management capabilities: dealing with ethical dilemmas , 2014 .

[84]  Christophe Bredillet,et al.  Ethics in project management : some Aristotelian insights , 2014 .

[85]  Erling S. Andersen,et al.  Ethics, Trust, and Governance in Temporary Organizations , 2014 .

[86]  W. Scott.  Institutions and organizations : ideas, interests and identities , 2014 .

[87]  Laurence Lecoeuvre,et al.  Operationalizing governance categories of projects , 2014 .

[88]  Governance and Governmentality for Projects : Enablers, Practices, and Consequences , 2016 .