Management control systems in project management - A case study analysis

Abstract

Contingency theory has been widely used in management accounting research especially focusing on the management control systems. However, the contingency theory approach has not been widely used to examine control systems in multi-project organization. This case study utilizes the contingency theory to examine the role of management control systems in project management and project risk management. This study examines four project contingencies (project size, time schedule, customer and technology) and how they impact the style of use of the control systems in project management.

This study is a qualitative in nature and it is conducted through semi-structured interviews. Semi-structured interview method allows a natural flow of the interviews as well as the interviewees to highlight their own opinions about the examined topics. Using a multi-project organization as the case organization allows a much larger base for observations since multi project organizations rely on the ability to complete a number of projects simultaneously.

The results of this study found that the control systems play a significant role in project management which is inline with the findings of previous studies examining the role of control systems in project management. The findings of this study suggests that the style of use of the control systems is significantly dependent on the lifecycle stage of the project and the examined contingencies had only minor impacts on the overall project management processes. The examined contingencies also impacted the style of use of the control systems but the impacts where only minor and usually a combination of the examined contingencies resulted in the shift in the style of use of the control systems.