The Functional Controller for Sustainable and Value Chain Management: Fashion or Need? A Sample of Job Advertisements in the COVID-19 Period

Ewa Walińska,Justyna Dobroszek

doi:10.3390/su13137139

Abstract

This article aims to present a profile of functional controllers created in German-speaking countries in the context of their competences and tasks for sustainable management and value chain creation. Sustainable chain management requires finding a balance between the economic, social, and environmental spheres, inside and outside the organizations, in all business functions/processes related to value chain formation. Managers for sustainable management need to have adequate and high-quality financial and non-financial information. They are crucial during the pandemic COVID-19 period. Functional controllers can provide this. Content analysis of job advertisements was used as a research method. The identification of competences was based on Cheetham and Chivers’ model. Tasks were referred to as essential functions of controlling. Descriptive statistics and the Student’s t-test with Cochran–Cox correction and the Wilcoxon-Mann–Whitney test were used to analyze the data. In terms of the studied controllers, more functional than meta competence was identified. There were more hard skills than soft skills. In terms of tasks, studied controllers are preoccupied with analysis, coordination and optimization, participation in management, definition of new tools, and reporting. The results confirm that functional controllers have an impact on sustainable development and value chain creation.

Highlights

IntroductionThe market, i.e., the environment, has become the point of reference for businesses
Dynamic changes in economies caused by globalization have influenced the development of new approaches to the management and functioning of enterprises [1].The market, i.e., the environment, has become the point of reference for businesses
The descriptive analysis of data for the Cheetham and Chivers model showed that for eight analyzed profiles of controllers, 853 indications in the job advertisements related to the core competences and 306 to meta competences

Summary

Introduction

The market, i.e., the environment, has become the point of reference for businesses This means that companies focus on customer needs and integrate social and environmental issues into their operational and strategic functioning [2,3,4,5]. Creating value and ensuring sustainability by companies in supply chains is a particular challenge during a pandemic such as COVID-19. Enterprises and their supply chains that want to survive on the market adopt sustainability as a central business requirement, reflected in their activity strategy [2,3,9]. The value creation takes place in various spheres, including supply chain phases (e.g., research and development, purchasing, production, distribution (i.e., logistics, sales, and customer service), or marketing and human resources (HR))

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Conclusion