The just design and use of management control systems as requirements for goal congruence

Natalia Cuguero-Escofet and Josep M. Rosanas ()
Additional contact information
Natalia Cuguero-Escofet: IESE Business School, Postal: Research Division, Av Pearson 21, 08034 Barcelona, SPAIN
Josep M. Rosanas: IESE Business School, Postal: Research Division, Av Pearson 21, 08034 Barcelona, SPAIN

No D/949, IESE Research Papers from IESE Business School

Abstract: Management control systems (MCS) are designed to achieve the greatest possible goal congruence, where people pursue personal goals that are conducive to the organizational goal. Use and design of MCS are crucial aspects for achieving goal congruence, but they are thought to be contingent to specific external situations. We analyze the basic concepts of justice and fairness, and argue that need to be put in the context of MCS use and design. We label these two facets of justice "formal" and "informal" justice respectively, and we show that both formal and informal (in)justice are determinants for MCS to achieve specific levels of goal congruence independently of the situation. We conclude that there are two stable types of goal congruence, labeled 'maximum goal congruence' - where MCS design is just and use is just too-, and 'minimum goal congruence' - where the MCS design is unjust and use is unjust too- . And there are two unstable types of goal congruence, labeled ´occasional goal congruence' - when MCS design is unjust but its use is just, and 'perverse goal congruence' - when MCS design is just and its use is unjust. This provides a framework for future empirical research on the subject.

Keywords: justice; fairness; goal congruence; management control systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2012-03-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.iese.edu/research/pdfs/DI-0949-E.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ebg:iesewp:d-0949

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IESE Research Papers from IESE Business School IESE Business School, Av Pearson 21, 08034 Barcelona, SPAIN. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Noelia Romero ().