The relationship between culture, controller behavior and corporate performance in large Brazilian companies

Abstract

Historically both academia and practice keep paying attention to potential elements explaining organizations, management and performance. However, as such elements are typically observed in a narrow fashion, this study focuses on this research gap and brings all three constructs together, exploring relationships among them. We designed a field-based research supported by a fresh and exclusive sample of 116 large organizations, with financial data and responses from top-level executives. The goal is to explore the existence of relationships among organizational culture, controller behavior, and corporate performance. Three research hypotheses are discussed. In order to accomplish that, a combined set of statistical procedures was used, including descriptives, comparison of means, ANOVA, correlational and structural equation modeling. Findings support the claims of significant positive relationships between organizational culture and controller behavior, as well as between organizational culture and corporate performance. Beyond discussion of the results in light of the relevant reviewed literature, recommendations to academia and practice are present, as well as suggestions for future research in this area. The main contribution, along with these results, is the development of management models that encourage the best behavior of managers in the company and cultivate a culture that promotes better performance.

Keywords:

• Organizational culture
• controller behavior
• corporate performance
• Brazilian companies
• biggest and best companies

Acknowledgements

In particular, we are grateful for the support offered by the Sao Paulo State Research Support Foundation (FAPESP, an important research foundation in Brazil), which made possible the full development of this study.