PhD student in Information Systems and Innovation
Research Interests
Thesis: 'An Exploration of the IT Outsourcing Relationship: Greek and UK Case Comparison'
Drawing from the inter-organisational relationship literature, most research on the IT outsourcing relationship has treated the contractual and the relational dimension of the venture as two distinct aspects of governance. On this basis, it was argued that, while the contract as a formal control mechanism is a very important element in the governance of the venture, there are relational norms such as trust and commitment that may become substitutes of the contract. The argument was that these relational norms manifest a form of social control that was equally important in directing individual behaviours.
Along these lines, a number of authors argued that the combined use of formal and relational governance is fundamentally problematic. Their reasoning was that formal contracts signal distrust and relational governance is based on trust. Contrary to this substitution position, other authors demonstrated that contracts and relational governance could actually function as complements. These conflicting results indicate a need to explore further the interplay between contractual and relational forms of governance; this is the departure point for my research.
The major point of distinction between my study and previous literature is the consideration of contracts not as mechanistic transactional devices, but as social artefacts that carry both technical and symbolic properties. More specifically, I will concentrate on the examination of how the disciplinary mechanisms of the contract are interpreted and how this interpretation is affecting management practices and organisational routines.
Supervisor