Coercive and Enabling Controls in the Governance of Strategic Alliances

Abstract

The way governance structures and control instruments are designed (Adler & Borys, 1996) and enacted in strategic alliances can influence the development of such relationships. Controls can become coercive or enabling depending on how they are designed and used (Jordan & Messner, 2012). We draw upon the framework of coercive and enabling controls introduced by Adler and Borys (1996) to illustrate the changes in control orientations over time in tandem with some other developments in a particular case study (a long term outsourcing contract) regarding the management of facility services. Our analysis suggests that the key-persons (those who represent their organizations in a strategic alliance) and their ways of working are influential in generating a coercive or enabling orientation in control design and use. The chapter highlights how unexpected changes in key persons shaped control orientations over time. More specifically, it is shown how a change