Traditional Management Control Research Articles

Fast-Track surgery protocol in perioperative care for gynecological laparoscopy.

This study aimed to compare fast-track surgery (FTS) and traditional perioperative care protocols in laparoscopic gynecological surgeries, assessing their impact on length of stay (LOS), recovery time, and postoperative complications. A case-control retrospective study was conducted at Suzhou Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, involving 167 patients undergoing laparoscopic gynecological surgery from June 2021 to June 2023. Of them, 81 patients underwent surgery based on the FTS protocol (FTS group) and 86 patients received a traditional perioperative management (control group). Patients in both groups underwent gynecologic laparoscopic procedures, including uterine, ovarian and tubal surgeries. Data were collected on general patients' characteristics, including age, BMI, surgery type and time, intestinal recovery and out-of-bed activity time, LOS, pain levels, and postoperative complications. Wilcoxon rank sum test with continuity correction was used to assess the difference in operative characteristics and postoperative pain levels. Fisher's exact test was used to assess the difference in overall frequency of postoperative complications between groups. Patients in the FTS group exhibited faster intestinal recovery, shorter mobilization time, and reduced LOS compared to the control group. Pain levels were significantly lower at one, six and twelve hours post-surgery in the FTS group. Overall, the proportion of postoperative complications was significantly lower in the FTS group than in the control group. Implementing the FTS protocol in laparoscopic gynecological surgeries for benign conditions can reduce LOS, accelerate recovery, and minimize pain without increasing postoperative complications. Further research with more diverse patient populations is warranted to validate these findings.

What can nudging offer to reduce workplace sexual harassment? A conceptual review

This paper examines workplace sexual harassment and looks into why workplace sexual harassment remains a pervasive, underappreciated problem in the United States and outlines the limitations of existing controls of sexual harassment at work, namely sexual harassment policies, awareness training, and grievance procedures. Based on these limitations, it reflects on the current definitions of sexual harassment and introduces the concept of nudging to support the preventive and corrective measures already adopted to reduce workplace sexual harassment. It provides a conceptual framework of nudges that might be effective in reducing incidents of sexual harassment. The eight types of nudges that form the framework are grouped into five overall categories depending on who a nudge is for: top, middle, and line management, harassers, observers, victims, and society. This paper is first to conceptualize nudging as a supportive mechanism to traditional management control systems in the context of workplace sexual harassment.

Carbon toolmaking: responding to multiple interacting logics in carbon management

PurposeThis study examines how carbon tools, including carbon accounting and management tools, can be created, used, modified and linked with other traditional management controls to materialise and effectuate organisations’ response strategies to multiple interacting logics in carbon management and the role of sustainability managers in these processes.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilises the construct of accounting toolmaking, which refers to practices of adopting, adjusting and reconfiguring accounting tools to unfold how carbon tools are used as means to materialise responses to multiple interacting carbon management logics. It embraces a field study approach, whereby 38 sustainability managers and staff from 30 organisations in New Zealand were interviewed.FindingsThis study finds that carbon toolmaking is an important means to materialise and effectuate organisations’ response strategies to multiple interacting carbon management logics. Four response strategies are identified: separation, selective coupling, combination and hybridisation. Adopting activity involves considering the additionality, detailing, localising and cascading of carbon measures and targets and their linkage to the broader carbon management programme. In adjusting carbon tools, organisations adapt the frequency and orientation of carbon reporting, intensity of carbon monitoring and breadth of carbon information sharing. Through focusing on either procedural sequencing, assimilating, equating or integrating, toolmaking reconfigures the relationship between carbon tools and traditional management control systems. Together, these three toolmaking activities can be configured differently to construct carbon tools that are fit for purpose for each response strategy. These activities also enact certain roles on sustainability managers in the process of representing, communicating and/or transferring carbon information knowledge, which also facilitate different response strategies.Practical implicationsThe study demonstrates the various carbon toolmaking practices that allow organisations to handle the multiple interacting logics in carbon management. The findings provide suggestions for organisations on how to adopt, adjust and reconfigure carbon tools to better embed the ecological logic in organisations’ strategies and operations.Originality/valueThe authors identify how carbon toolmaking materialises and effectuates organisations’ responses to multiple interacting logics in carbon management.

