Abstract
ABSTRACT This study analyzes the impact of a Performance Measurement System (PMS) with enabling characteristics, mediated by psychological empowerment, on task performance and job satisfaction in a Shared Services Center (SSC). The literature on management controls has sought to identify elements that are capable of improving performance, and the enabling controls associated with psychological empowerment may bring new clues to this discussion. Given the ability of the context to affect individuals’ perceptions, it is important to understand the impacts of controls on satisfaction, which can lead to practices that are more aligned with their expectations and favorable results for the organization. The results of the study indicate that the characteristics of a PMS affect the motivation of individuals, so that implementing systems with enabling characteristics can contribute to employees’ perceptions regarding their control over and autonomy in their work. In the mechanistic structure of the SSC, the way in which PMSs are shaped can avoid potential adverse results from less organic structures in employees’ perceptions of psychological empowerment. A survey was conducted at a SSC located in southern Brazil, which provides administrative, financial, and accounting services. Eighty-eight of the 125 operational employees participated, corresponding to 70% of the total. The research tool used was based on the assertions of the studies conducted by Mahama and Cheng (2013), Spreitzer (1995), Tarrant and Sabo (2010), and Van Der Hauwaert and Bruggeman (2015). Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the hypotheses. Evidence drawn from the research indicates that the use of an enabling PMS can contribute to the balance needed in companies between levels of formal controls and psychological empowerment to obtain employee job satisfaction and task performance.
Highlights
Guilherme Eduardo de Souza & Ilse Maria BeurenManagement control systems (MCSs), which are composed of management accounting, planning, budgeting, project management, information and reporting, and performance measurement systems (Simons, 1992), aim to in uence the behavior and obtain the cooperation of groups of individuals or units towards an organization’s objectives (Flamholtz, Das & Tsui, 1985)
Erefore, it cannot be a rmed that a Performance Measurement System (PMS) with clear information on goals, objectives, vision, and mission, and that is transparent with respect to the causal relationships between these elements and the actions of employees, both locally and in the overall structure of the company, or that enables problems to be identi ed and solved in an active way, can lead to better task performance
Goal Setting Theory proposes that goals can be considered as consciously proposed intentions, aims, desired results, or performance standards or targets that a ect performance by directing attention to a selection of appropriate strategies, knowledge, and actions (Marginson et al, 2014). us, an enabling PMS was expected to be able to trigger the processes foreseen by this theory to the point of in uencing performance
Summary
Management control systems (MCSs), which are composed of management accounting, planning, budgeting, project management, information and reporting, and performance measurement systems (Simons, 1992), aim to in uence the behavior and obtain the cooperation of groups of individuals or units towards an organization’s objectives (Flamholtz, Das & Tsui, 1985). Studies that address elements of PMSs highlight that characteristics of the work, such as feedback (Liden, Wayne & Sparrowe, 2000) and management practices that involve the sharing of information, responsibility, and accountability (Seibert, Silver & Randolph, 2004), can a ect individuals’ job satisfaction Adapting this system to the needs of an organization and the individuals in it requires care with its design, implementation, use, and scope (Chenhall, 2003; Hall, 2008). Coercive and enabling controls provide an alternative analysis for explaining the use of controls at di erent levels of a company, so that it can execute the strategy of reducing production costs and at the same time be more exible (Ahrens & Chapman, 2004) To evaluate these relationships, it is necessary to pay attention to the context of the study, which in this case is a Shared Services Center (SSC). SSCs are geared towards seeking high operational e ciency, through standardized processes and service levels that are pre-agreed with the areas of the organization that have transferred their administrative activities to the SSC. e use of detailed working manuals is recurrent (Bergeron, 2003), which can interfere in the individuals’ sense of control and in the PMS, as well as impacting task performance and job satisfaction
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