Coping with the COVID-19 pandemic: the technical, moral and facilitating role of management control

Emilio Emilio Passetti, Massimo Battaglia, Lara Bianchi and Nora Annesi

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 2021, vol. 34, issue 6, 1430-1444

Abstract: Purpose - The study analyses how management control supports the organisation's response to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Design/methodology/approach - Video interviews with top and middle-level managers who were directly involved in handling the response to the COVID-19 crisis in late winter and spring 2020 form the empirical base. The object-of-control framework and the distinction between organic and mechanistic management controls inform the exploratory case analysis of a large food retail cooperative in Italy. Findings - Both organic and mechanistic management control mechanisms enabled an immediate response and management of the crisis. The use of cultural, action and results controls supported employees' health and safety coordination, a tight monitoring of financial performance and social interventions in support of the local community. Originality/value - The study provides original exploratory insights on the use and role of management control in the context of an unprecedented emergency and an unplanned setting (i.e. a pandemic crisis), which is an under-investigated topic in the accounting literature. The study shows how management control operated, linking moral and technical aspects as well as facilitating organisational adaptation and pandemic effects mitigation.

Keywords: Management control system; Accounting; COVID-19; Crisis; Pandemic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:aaajpp:aaaj-08-2020-4839

DOI: 10.1108/AAAJ-08-2020-4839

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