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1 - Control is fundamental

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Sim B Sitkin ,
Laura B. Cardinal  and
Katinka M. Bijlsma-Frankema
Edited by
Sim B. Sitkin ,
Laura B. Cardinal  and
Katinka M. Bijlsma-Frankema
Sim B Sitkin
Affiliation:
Duke University
Laura B. Cardinal
Affiliation:
University of Houston
Katinka M. Bijlsma-Frankema
Affiliation:
VU University, Amsterdam
Sim B. Sitkin
Affiliation:
Duke University, North Carolina
Laura B. Cardinal
Affiliation:
University of Houston
Katinka M. Bijlsma-Frankema
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
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Summary

Organizational control is a fundamental aspect of organizing that has been largely neglected by organizational scholars for several decades. This volume brings together new approaches to organizational control theory and research by a diverse group of scholars with different scholarly viewpoints to show the vibrancy and future potential of the domain for generative scholarship. The purpose is to provide a springboard and touchstone for a renewal of work in this area.

Priming a renaissance in control research

Control systems have long been recognized as a fundamental aspect of all organizations (Scott, 1992) through which managers seek to align employee capabilities, activities, and performance with organizational goals and aspirations (Cyert and March, 1963; Merchant, 1985). Despite the fundamental nature of the phenomenon, its recognized importance, and some significant foundational work on organizational control, this area of study has been and remains seriously neglected. Specifically, organizational control is today underconceptualized in terms of its key constructs and its determinants and effects. As a result, organizational control has been subjected to only minimal theoretical and cumulative empirical study in recent years.

The atrophy of control research in the domain of organization and management presents a striking contrast with a rise in recent attention to control in the managerial accounting literature, where it has achieved some prominence (Birnberg and Snodgrass, 1988; Davila, 2005; Davila and Foster, 2007; Henri, 2006; Hopwood, 2005; Merchant and Simons, 1986; Simons, 1991, 1994, 1995; Whitley, 1999).

Type
Chapter
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Organizational Control , pp. 3 - 15
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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