Innovating the Practice of Normative Control in Project Management Contractual Relations

Abstract

In the chapter we begin by considering the institution of contract and approaches to it. We follow this with an analysis of an institutional innovation, the development of alliancing as a specific form of contract premised on a far more normative mode of control than the disciplinary mechanisms of surveillance which have traditionally been seen as more typically associated with conventional contracts. A new way of managing projects is evolving, as we report in this chapter. We consider some of its advantages as well as some of its disadvantages.