Cost-Effectiveness and Long-Term Savings of the Bright Bodies Intervention for Childhood Obesity

ObjectivesTo estimate the cost and cost-effectiveness of Bright Bodies, a high-intensity, family-based intervention that has been demonstrated to improve body mass index (BMI) among children with obesity in a randomized controlled trial. MethodsWe developed a microsimulation model to project 10-year BMI trajectories of 8 to 16-year-old children with obesity, using data from the National Longitudinal Surveys and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention growth charts, and we validated the model using data from the Bright Bodies trial and a follow-up study. We used the trial data to estimate the average reduction in BMI per person-year over 10 years and the incremental costs of Bright Bodies, compared with the traditional clinical weight management (control), from a health system’s perspective in 2020 US dollars. Using results from studies of Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data, we projected the long-term obesity-related medical expenditure. ResultsIn the primary analysis, assuming depreciating effects postintervention, Bright Bodies is expected to reduce a participant's BMI by 1.67 kg/m2 (95% uncertainty interval 1.43-1.94) per year over 10 years as compared with control. The incremental intervention cost of Bright Bodies was $360 ($292-$421) per person compared with the clinical control. Nevertheless, savings in obesity-related healthcare expenditure offset these costs and the expected cost-savings of Bright Bodies is $1126 ($689-$1693) per person over 10-years. The projected time to achieve cost-savings compared with clinical control was 3.58 (2.63-5.17) years. ConclusionsAlthough resource-intensive, our findings suggest that Bright Bodies is cost-saving compared to the clinical control by averting future obesity-related healthcare costs among children with obesity.

ТРЕНДЫ ИННОВАЦИОННОЙ СЕРВИСНОЙ СИСТЕМЫ ПРЕДПРИЯТИЙ ИНДУСТРИИ ГОСТЕПРИИМСТВА В КОНТЕКСТЕ ДИВЕРГЕНТНОГО СЕРВИСА

The introduction of the concept of divergent service into the organizational and service process of hospitality industry enterprises, including sanatorium-resort complexes, is based on the basic trends of the hospitality industry, this is the study of consumer behavior and their recreational needs; the formation of a team of specialists with a creative focus for the organization of innovative service programs using recreational technologies and divergent approaches; the creation of conditions in parts of the design of the spatial environment to create points of attraction, atmospherics in symbiosis with a set of additional services, both service and medical. Divergent thinking determines the creative way of development – the matrix construction of organizational culture, convergent thinking determines the constructive way of development – the hierarchical construction of organizational culture. The conceptual approach in the organization of service processes will allow to differentially increase the index of customer satisfaction, as well as to navigate modern trends in the field of health tourism. The importance of assessing the real situation of the quality of service lies in the analysis of basic quality assessment tools and system monitoring of customer satisfaction, finding the most suitable divergent approaches to solving service tasks for a specific hospitality enterprise. Hospitality industry enterprises use traditional management and quality control systems in their organizational culture – a convergent approach. In the case of the divergent approach, it is used quite rarely, due to the fact that the management staff is not yet ready to embark on innovative tracks, this is caused by several factors: - risks associated with unreasonable financial costs; - lack of a creative team capable of solving current problems; - fear of moving away from the traditional management system, control and remuneration system; - weak motivation for professional growth and the difficulty of getting out of the template of the mental matrix of promotion and sales of sanatorium and resort products. The conceptual solution of the implementation of the divergent service program in the conditions of the sanatorium-resort complex, as shown by the practice of testing programs with an individual trajectory of recreation, has a fairly high rating from the point of view of consumers.

