Li, Y; Ning, Y and Rowlinson, S (2023) Social control in outsourced architectural and engineering design consulting projects: Behavioral consequences and motivational mechanism. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 149(4): 04023004, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Although social control is the preferable control strategy in projects with low-level outcome measurability and behavior observability, empirical evidence for its effectiveness in such cases is sparse. To fill the knowledge gap, this study explores whether social control is effective in the alleged applicable contexts, taking outsourced architectural and engineering (A/E) design consulting projects as the empirical setting. A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data. The results show that social control fosters designers' in-role and extra-role behaviors directly or indirectly through enhancing their autonomous motivation. High-level formal controls may weaken the positive effects of social control on design behaviors. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by adding a social-psychological perspective to organizational control research and by providing empirical evidence for the effectiveness of social control in outsourced A/E design consulting projects. It also offers managerial implications in properly arranging control strategies in outsourced A/E design consulting projects.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | architectural and engineering design consulting projects; autonomous motivation; design behavior; formal control; self-determination theory; social control |
| Index terms: | strategy, organizational control, motivation, survey, social control, body of knowledge, evidence, self-determination, questionnaire, designer, design behaviour, engineering design, effectiveness |
| Subjects: | cognitive psychology, social justice, performance management, management, design process, psychology, knowledge management, business, data collection methods, evaluation and assessment methods, profession, human factors and perception |
| Topics: | Business Strategy, Research Practice, Information Management, Roles and Professions, Digital Applications, Quality Management, Ethics, Human Resources, Organizational Design |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here