Organizational Management Control Systems Research Articles

Supervising Self-Efficacy During the Home Office Using Management Control Systems

Due to the unprecedented circumstances of the last two and a half years, the organizations are facing unprecedented challenges. After the official recommendations for work from home and the re-entry of employees to the office environment – many other questions arise. First, are the employees satisfied that they are back in the office? Is working from home possible? What are the results of the employees’ monitored working time from home? These and many other issues are a major focus of employers in the field of consulting services. The current article aims to explore the concept of self-efficacy and its follow-up based on management control systems. This study is theoretical. Methods of induction and deduction, including analysis and synthesis, are at the article’s core. The results show that well-established management control systems in organizations with consulting services can use the home office as a motivational tool.

Accountability logics in disability service NPOs – Incorporating the role of service user advocacy in accountability and management control systems

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to contribute to a greater understanding of non-profit organization (NPO) management control systems (MCS) and accountability in organizations providing support service for capacity constrained service users. Specifically, the paper examines the role of MCS and accountability in supporting mission realization in NPOs providing services to people with intellectual disabilities and reflects on this in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe research comprised a case study of four NPOs providing services to people with intellectual disabilities in Ireland conducted prior to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The study probed management's perceptions of stakeholders and examined the manner in which the design and use of MCS and accountability processes supported mission realization.FindingsService users were regarded as the least powerful stakeholder and consequently the least attended to in terms of MCS and accountability processes. The absence of relational and dialogical accountability with service users is not only central to maintaining this power asymmetry but also poses a threat to mission realization. These deficits can be addressed through the integration and monitoring of internal advocacy activities into MCS and accountability processes, which, on reflection, may also mitigate some of the negative consequences for service users of isolation from external support networks in times of crisis.Research limitations/implicationsThis research has opened up an area for enquiry – internal advocacy – heretofore not addressed in the management accounting literature, opening up a novel vein for future research. Such research could further examine the role of internal advocacy, drawing from and adding to the research in other support service domains. A number of objectives and questions might be considered: (1) probing the level of management recognition of the role of direct engagement in advocacy activities in supporting service user agency; (2) identifying with service users and management the nature and attributes of effective advocacy activities and practices; (3) questioning how such advocacy activities and practices might be reflected in MCS; (4) identifying what service user stakeholders regard as effective accountability to them in relation to their needs and objectives; and (5) assessing the impact on service user experience and on NPO mission realization of internal advocacy activities and the monitoring and review thereof through MCS. These suggestions for future research draw attention to aspects of support service delivery that have the potential to be profoundly influential on service outcomes.Practical implicationsA performance management model reflecting the identified need to incorporate internal advocacy mechanisms into organizational management control systems is proposed in an effort to increase accountability of NPOs to their core mission stakeholder – service users. This model may be of value to NPO management as they move from a medical-model of care to a rights-based model for service delivery in care settings.Social implicationsThe paper reflects the importance of listening to the voice of vulnerable service users in NPO care settings and proposes a mechanism for embedding internal advocacy in formal management control systems and accountability processes.Originality/valueIn proposing an “agency” supportive relational and dialogical accountability logic for such organizations, underpinned by “internal advocacy”, this research provides theoretical and practical insights for accountability processes and the design of MCS. The findings contribute empirically, not just to the NPO management and MCS literature but also to understanding the relational interaction of service users with service organizations, and what this means in supporting service user objectives and realization of organizational mission.

