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Controlling the Autonomous

Swedérus, Christoffer LU and Groth, Tycho LU (2014) FEKN90 20141
Department of Business Administration
Abstract
During the late 20th century, large parts of the contributions to management theory consisted of concepts on management control systems. The purposes of these were often focused on manual labor and they directed the effort to control employees in order to get competitive advantage, typically through increased productivity (Simons, 1990). Today, however, the focus has shifted from control in labor-intensive firms to control in the knowledge-intensive firm (Drucker 2007). The purpose of this thesis is therefore to get a richer understanding of management control systems in a knowledge-intensive firm, as well as contributing with illustrative empirical data on the subject. Through a qualitative case study of a highly technological firm we... (More)
During the late 20th century, large parts of the contributions to management theory consisted of concepts on management control systems. The purposes of these were often focused on manual labor and they directed the effort to control employees in order to get competitive advantage, typically through increased productivity (Simons, 1990). Today, however, the focus has shifted from control in labor-intensive firms to control in the knowledge-intensive firm (Drucker 2007). The purpose of this thesis is therefore to get a richer understanding of management control systems in a knowledge-intensive firm, as well as contributing with illustrative empirical data on the subject. Through a qualitative case study of a highly technological firm we seek to understand how control mechanisms affect the knowledge-worker and his or hers productivity. During our study we found two positive areas of effect the control mechanisms can have on the knowledge-worker. They can (1) structure the work of the knowledge-worker, as well as (2) be used to increase the productivity. The study is based on the management control system package by Malmi and Brown (2008), together with various theories on knowledge and knowledge-intensive firms. We argue for customization of control mechanisms in order to get desired effect, which should be done in adherence to Drucker’s (1999) six factors of productivity. (Less)
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author
Swedérus, Christoffer LU and Groth, Tycho LU
supervisor
organization
course
FEKN90 20141
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Management Control Systems, Management Control Systems Package, Knowledge-intensive firm, Case Study, Productivity, Structure
language
English
id
4622723
date added to LUP
2014-09-05 15:49:21
date last changed
2014-09-05 15:49:21
@misc{4622723,
  abstract     = {{During the late 20th century, large parts of the contributions to management theory consisted of concepts on management control systems. The purposes of these were often focused on manual labor and they directed the effort to control employees in order to get competitive advantage, typically through increased productivity (Simons, 1990). Today, however, the focus has shifted from control in labor-intensive firms to control in the knowledge-intensive firm (Drucker 2007). The purpose of this thesis is therefore to get a richer understanding of management control systems in a knowledge-intensive firm, as well as contributing with illustrative empirical data on the subject. Through a qualitative case study of a highly technological firm we seek to understand how control mechanisms affect the knowledge-worker and his or hers productivity. During our study we found two positive areas of effect the control mechanisms can have on the knowledge-worker. They can (1) structure the work of the knowledge-worker, as well as (2) be used to increase the productivity. The study is based on the management control system package by Malmi and Brown (2008), together with various theories on knowledge and knowledge-intensive firms. We argue for customization of control mechanisms in order to get desired effect, which should be done in adherence to Drucker’s (1999) six factors of productivity.}},
  author       = {{Swedérus, Christoffer and Groth, Tycho}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Controlling the Autonomous}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}