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Add management control to the growing list of management topics that we need to reconceptualize in the nineties. Then read Robert Simons' new book to get started.
Today, control in organizations is as much about encouraging creativity and innovation as it is about minimizing surprise and correcting deviations. Simons designs or model of management control for effective strategy implementation based on the notion that a new concept of control must balance freedom and constraint, empowerment and accountability, top-down direction and bottom-up creativity, experimentation and efficiency.
To bring about a successful balance of these critical tensions, Simons proposes four basic levers to transmit and process information: beliefs systems, boundary systems, diagnostic control systems, and interactive control systems. An analogy to the opposing forces of yin and yang in Chinese philosophy is used to suggest the necessary tension set up by the levers. Beliefs systems and interactive control systems are yang: they create "positive and inspirational forces." Boundary systems and diagnostic control systems are yin; they create "constraints and ensure compliance with orders."
Selecting the appropriate lever is one of the most important strategic decisions that a manager can make. By highlighting the criticality of this decision, Simons begins to redress an overemphasis that sometimes has been placed on strategy formation and formulation, to the relative neglect of implementation. Control is at the heart of successful implementation and, as Simons suggests, it may be central to all strategic thinking.
Beliefs and boundary systems inform search for opportunities. A...