The human ecosystem

The authors report on the Haier Group, a multinational business that primarily produces and markets manufactured goods and whose multiple business ecosystems are based not on traditional management control, but rather on distributed organizational and information technology platforms. These platforms enable people to create business value through participating in structured, financially incentivized but essentially voluntary relationships, and by engaging their human creative freedom to serve each other and co-create business value. For example, Haier Group manufactures large home appliances in China by an ecosystem made up of over four thousand mostly small teams making things and trading with each other by way of self-organized, self-negotiated lateral relationships that are smart-contract enabled, with no vertical middle managers. The case will be of interest to scholars because of the unique philosophy and practice, and the success of the approach at promoting both human development on a wide scale, and dramatic marketplace and business success of the ecosystem. The authors are scholars of business ecosystems. They report that this case was not understandable to them through the logic of their previous study of business ecosystems, a logic of strategy and organization design that presumes a limited, knowable, and closed model of each person and a management philosophy of control. In contrast, Haier Group presumes an unlimited, unknowable, and open image of each person, and a management philosophy of augmented personal creativity and platform-enabled coevolution with others. The authors provide a new term adapted from biology, human ecosystem, to highlight human values on which business ecosystems can vary, with important consequences for human development as well as business performance as traditionally measured. They define the term broadly and encourage others to join them in co-developing it.

Analysis of the Influence of Traditional Economic Management Thoughts on Contemporary Economic Management

In today’s business environment, due to the complexity of organizational phenomena, the quick repair methods used in traditional economic management control will have adverse effects and more serious problems. The focus of this article is to integrate traditional economic management thoughts related to economic and social management to improve contemporary economic management, and to demonstrate the potential contribution of socio-economic management methods to guiding overall sustainable performance.

Management control in circular economy. Exploring and theorizing the adaptation of management control to circular business models

A growing body of literature argues that an organization's management control needs to adapt as an organization changes business model or strategy for the management control to be consistent with the organization's objectives and strategies. Nevertheless, scepticism has been raised about the role of management controls in promoting sustainability or the circular economy within organizations. Based on the management control framework of Malmi and Brown (2008), this paper explores empirically how organizations work with the circular economy and how management control has adapted to the business model. The results show that the circular economy can be practiced in different ways and that the adaptation and application of the circular economy affects the whole management control package. The paper identifies the importance of cultural control and long-range planning for communicating circular values and spreading a culture based on circular principles. However, regardless of what circular strategies are used, circular work tends to steer attention to the early phases of the product life cycle. For management controls this means that action plans, cost accounting, and investment appraisals must reflect a higher level of detail and a longer time horizon. The paper highlights how this is associated with challenges for traditional management controls.

Effect of the application of nursing quality sensitive indicators in burn patients

Objective To investigate the effect of the application of nursing quality sensitive indicators on the nursing care of burn patients and their satisfaction with nursing care. Methods A total of 90 cases of burn patients admitted from January 2015 to December 2016 were selected as study subjects. They were divided into pre-implementation group (January 2015-December 2015) and implementation group (January 2016-December 2016) for 45 cases each based on sensitive indicators of care quality. The traditional quality management control method was adopted before implementation. The quality-sensitive indicators of nursing quality were used for quality management after the implementation. The quality monitoring indicators, nursing adverse events, and nursing satisfaction were compared before and after implementation. Results After the implementation, the implementation rate of graded nursing, the accuracy of patient identification, the qualified rate of qualified nurses, the passing rate of risk assessment, and the passing rate of high-risk drugs were 97.78% (44/45) , 93.33% (42/45) , 95.56% (43/45) , 97.78% (44/45) , and 97.78% (44/45) , which were significantly higher than those before implementation 84.44% (38/45) 、77.78% (35/45) , 82.22% (37/45) , 82.22% (37/45) , and 84.44% (38/45) , respectively, and the difference was statistically significant (χ2= 4.050-, 6.049, P<0.05). After the implementation, drug errors and other adverse events were used. The incidence rate of 0.22% (1/450) was significantly lower than the pre-implementation rate of 1.78% (8/450) , and the difference was statistically significant (χ2=5.499, P<0.05). After implementation, patient satisfaction with service attitude, basic nursing, professional skills, and comprehensive nursing service quality was 95.56% (43/45) , 97.78% (44/45) , 95.56% (43/45) , 97.78% (44/45) , and 95.56% (43/45) , which were significantly higher than those before implementation 88.89% (40/45) , 84.44% (38/45) , 82.22% (37/45) , 80.00% (36/45) and 82.22% (37/45) , and the difference was statistically significant (χ2= 4.050-7.200, P <0.05). Conclusion The application of sensitive indicators of nursing quality can help improve the care quality of burn patients, reduce the occurrence of adverse care events, and enhance patient satisfaction. Key words: Burns; Nursing quality sensitive indicators; Nursing adverse events; Satisfaction

