“互补”还是“替代”?——关系治理、正式治理与项目绩效

Complements or Substitutes?——Relational Governance,Formal Governance,and Software Project Performance

关系治理是广为我国各行业应用并得到认可的重要治理手段,目前在关系治理和正式治理对项目绩效作用的研究中形成了"互补关系"和"替代关系"两类争论性的观点,为揭示两类关系在项目治理中的作用发挥过程及其互动机理,选择能够反映关系治理本质、并对关系治理具有独特依赖性的定制软件项目数据作为分析对象,实证结果表明:正式治理在关系治理和项目绩效间起部分中介作用;关系治理对正式治理的正向影响受信任的反向调节;信任同时调节两类关系的作用发挥,即信任程度越高,关系治理通过正式治理对项目绩效的间接影响就越弱,体现"替代关系",信任程度越低,正式治理的中介作用就越强,呈现"互补关系"。该结论有效地诠释了两类关系并非矛盾的作用发挥的内在规律,为关系治理理论研究提供补充。

Despite compelling arguments for viewing relational governance and formal governance as substitutes or complements,little researches present what and how （they）affect the two different relations.Either,most researches about governance focus on the enterprise governance,and we have limited knowledge about the project governance,especially in software project.This study aims to investigate the effect of relational governance and formal governance on software project performance in China,and the role of trust in the relations.A total of 286 software project managers from east-center China were surveyed with questionnaires, including Relational Governance （Relational Norms,Specific Investments and Conflict Resolution）,Formal Governance,Project Performance and Trust. Results were as follows： Formal governance partially mediated the relationship between relational governance and project performance. Trust moderated the relationship between relational governance and formal governance.The indirect effect of relational governance on project performance was much weaker with higher trust level.Thus,trust could moderate the substitutive relation and complementary relation between relational governance and formal governance.