Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Part I Introduction and history
- 1 Control is fundamental
- 2 A historical perspective on organizational control
- Part II Conceptions of organizational control
- Part III Identity, attention, and motivation in organizational control
- Part IV Relational control
- Part V Managerial and strategic control
- Index of terms
- Author index
- References
1 - Control is fundamental
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Part I Introduction and history
- 1 Control is fundamental
- 2 A historical perspective on organizational control
- Part II Conceptions of organizational control
- Part III Identity, attention, and motivation in organizational control
- Part IV Relational control
- Part V Managerial and strategic control
- Index of terms
- Author index
- References
Summary
Organizational control is a fundamental aspect of organizing that has been largely neglected by organizational scholars for several decades. This volume brings together new approaches to organizational control theory and research by a diverse group of scholars with different scholarly viewpoints to show the vibrancy and future potential of the domain for generative scholarship. The purpose is to provide a springboard and touchstone for a renewal of work in this area.
Priming a renaissance in control research
Control systems have long been recognized as a fundamental aspect of all organizations (Scott, 1992) through which managers seek to align employee capabilities, activities, and performance with organizational goals and aspirations (Cyert and March, 1963; Merchant, 1985). Despite the fundamental nature of the phenomenon, its recognized importance, and some significant foundational work on organizational control, this area of study has been and remains seriously neglected. Specifically, organizational control is today underconceptualized in terms of its key constructs and its determinants and effects. As a result, organizational control has been subjected to only minimal theoretical and cumulative empirical study in recent years.
The atrophy of control research in the domain of organization and management presents a striking contrast with a rise in recent attention to control in the managerial accounting literature, where it has achieved some prominence (Birnberg and Snodgrass, 1988; Davila, 2005; Davila and Foster, 2007; Henri, 2006; Hopwood, 2005; Merchant and Simons, 1986; Simons, 1991, 1994, 1995; Whitley, 1999).
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- Organizational Control , pp. 3 - 15Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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