Organizational Control Systems as a Managerial Tool

Onsi M. , “Factor Analysis of Behavioral Variables Affecting Budgetary Slack,” The Accounting Review (July 1973), pp. 535–548.

Lawrence P.R. Lorsch J.W. , Organization and Environment (Cambridge: Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, 1967).

Sloan A.P. , My Years with General Motors (New York: Macfadden-Bartell, 1965).

Ibid., p. 140.

An interesting analogy may be drawn between direct and indirect forms of management control through centralization and decentralization and chess strategy for controlling the center of the board. A fundamental strategic principle of chess is to control the center. Many chess openings seek to do this directly by moving pawns to the center squares, while the modern openings seek the same degree of control by more indirect methods. For example, contrast the openings of the “Ruy Lopez” with the “Indian in Reverse” in Horowitz I.A. , Chess Openings: Theory and Practice (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1964), pp. 82, 744.

Hall F.S. , “Organizational Goals: The Status of Theory and Research,” in Livingston J.L. (ed.). Managerial Accounting: The Behavioral Foundations (Grid, Inc., 1975), pp. 1–32.

Flamholtz E. , “Towards a Psycho-Technical Systems Paradigm of Organizational Measurement,” Decision Sciences (1979), pp. 71–84.

Ibid.

Babchuk N. Goode W.J. , “Work Incentives in a Self-Determined Group,” American Sociological Review (1951), pp. 679–687.

Georgopoulos B.S. Mahoney G.M. Jones N.W. , “A Path-Goal Approach to Productivity,” Journal of Applied Psychology (1957), pp. 345–353.

Kerr S. , “On the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B,” Academy of Management Journal (December 1975), pp. 769–783.

Ridgway V.F. , “Dysfunctional Consequences of Performance Measurements,” Administrative Science Quarterly (September 1956), pp. 240–247; and Lawler E.E. Rhode J.G. , Information and Control in Organizations (Pacific Palisades, CA: Goodyear Publishing Co., 1976).

For a case history, see Anthony R.N. Dearden J. , Management Control Systems, Third Edition (Homewood, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin, 1976), pp. 107–119.

Flamholtz E. , Human Resource Accounting (Encino, CA: Dickenson Publishing Co., 1974).

Blau P.M. , The Dynamics of Bureaucracy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955) p. 43.

Also on the subject, Asch S.E. , “Effects of Group Pressure Upon the Modification and Distortion of Judgements,” Scientific American (November 1955), pp. 31–34; Atkinson J.W. , An Introduction to Motivation (Princeton: Van Nostrand, 1964); and Blau P.M. Scott W.R. , Formal Organizations: A Comparative Approach (San Francisco: Chandler Publishing Co., 1962).