Management Control System

Management controls, in the broadest sense, include the plan of organization, methods and procedures adopted by management to ensure that its goals are met. Management controls include processes for planning, organizing, directing, and controlling program operations. A subset of management controls are the internal controls used to assure that there is prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the entity's assets.
Simons (1994) defined MCS as "the formal, information-based routines and procedures managers use to maintain or alter patterns in organizational activities".

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A management control systems (MCS) is a system which gathers and uses information to evaluate the performance of different organizational resources like human, physical, financial and also the organization as a whole considering the organizational strategies. Finally, MCS influences the behavior of organizational resources to implement organizational strategies. MCS might be formal or informal. The term ‘management control’ was given of its current connotations by Robert N. Anthony (Otley, 1994). [1]

Robert N. Anthony (2007) defined Management Control is the process by which managers influence other members of the organization to implement the organization’s strategies. Management control systems are tools to aid management for steering an organization toward its strategic objectives and competitive advantage. Management controls are only one of the tools which managers use in implementing desired strategies. However strategies get implemented through management controls, organizational structure, human resources management and culture.[2] Anthony & Young (1999) showed management control system as a black box. The term black box is used to describe an operation whose exact nature cannot be observed. MCS involves the behavior of managers and these behaviors

References: 1. ^ Otley, D., 1994. Management coontrol in contemporary organizations: towards a wider framework, Management Accounting Research, 5, 289-299. 2. ^ Anthony, R. and Govindarajan, V., 2007. Management Control Systems, Chicago, Mc-Graw-Hill IRWIN. 3. ^ Anthony, R. and Young, D., 1999. Management control in nonprofit organizations, Boston, Irwin McGraw-Hill. 4. ^ Horngren, C., Sundem, G. and Stratton, W., 2005. Introduction to Management Accounting, New Jersey, Pearson. 5. ^ Simons, 1995, Levers of Control, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, p. 5 6 7. ^ Maciariello, J. and Kirby, C., 1994. Management Control Systems - Using Adaptive Systems to Attain Control, New Jersey, Prentice 1 Langfield-Smith, K. 1997. Management control systems and strategy |