R&D Project Teams: Control Mechanisms and Knowledge Integration Practices

Purpose - The purpose of the paper is to analyse how the organizational control mechanisms adopted within project teams in R&D settings influence the effectiveness of knowledge integration processes. In our research we analysed the functioning of project teams within an organization operating in the industry of turn-key devices for power plants. Our unit of analysis is the project team, a setting where it is possible to identify the presence of knowledge integration practices (Fong, 2004; Huang and Newell, 2003) and the implementation of control mechanisms (Clegg, Courpasson, 2004). The concept of knowledge integration practices refers to the joint exploitation of distributed knowledge in a way which permits the access to, and utilisation of, individuals' specialised knowledge in undertaking a collective effort (Enberg, 2007). The project team is a highly specialized knowledge setting where people with different competencies work together in order to get to a common goal. Design/methodology/approach - The research unfolded considering a single case study, as this approach was considered useful in gaining in-depth, holistic understanding of the phenomenon studied, and in general is a preferred method when an organization finds itself in a new or peculiar situation, and special characteristics of this situation are to be studied (Yin, 1984). In order to investigate the relationship between control mechanisms and knowledge integration processes we decided to conduct semi-structured interviews, standardising the most important questions, concerning 1) the use of different typologies of control mechanisms, 2) the nature and the characteristics of the relationship between control mechanisms and knowledge integration practices. We chose a company working in the construction of turn-key devices for power generation plants operate in a very competitive industry, in which the peculiarities of the industrial product development process, and the number of suppliers involved, trigger complex and mutually interdependent R&D projects. Highly expensive industrial projects are typically led by a steering company that has developed over the years a strong competence in mastering the processes applied in the products to be supplied, and in integrating different knowledge bases (Lampel et al., 1996). Originality/value - There is a little of research focused on the topic of relationship between organizational control mechanisms and knowledge integration practices (Ditillo, 2004; Nieminen and Lehtonen, 2008). Our paper tries to fill the gap of empirical studies on the topic. Our initial investigation witnesses that, in highly structured heavyweight project settings, formal control mechanisms may instead play the role of administering information exchange in order to achieve outcomes and effective knowledge integration. Practical implications - The implications of this study to project managers are primarily related to the interconnectedness of control mechanisms and knowledge integration practices. Different control mechanisms can be used to support knowledge integration. However, it is important that the alternative mechanisms are coherent and not conflicting.