Meta-analysis on safety of application of enhanced recovery after surgery to laparoscopic bariatric surgery

To systematically review the safety of application of enhanced recovery after surgery(ERAS) to laparoscopic bariatric surgery. The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or case-controlled trials concerning application of ERAS principles in bariatric surgery were collected by searching several national and international online databases, including PubMed, Cochrane Library, CNKI, EMBASE and Wanfang databases. Data collection was completed in October 2016. The ERAS protocol covered three phases (preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative), including preoperative counseling, reduced fasting, early ambulation, early oral feeding, etc. The endpoints included at least one of the following parameters: length of stay (LOS), operation time, readmission rate within 30 days, morbidity of postoperative complication (major/minor), and reoperation rate within 30 days. The quality of enrolled literatures was evaluated according to Cochrane Handbook and Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. RevMan 5.2 software was applied to perform meta analysis. The weighted mean difference (WMD) was used to combine the statistics for the measurement data, and the ratio and its 95% confidence interval were used to combine the statistics for the counting data. Subgroup analysis was conducted based on the quality of the enrolled literatures for the results of high heterogeneity. A total of 7 studies, including 1 randomized controlled trail and 6 case-control studies, with 3264 patients were enrolled. Among the 3264 patients, 2051 received ERAS management (ERAS group) and 1213 received traditional perioperative management (control group). Meta analysis showed that compared with control group, ERAS group had shorter operative time (WMD=-17.56, 95%CI: -29.50 to -5.62, P=0.00), shorter length of hospital stay (WMD=-1.11, 95%CI: -1.31 to -0.92,P=0.00). There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in the morbidity of postoperative major complication(OR=1.21, 95%CI:0.87 to 1.69, P=0.26) or minor complication (OR=1.25, 95%CI:0.99 to 1.58, P=0.06), re-admission rate within 30 days (OR=1.07, 95%CI: 0.81 to 1.43, P=0.63) and re-operation rate within 30 days(OR=1.33, 95%CI: 0.84 to 2.11, P=0.23). Application of ERAS protocols to bariatric surgery is safe and feasible, which can also reduce length of hospital stay and operative time, and accelerate recovery.

Top management teams’ shared leadership and ambidexterity: the role of management control systems

The study explores how top management teams’ shared leadership is related to organizational ambidexterity in public-sector organizations, theoretically and empirically considering how this relationship is contingent on the management control system. Using a sample of 85 Swedish municipal housing corporations, we find that shared leadership has a positive relationship with organizational ambidexterity in public-sector organizations. Moreover, increasing use of new public management control systems, based on combined reward and performance controls, positively moderates this relationship. The study also finds that traditional public management control systems, based on combined planning and administrative controls, do not moderate the relationship between top management teams’ shared leadership and organizational ambidexterity. Accordingly, this article contributes to the public and strategic management literature, as well as to managerial practice. Points for practitioners The article suggests that sharing leadership within top management teams can result in a balanced resource allocation in municipal corporations. To be more effective in achieving this balance, public sector managers might consider emphasizing new public management-inspired management control systems and de-emphasizing those of a more traditional type.

