IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jmgtco/v27y2016i2d10.1007_s00187-015-0228-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Innovative management control systems in knowledge work: a middle manager perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Carlos Martin-Rios

    (University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland)

Abstract

Integrating theorizing in sensemaking and conceptual or contextualized metaphor theory, this study investigates how middle managers in knowledge work settings support or contest the implementation of changes in management control systems (MCS) by examining how they make sense of the new control roles allocated to them. It draws on case study evidence from an organizational unit of a US multinational technology company. Results from qualitative analysis show that managers employed contextualized metaphors as collective symbols to make sense of and deal with differing views of changes in MCS and the impact on their roles, responsibilities and identity at work. Specifically, the results indicate that individuals’ acceptance of innovative control practices varied and that by remaining unaware of managers’ dilemmas, the organization ran the risk of failing to properly implement the changes, even though the system had been deemed appropriate for knowledge work. Because of their fundamental role in the success of implementing MCS-related changes in knowledge work settings, realizing how middle manager develop an understanding and react to changes in MCS is a critical endeavor for both researchers and practitioners alike.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos Martin-Rios, 2016. "Innovative management control systems in knowledge work: a middle manager perspective," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 181-204, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jmgtco:v:27:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s00187-015-0228-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s00187-015-0228-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00187-015-0228-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00187-015-0228-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adler, Paul S. & Chen, Clara Xiaoling, 2011. "Combining creativity and control: Understanding individual motivation in large-scale collaborative creativity," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 63-85, February.
    2. Martin-Rios, Carlos, 2014. "Why do firms seek to share human resource management knowledge? The importance of inter-firm networks," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 190-199.
    3. Joep P. Cornelissen & Saku Mantere & Eero Vaara, 2014. "The Contraction of Meaning: The Combined Effect of Communication, Emotions, and Materiality on Sensemaking in the Stockwell Shooting," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(5), pages 699-736, July.
    4. Patriotta, Gerardo & Brown, Andrew D., 2011. "Sensemaking, metaphors and performance evaluation," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 34-43, March.
    5. Alvesson, Mats & Karreman, Dan, 2004. "Interfaces of control. Technocratic and socio-ideological control in a global management consultancy firm," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(3-4), pages 423-444.
    6. Jane E. Dutton & Susan J. Ashford & Regina M. O’ Neill & Erika Hayes & Elizabeth E. Wierba, 1997. "Reading the wind: how middle managers assess the context for selling issues to top managers," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(5), pages 407-423, May.
    7. Dan Kärreman & Stefan Sveningsson & Mats Alvesson, 2002. "The Return of the Machine Bureaucracy? - Management Control in the Work Settings of Professionals," International Studies of Management & Organization, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(2), pages 70-92, January.
    8. Carlos Martin-Rios, 2015. "Innovation in organisational control systems: toward greater accountability," International Journal of Business Performance Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 16(4), pages 373-388.
    9. Ancori, Bernard & Bureth, Antoine & Cohendet, Patrick, 2000. "The Economics of Knowledge: The Debate about Codification and and Tacit Knowledge," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 9(2), pages 255-287, June.
    10. William G. Ouchi, 1979. "A Conceptual Framework for the Design of Organizational Control Mechanisms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(9), pages 833-848, September.
    11. Laura B. Cardinal & Sim B. Sitkin & Chris P. Long, 2004. "Balancing and Rebalancing in the Creation and Evolution of Organizational Control," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(4), pages 411-431, August.
    12. Martin Hiebl, 2014. "Upper echelons theory in management accounting and control research," Metrika: International Journal for Theoretical and Applied Statistics, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 223-240, January.
    13. Ditillo, Angelo, 2004. "Dealing with uncertainty in knowledge-intensive firms: the role of management control systems as knowledge integration mechanisms," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(3-4), pages 401-421.
    14. Dennis A. Gioia & James B. Thomas & Shawn M. Clark & Kumar Chittipeddi, 1994. "Symbolism and Strategic Change in Academia: The Dynamics of Sensemaking and Influence," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 5(3), pages 363-383, August.
    15. Bill Wooldridge & Steven W. Floyd, 1990. "The strategy process, middle management involvement, and organizational performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(3), pages 231-241, March.
    16. Angelo Ditillo, 2012. "Designing Management Control Systems to Foster Knowledge Transfer in Knowledge-Intensive Firms: A Network-Based Approach," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 425-450, January.
    17. Miguel Pina e Cunha, 2002. ""The best place to be": managing employee loyalty in a knowledge-intensive company," Nova SBE Working Paper Series wp409, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics.
    18. Joep P. Cornelissen & Jean Clarke & Alan Cienki, 2012. "Sensegiving in entrepreneurial contexts : The use of metaphors in speech and gesture to gain and sustain support for novel business ventures," Post-Print hal-02312339, HAL.
    19. Bart A. De Jong & Katinka M. Bijlsma-Frankema & Laura B. Cardinal, 2014. "Stronger Than the Sum of Its Parts? The Performance Implications of Peer Control Combinations in Teams," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(6), pages 1703-1721, December.
