Managing I/S design teams: a control theories perspective
Management Science
Three Controls are Better than One: A Computational Model of Complex Control Systems
Computational & Mathematical Organization Theory
Portfolios of Control in Outsourced Software Development Projects
Information Systems Research
Balancing and Rebalancing in the Creation and Evolution of Organizational Control
Organization Science
Deploying Common Systems Globally: The Dynamics of Control
Information Systems Research
The Matrix of Control: Combining Process and Structure Approaches to Managing Software Development
Journal of Management Information Systems
Large scale project team building: beyond the basics
Communications of the ACM
Controlling ERP consultants: Client and provider practices
Journal of Systems and Software
Exploring the interaction effects of social capital
Information and Management
Social Capital in Management Information Systems Literature
Journal of Information Technology Research
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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.