The argument of the paper is that a management- control system (containing people) is fundamentally different from a process-control system (containing hardware). Given this difference, the methods of analysis and design appropriate to management- control systems need also to be fundamentally different. A modelling language and associated methodology which have been derived from a continuing programme of action research are illustrated in the paper and are suggested as one way in which the problems of the analysis and design of management control systems can be tackled.
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