Models of enterprise-level project performance: Comparative studies of organizational form, control mode and feedback mechanisms in the construction and it services industries

This thesis consists of a series of three studies from a research program into the management of information systems projects. Its primary focus is organizational level factors that influence project performance. Because of the limited theory development at organizational-level project management, the approach taken is exploratory. It starts with a multiple case study approach (Chapter 2) identifying the organizational form that supports project management. The following two studies (Chapters 3 and 4) take a quantitative approach to explore the relationships between specific organizational factors and project performance. Chapter 1 defines the research questions, discusses the theoretical context and describes the structure of the thesis. The three studies in Chapters 2 to 4 are written as independent research papers, but are linked through common themes. Chapter 2 identifies organizational arrangements that support project management based on case studies and semi-structured interviews. Chapter 3 investigates the relationship between organizational control modes, task programmability, output measurability and project performance. Chapter 4 examines the contingent relationships between project sponsor, project review, project office and project performance. Chapters 3 and 4 are based on surveys of senior managers in Australian construction and IT services companies. This thesis is grounded in two central themes that are important to improving IT project performance and for which theory is relatively under-developed. One is developing and testing frameworks that link organizational level managerial factors with contingency factors and the overall project performance. The other is identifying paths for improving IS project performance based on the frameworks established. Chapter 5 integrates these themes, synthesizes and extends findings from Chapters 2 to 4, and develops a general framework that incorporates the effects of organizational control modes (Chapter 3), feedback mechanisms (Chapter 4 ), and the enabling effects of feedback mechanisms on control modes.