Management Control Systems: A Historical Perspective

Abstract

The aim of this article is to review the background literature on management control systems in organisations. It presents a historical revision of the different trends in the literature on control systems in organisations, in accordance with their common characteristics. The earliest studies conducted on control systems saw them as cybernetic and formal tools, focused on the accounting information systems. In order to surpass the identified limitations of such mechanistic systems, new approaches were developed in which the rational and passive behaviour of individuals was substituted by a greater consideration for the organisational and motivational factors that influence behaviour, accepting that the crucial aspects for the design and implementation of the control systems are not limited solely to those of a formal nature. Subsequently, the cybernetic viewpoint was enriched with different contributions by other trends of thought which centred on analysing the influence of psychosocial and cultural aspects as key variables in the control of organisations. Therefore, the current trend in management control research is to combine the use of formal systems, having financial and non financial indicators, with informal systems, to create a “control package”, because it is considered that through the sole use of cybernetic systems it is impossible to control the relevant variables for an organisation to achieve its objectives.

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