Understanding process of management control changes in hybrid organisational contracts

Zaidi, Ume

Abstract

Motivated by controversial public and private sector hybrid organisational relationships and, more broadly, by repeated calls regarding control and management of hybrid organisational relationships, this thesis is concerned with the understanding process of changes in management controls of Street Lighting Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract. In particular, it aims to illuminate the process by which emergent form of management control problem, performance measure issue, managed in operational PFI contract under the umbrella of ‘contract modernisation’. In doing so, the process of ‘contract modernisation’ was viewed as a hybrid process as it enabled lateral communication and collaboration between PFI actors. The theoretical framework for this study draws broadly on the sociology of science and technology literature and is specifically grounded in translation, boundary objects and irreversibility concepts of actor-network theory. Complementing this framework, I adopted a qualitative research approach using unstructured interviews supplemented by internal documents that actors used during the change process. Research participants are County Council and Service Provider actors directly involved in the day-to-day operations of the Street Lighting PFI project. My empirical analysis broadly concluded with respect to managing performance measure changes in PFI contract that: the process of establishing the ‘existence’ of performance measure problem plays an important role in the identification of various actors’ lack of understanding of hybrid organisational contracts and incorporated management controls; actors’ ‘desire for a sustainable relationship’ is subject to change and negotiations over time; actors in hybrid relations change approaches from contractual to relational depending upon the practicalities of the situation; actors successfully stabilised hybrid relationship through the relational mechanism of reciprocity; hybrid management controls measures introduced under modernised contract unintentionally contributed towards environmental sustainability through the reduction in carbon emission and in doing so, created value beyond hybrid organisational boundaries.

Citation

Zaidi, U. (2023). Understanding process of management control changes in hybrid organisational contracts. (Thesis). Keele University

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Jul 19, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 19, 2023
• Award Date: 2023-06