Social Control in Outsourced Architectural and Engineering Design Consulting Projects: Behavioral Consequences and Motivational Mechanism

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.