THE RELATION BETWEEN MANAGEMENT CONTROL SYSTEMS AND SUSTAINABILITY

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2021-08-21

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en

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This study provides both scientifically and societally relevant insights into the relation between Management Control Systems and sustainability. Little is currently known about the exact role of MCSs in managing an organisation’s sustainable strategy (Crutzen & Herzig, 2013; Maas et al., 2016; Joshi & Li, 2016). In this study, the concept of Management Control Systems focuses predominantly on the framework of Malmi and Brown (2008), which assumes Management Control Systems as interrelated packages of control. The concept of sustainability is based on Elkington’s (1994) Triple Bottom Line, in which three crucial P’s – People, Profit, and Planet – are formulated. By conducting a qualitative, single case study at Deloitte Netherlands, an in-depth understanding is obtained in the role Management Control Systems, both formal and informal, play in managing the sustainable strategy of Deloitte Netherlands (Yin, 2014). Thereby, an interpretivist research paradigm is adopted. The results of this study indicate that Deloitte Netherlands uses all five typologies of control systems in the framework of Malmi and Brown (2008) for the management of her sustainable strategy. Within Deloitte Netherlands, both cultural controls and cybernetic controls are the most crucial typologies of controls (Malmi & Brown, 2008). Deloitte Netherlands uses these five typologies of control as an interrelated package of controls, where these typologies are highly interdependent and mutually reinforcing (Malmi & Brown, 2008). Furthermore, formal management controls and informal management controls are used in a complementary way. Keywords:

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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen

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