Accounts of the future

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the design and use of scenarios in planning and management control processes.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on an exploratory case-study approach. Qualitative data have been collected between 2008 and 2011 from three energy companies operating in Italy.FindingsThe paper sheds light on three styles of designing and using scenarios. In the first (called “reactive”), scenarios provide a means for corporate actors to analyse past performance in the light of future expected performance. In the second (“proactive”), scenarios contribute to envision different future states of the world. In the third (“disciplined”), scenarios contribute to develop plausible, if not accurate, narratives about future outcomes.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is comparative and exploratory. Possible areas for further work based on in-depth studies of scenarios within planning and control processes are identified.Practical implicationsThe comparative analysis of the case-study material has implications for the ways in which flexible forms of management control can be mobilised by managers as a resource of action. It is shown that choices around the design and use of scenarios can mitigate some concerns with traditional planning and management control processes focused on the achievement of a single set of targets, but also raise new ones.Originality/valueThe paper sheds light on a scenario-based approach – called “disciplined flexibility” – that avoids the restrictive nature of budgetary controls without losing the benefits of setting a plan and a target for the future. The paper outlines elements that may support the use of “disciplined flexibility”, but also its potential limitations.

Digitalisation of Enterprises Brings New Opportunities to Traditional Management Control

Abstract Background: Advanced information systems have changed the way managers work with planning and performance measurement. Traditional management control concepts such as efficiency have changed in meaning due to these information systems. Objectives: The main purpose behind this paper is to try to understand how a new managerial context is shaped and re-shaped by new information systems that constitute a digital enterprise. Methods/Approach: Three different cases are presented and analysed. Results: The new managerial function of advanced information systems is presented through the three cases. Conclusions: The digitalisation debate and agenda need to develop an even deeper understanding of how digital initiatives affect organisations. This is possible by dealing with concepts such as the digital enterprise, which integrates digital technical solutions with organisational challenges and management control intent.

Transformation of the system of the European union social policy management control methods

The author examines liberal, governance, intergovernmental approaches and neofunctionalism in the EU and European integration management; constructs regional policy, comitology system, «European» regulatory agencies. They are considered as the elements that modify the traditional management control method in the EU. The governance approach is used for the analysis of interactions, which are often referred to "low" policy – daily regulation. It determines the «political face» of the EU. The approach uses multi-level governance concept and the open method of coordination. The first one has a narrow testing scope and aims to explain only the integration realities; the other one is more of a universal character. Attempts to comprehend this method face the lack of empirical research due to the relative novelty of the open method of coordination and complex combination of horizontal and vertical processes within it.&#x0D; Keywords: European Union, system of management methods, social policy

Top management team’s shared leadership and ambidexterity: The role of management control systems

The study explores how top management teams’ (TMT) shared leadership is related to organizational ambidexterity in public sector organizations. The study also develops the concepts of traditional and new public management control systems (TPMCS and NPMCS) and theorizes on their moderating role in the relationship between shared leadership and organizational ambidexterity. We based the study on a sample of 85 Swedish municipal housing corporations. We collected the data through surveys of top managers of these corporations and used multiple hierarchical regression analysis to test the relationships. The study found that TMTs’ shared leadership has a positive relationship with organizational ambidexterity in public sector organization and that the increasing use of NPMCS is positively moderating this relationship. We discuss how these finding inform the public sector, strategic management and leadership literature and suggest new areas for research based on our findings.

