The relationship between management control system usage and planned change achievement: An exploratory study

Abstract

Although the relevance of management control systems to successful change achievement has been conceptually acknowledged, empirical matters such as measuring the contribution of control systems to effective change implementation lack practical investigation. Using data obtained from managers in 22 organizations, we explore the extent to which managers believe their management control systems are employed when implementing planned change. Relationships between commonly employed management controls and implementation success are also estimated. Results indicated that managers used management control systems less extensively than other elements of change process, although usage of control systems increased with implementation. A strong relationship was found between the use of control systems based on outcomes monitoring and implementation success. However, there was no significant relationship between the use of behavior-based controls and implementation success. Overall, the findings suggest that many organizations may underutilize formal controls, particularly those related to outcomes monitoring, when managing change.

Keywords:

• Management control systems
• rewards
• performance appraisals
• planned change
• outcomes monitoring

Notes

^a1–5 response scale. A ‘1’ represented an informal, ineffective system in place with few results; a ‘5’ represented a formal effective system.

^b1–5 response scale. A ‘1’ represented little or no results to speak of; a ‘5’ represented highly effective results.

^c1–5 response scale. Categories differed for each question.