Understanding Management Control and Organisational Sense-making

Book excerpt: Summary This book centres around three different areas; management control, organisations and information systems - in order to understand what is actually going on and to make sense of management control questions. Management control techniques used today could in many cases be traced back to industrialisation. With the help of computeraised information systems, the speed and detail with which a manager could get a hold of important information has increased. Today, it has become even more important to be able to choose what information to work with and that the context in which it should be used is understood. Organisational sense-making is in many ways an interesting and important path to take in order to do this. When working with the management control function, it is important to understand the organisation where the work is undertaken. One important part of the function is planning and another is control. Both are needed in order for the management control function to work. Performance is often a key ingredient when trying to find out what is working in a plan and what is not and here the understanding for information becomes necessary. Since the work is done within an organsation, both by managers and employees, it is also crucial to find ways to work with not only models, methods and techniques but also people and social dimensions. Key Features Managers and employees want to act in a meaningful way in general. The way planning and control is undertaken in an organization is to a large extent dependent on the way a manager interprets information about the organisation. Decisions and actions can be traced to the interpretation of a situation in the past and present. Since organisations are built on people, it is important to try to understand why they act in a certain way and how their understanding of the organsiation is evolving. Management control has in many ways been described as a function that is dependent on different techniques and methods; however, it can also be described as a social process, focusing on decisions and actions. Informations systems have come to play a crucial role in managing an organisation, especially when it comes to tracing performance. The demand for responsible and accountable management has led to an increased emphasis on meaningful decisions and actions. The Author Dr Krister Bredmar is associate professor at Linneaus University in Sweden. He has for more then 20 years worked with management control and organisational sense-making, both in theory and in practice. His research has been published both in academic journals and in books. Readership Scholars, students and practitioners. Contents The accounting heritage Corporate epistemology Thinking ahead The essence of management control Understanding performance The control concept in management control Reports, communication and stakeholders The essence of sense-making Organisations as a set of social relations Information systems and management control Individuals and organisations Organisational structure A social perspective A decisions context Techiques and functions Thinking and acting strategically Accounting tools Information and knowledge The performance paradox