    20. Steven W. Floyd & Bill Wooldridge, 1997. "Middle Management’s Strategic Influence and Organizational Performance," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 465-485, May.
    21. repec:dau:papers:123456789/1713 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Linda Rouleau & Julia Balogun, 2011. "Middle Managers, Strategic Sensemaking, and Discursive Competence," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48, pages 953-983, July.
    23. Davila, Antonio & Foster, George & Li, Mu, 2009. "Reasons for management control systems adoption: Insights from product development systems choice by early-stage entrepreneurial companies," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(3-4), pages 322-347, April.
    24. Mats Alvesson & Hugh Willmott, 2002. "Identity Regulation as Organizational Control: Producing the Appropriate Individual," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 619-644, July.
    25. Maxine Robertson & Jacky Swan, 2003. "‘Control – What Control?’ Culture and Ambiguity Within a Knowledge Intensive Firm," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 831-858, June.
    26. Joep P. Cornelissen & Saku Mantere & Eero Vaara, 2014. "The Contraction of Meaning : The Combined Effect of Communication, Emotions, and Materiality on Sensemaking in the Stockwell Shooting," Post-Print hal-02313191, HAL.
    27. Karl E. Weick & Kathleen M. Sutcliffe & David Obstfeld, 2005. "Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(4), pages 409-421, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Niclas Erhardt & Carlos Martin-Rios, 2016. "Knowledge Management Systems in Sports: The Role of Organisational Structure, Tacit and Explicit Knowledge," Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (JIKM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 15(02), pages 1-21, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ellen Haustein & Robert Luther & Peter Schuster, 2014. "Management control systems in innovation companies: a literature based framework," Metrika: International Journal for Theoretical and Applied Statistics, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 343-382, February.
    2. Eero Vaara & Andrea Whittle, 2022. "Common Sense, New Sense or Non‐Sense? A Critical Discursive Perspective on Power in Collective Sensemaking," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(3), pages 755-781, May.
    3. Julia Balogun & Jean M. Bartunek & Boram Do, 2015. "Senior Managers’ Sensemaking and Responses to Strategic Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(4), pages 960-979, August.
    4. Thomas Schaefer & Thomas Guenther, 2016. "Exploring strategic planning outcomes: the influential role of top versus middle management participation," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 205-249, May.
    5. Andrea Fried, 2017. "Terminological distinctions of ‘control’: a review of the implications for management control research in the context of innovation," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 5-40, February.
    6. Schuler, Benedikt Alexander & Orr, Kevin & Hughes, Jeffrey, 2023. "My colleagues (do not) think the same: Middle managers’ shared and separate realities in strategy implementation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    7. Demir, Robert, 2014. "Strategic Activity as Bundled Affordances," Ratio Working Papers 243, The Ratio Institute.
    8. Nora Meziani & Laure Cabantous, 2020. "Acting Intuition into Sense: How Film Crews Make Sense with Embodied Ways of Knowing," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(7), pages 1384-1419, November.
    9. Leanne Johnstone, 2019. "Theorising and conceptualising the sustainability control system for effective sustainability management," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 25-64, April.
    10. Cooper, Christine, 2015. "Entrepreneurs of the self: The development of management control since 1976," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 14-24.
    11. Grabner, Isabella & Speckbacher, Gerhard, 2016. "The cost of creativity: A control perspective," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 31-42.
    12. Guiette, Alain & Vandenbempt, Koen, 2013. "Exploring team mental model dynamics during strategic change implementation in professional service organizations. A sensemaking perspective," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 728-744.
    13. Paul, Michael & Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten & Groth, Markus, 2015. "Tightening or loosening the “iron cage”? The impact of formal and informal display controls on service customers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 1062-1073.
    14. Brown, Andrew D., 2018. "Making sense of the war in Afghanistan," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 43-56.
    15. Christian Jung-Gehling & Erik Strauss, 2018. "A Contemporary Concept of Organizational Control: Its Dependence on Shared Values and Impact on Motivation," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 70(4), pages 341-374, November.
    16. Selena Aureli & Andrea Cardoni & Mara Del Baldo & Rosa Lombardi, 2019. "Traditional management accounting tools in SMEs? network. Do they foster partner dialogue and business innovation?," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2019(1 suppl.), pages 35-50.
    17. Florence Allard-Poesi, 2015. "Dancing in the Dark: Making Sense of Managerial Roles during Strategic Conversations," Working Papers hal-01145772, HAL.
    18. Jeffrey S. Bednar & Benjamin M. Galvin & Blake E. Ashforth & Ella Hafermalz, 2020. "Putting Identification in Motion: A Dynamic View of Organizational Identification," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 200-222, January.
    19. Robert, Kihlberg & Ola, Lindberg, 2021. "Reflexive sensegiving: An open-ended process of influencing the sensemaking of others during organizational change," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 476-486.
    20. Florence Allard-Poesi, 2015. "Dancing in the dark: Making sense of managerial roles during strategic conversations," Post-Print hal-01490734, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Middle management; Management control system; Innovation; Sensemaking; Conceptual metaphors; Knowledge work;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M49 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Other
    • M50 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - General
    • M19 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Other

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jmgtco:v:27:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s00187-015-0228-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.