Project Management, Internal Contracts and Dynamics of Organizations

The increasing complexity of certain projects gives rise to new types of internal contracts inside the firm. These should be seen as supports aimed at better controlling the balance between centralization and decentralization. They can also be seen as means of conciliating planning and learning issues, necessary to co-ordinate interdependant activities in a very uncertain environment. In order to analyze these new types of contracts, the authors present a case study. This concerns French firm in the car industry, in which they followed, and contributed to, the setting up of contracts to better master new car design processes.