Sustainability Strategy and Management Control Systems in Family Firms. Evidence from a Case Study

The aim of this paper is to investigate how the integration of new forms of sustainable control systems (SCSs) and traditional management control systems (MCSs), and the use of these control systems affect the integration of sustainability within organizational strategy. A qualitative case study based on a longitudinal investigation of an Italian family firm operating in an environment-sensitive context, the intermodal transport industry, has been used to trace the company’s pathway to sustainability integration based on the Gond et al. framework. The paper enriches the Gond et al. conceptualization providing evidence of the external and internal factors relevant in affecting the organization’s pathway towards sustainability integration. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is the first analysis that investigates the integration of sustainability into organizational strategy in the context of family firms, from the point of view of performance management systems (PMSs).

Traditional vs. Contemporary Management Control Practices for Developing Public Health Policies.

Public health policies must address multiple goals and complex community health needs. Recently, management control practices have emerged to provide a broader type of information for evaluating the effectiveness of healthcare policies, and relate activities and processes to multiple strategic outcomes. This study compares the effect of traditional and contemporary management control practices on the achievement of public health policies. It is also analyzed how two different uses of such practices (enabling vs. coercive) facilitate the achievement of public health policies. Relationships are explored using data collected from managers from public health agencies and public hospitals in Spain. The findings show that contemporary management control practices are more suitable than traditional practices to achieve public health policies. Furthermore, results show that public health policies are better achieved when managers use management control practices in an enabling way rather than in a coercive way.

Exploring Sustainability Control Systems' Integration: The Relevance of Sustainability Orientation

ABSTRACTWe know very little about management control for sustainability. The objective of this paper is to overcome this void and to explain why and how sustainability control mechanisms vary in relation to firms' sustainability initiatives. In particular, we investigate how the integration of Sustainability Control Systems (SCSs) with the more traditional Management Control Systems (MCSs) is affected by managerial sustainability orientation. The empirical evidence based on a multiple-case design suggests that the nature of a firm's sustainability orientation represents the key trigger in explaining variations in SCSs' integration, and that this integration is facilitated by other potential enablers creating a positive environment supportive of sustainability initiatives. Insights on the complexities and potential dysfunctional consequences of the integration process are also offered. The paper concludes with some avenues for future research.

Corporate sustainability management: a proposed multi-criteria model to support balanced decision-making

Companies have been challenged to attend to multiple objectives and to achieve appropriate decisions facing dichotomies mentioned in literature, such as shareholder versus stakeholder; financial versus non-financial; single versus multiple measures. Since the translation of the sustainable development concept to business by the triple bottom line (TBL), there have been attempts to implement operational approaches. This study proposes a model that helps corporate decision-making considering the TBL framework and a stakeholder view. Multi-criteria decision aid methods are used to generate a sustainability balanced single measure and performance indices. We apply the model to a Brazilian electricity corporation, where the indices are calculated from existing GRI indicators, and the use of the model within the company's strategic plan annual review is demonstrated. The findings suggest that the model has the potential to support informed decisions and the integration of corporate sustainability performance measurement and reporting activities with traditional management control systems.

Project Risk Management Based on WBS-RBS-OBS and ANP-With the Aerospace Industry as Example

With the rapid development of science, projects have increasingly become complicated. Due to the availability of resources, the changing environment, and other factors, projects have become large and complicated, and corresponding single project management has gradually tended to multi-project management. Optimal time duration, minimum cost, and best quality are the expected results of project management. However, there are many uncertainties and risks under large project management, which usually result in huge losses and social impact. Therefore, project risk management is increasingly important. Previous studies on project risk management only focused on the application of a combined matrix of WBS and RBS, while ignoring that risk decisions and actions are often decided by people and organizations. Aiming at project risk management from three aspects, WBS, OBS, and RBS, this paper solves the problem of traditional risk management control, conducts comprehensive evaluation through ANP, and determines risk weight and ranking in the quantization method, in order to render risk identification more perfectly, and help decision makers to make objective and effective management decisions and distribute resources under the multi-project mode. Finally, this paper presents an application of an actual case of the aerospace industry, analyzes and solves the project risk management problems in order to verify the usability of such a method, and offers follow-up suggestions.