A stakeholder salience perspective on performance and management control systems in non-profit organisations

Abstract

This paper explores the role of management’s perceptions of stakeholder salience in the management of performance in non-profit organisations (NPOs) providing social services. We present a case study of two such NPOs providing intellectual disability services in Ireland to address our research questions; how do NPO managers perceive the importance of stakeholders and how does this perception of stakeholder salience influence the design and use of management control systems (MCS)? Our research draws on stakeholder salience theory to capture management’s salience perceptions of key relevant stakeholders and we use insights gained through a framing of performance as a complex montage of individual stakeholder objectives. This work seeks to develop stakeholder salience theory, suggesting that complexity in stakeholder salience gives rise to a co-existence, or duality, in stakeholder typologies. Stakeholder salience is found to provide a valuable framework for developing insights into MCS and performance constructs in an NPO context. Findings suggest that awareness of stakeholder salience can assist in understanding performance conflicts and tensions captured in salience asymmetries most notably in relation to power. Findings also suggest that MCS design and use reflect management’s perception of stakeholder salience and may work to reinforce the status quo.