TEACHING

Management control is an essential function of management to ensure that the organization’s objectives and strategies are carried out effectively. Modern management control systems include but move far beyond the definition and control of accounting targets. Instead, achieving organizational objectives requires a deep understanding of behavioral traits, strategic management, and forward-guided innovation policies. Management control mechanisms are then important to guide the managers in the company, so that they contribute in the best possible way to the total value creation of the company.

In this course, we will first discuss why and how firms grow, in order to understand why management control systems are required. We will also study the fundamental tenants stipulated in ‘textbook management control’, i.e., people controls, action controls and results controls. Departing from this, we will discuss modern techniques and pitfalls that are important for defining responsibilities and goals in work units. Important in this context is the question how to incentivize members of an organization, in particular, what are difficulties and different tools to achieve the overall organizational goals. Additionally, the course also deals with control-related issues, e.g., the dysfunctional effects of control system tightness or deploying insights from management control systems to spread good ethics within an organization. Taken together, the course uses fundamental principles of management control systems as a basis to explore a modern view of how management can strategically steer business performance. To this end, we will explore recent findings from economic research that build the bridge between practical, managerial perspectives and up-to-date academic research.

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I am available for advice on academic matters via email (click here). If you are enrolled at GBS and wish to have a personal or virtual meeting, please set up appointments in due time.