Factors Influencing Controllees\u27 Congruence and Willingness to Comply With Control Mechanisms in IS Projects

Control is typically seen as a dyadic relationship, meaning that there is a controller who exercises control over another person, the controllee. Until now, research in the field of IS project control mainly focused on the controller perspective, covering aspects like control choices and its effects on project performance. This unilateral research focus has led to gaps regarding the controllee’s perspective on control mechanisms - neglecting influence of the controllee’s resulting behavior on control efficiency and effectiveness. The ongoing research presented in this paper therefore aims at investigating the factors that determine congruence between controller and controllee in an IS project setting. For this purpose, a quantitative vignette study will be conducted as an approach that is able to combine the advantages of both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Potential findings include a considerable impact of a controllee’s congruence on compliance with IS project control mechanisms. Maximizing the level of congruence could improve IS project control efficiency and effectiveness and thus help increasing IS project success