A holistic view on the opportunities and threats of normative control: a literature review

Normative control, or control through organizational culture, has been widely discussed since the 1960s in the management literature. Despite a growing body of research, the concept remains difficult to grasp in its multiple facets and is often approached in a partial and partisan way by scholars and practitioners alike. In this article, we conduct a comprehensive review of the abundant but fragmented literature on normative control, aimed at providing a holistic synthesis of the topic. We take stock of the literature, present descriptive statistics and unravel a chronology of four research streams, consisting of cultural optimists, critics, skeptics, and neo-critics. Our findings also identify and describe behavioral levers and organizational accelerators that encourage the use of normative control, as well as operational side-effects and behavioral inhibitors that discourage its use. We contribute to the literature by offering a unique integrative model of the opportunities and threats of normative control by highlighting their interconnections and tensions, leading to promising avenues for future research. In doing so, we wish to transcend ideological debates and bring clarity, nuance, and pragmatism to a concept that could help address pressing organizational challenges related to purpose, employee wellbeing and workplace culture.