The fate of the balanced scorecard: alternative problematization and competing networks

Purpose This paper aims to report on an empirical investigation of the fate of the balanced scorecard (BSC) approach in an organization. Design/methodology/approach Building on actor-network theory and using a qualitative case study approach, this study analyses how across time certain actors attempted to build a competing network in the organization to gain support for their underlying rationales for replacing the BSC with a budgeting system. Data were collected using interviews, observations and archival data from a Sri Lankan commercial bank. Findings This paper finds that despite the enthusiastic journey with all its potentials to be a sustainable accounting innovation, the attraction towards the BSC innovation by the organization appeared to be temporary because the BSC knowledge claims that were advanced by its promoters had not been widely accepted by those involved in the practice. Such a consequence of innovation diffusion appeared to be the result of the failure of the innovation promoters in coordinating the heterogeneous interests of various actors involved in the practice. This study concludes that the BSC failed to be sustained, amid varying ideologies and interests of powerful actors across time and opponent actors’ perceived deficiencies in its adapted design attributes. Research limitations/implications Although the findings relate to a Sri Lankan case, they offer important insight into how parallel, competing networks advocating different control systems may exist in an organization, and that the sustainability of a specific system may depend upon the efforts and the relative power of the advocators of that system. Practical implications This paper sheds useful insights for practitioners on the effective implementation of accounting innovations and managing management control systems in organizations amid tensions associated with competing networks. Originality/value The outcomes enhance the knowledge of how multiple networks operating in an organization could compete with one another, with the result that one network may fall apart while another network gains prominence in the corporate landscape across time, amid varying interests of key actors, their actions and interessement devices used.

Upper echelon characteristics and the use of management control systems: an integrative review

Top management teams use Management Control Systems (MCS) to guide the performances of their subordinates and also the decisions made by them, promoting and implementing strategies based on the organizational behavior. The choices made by upper echelon members can determine how the organizational goals will be achieved by using MCS. This integrative review aims to examine the literature addressing the ways in which upper level executives use Management Control Systems in organizations, highlighting and categorizing the expected linkage between the use of MCS and upper echelons characteristics. The results allowed a synthesis of the theme based on the identification of a taxonomy for top managers’ characteristics that have influenced on MCS usages, as well as some provocative questions as a way of reflection for future researches.

Unpacking the notion of subjectivity: Performance evaluation and supervisor discretion

This study puts forward the notion of subjectivity according to supervisor discretion and the organization's subjective performance evaluation rules. This is needed because most studies investigating subjectivity do not distinguish supervisor idiosyncrasies from features of the organization's management control systems. This study uses a survey to capture subjectivity and suggests that subjectivity entails two concepts. One concept is related to the amount of discretion that supervisors can exercise under the organization's current performance evaluation. The other concept concerns supervisor's idiosyncrasies when evaluating subordinates. This study provides evidence that subjectivity is multidimensional and may not represent a single concept. The results suggest that studies investigating subjectivity should treat supervisor discretion and subjective performance evaluation rules separately because of their different associations towards subordinate performance, psychological empowerment, and supervisor-subordinate conflict.

Continuous improvement: role of organisational learning mechanisms

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore the use of the performance measurement system as an organizational learning mechanism to support continuous improvement.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reports the results of a survey of Australian organizations certified to quality standard ISO 9000.Findings – For those respondents who consider their organization's quality program to be successful, the findings indicate that such organizations have embedded quality into the culture of the organization, and have developed performance measurement systems as an organizational learning mechanism to support the continuous improvement initiatives.Practical implications – The paper highlights the need for management to ensure that the organization's management control systems are structured to support continuous improvement initiatives.Originality/value – The paper explores the links between continuous improvement and organizational learning.

MANAGEMENT CONTROL: THE ROLES OF RULES, MARKETS AND CULTURE[1]

ABSTRACTThis paper addresses the question of efficacy of Management Control Systems in organizations. It shows that control systems are based on a combination of three underlying approaches — markets, rules and culture — in order to obtain desired behaviours from organizations’ members.These three approaches are then discussed in terms of Hofstede's work‐related values characterization. It is shown that each firm or organization defines its own balance among the three bases of control identified above. This balancing is dynamic and organizations must continuously adapt their Management Control Systems to changes in the overall culture(s), in technology and in the competitive forces.The general evolution of Management Control Systems is seen to be towards a lessening of the importance of rules‐based controls and towards an increased reliance on controls imbedded in the organizational culture.[2]