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This stud aims to analyze the influence that the enabling and coercive management control systems (MCS) have on the individuals’ mental representations and their commitment to goals, satisfaction with the system and perceived organizational support. Under the lens of the construal level theory (CLT), it is assumed that: individuals exhibit more positive behaviors when the MCS is enabling rather than coercive; the effects of MCS on the behavior of individuals are explained by the way they mentally represent events; and these effects are intensified or mitigated according to the psychological distance.

The predictions were tested in an experiment with 131 undergraduate students, assuming a company that decides to implement a performance measurement system.

The results show that enabling MCS are interpreted more abstractly (high level of construction) and coercive MCS are represented more concretely (low level of construction). Furthermore, enabling systems lead to more positive behaviors (commitment to goals and perceived organizational support) than coercive ones, however, the satisfaction with the MCS is affected by both depending on psychological distance.

The CLT allowed broadening the understanding of the effects of enabling and coercive controls on individuals’ behavior, by assuming that mental representation can explain individuals’ behaviors. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to point out that temporal distance can attenuate the negative effects of coercive MCS on satisfaction with the system.

The authors study how enabling perceptions (flexibility, reparability and internal and global transparency) of a budgetary control system are formed, and whether enabling perceptions empower lower-level managers and make them form less negative attitudes about red tape in the organization. This study research is warranted because of the lack of knowledge on how perceptual variation in flexibility, repairability and transparency of a control system within an organization, where managers experiencing the same control system design, can be explained.

Survey data with answers from 211 managers from a large local government organization in Sweden is analyzed with structural equation modeling.

The extent to which the budget system is perceived as having enabling qualities (being flexible, reparable and transparent) is explained by the safeness of the individual manager's psychological climate. This climate is characterized by trust and fairness perceptions in upper management. In turn, enabling perceptions positively affect a sense of psychological empowerment and reduces attitudes toward red tape in the organization.

The authors contribute by identifying an important factor explaining individual-level variability in enabling perceptions of control systems within organizations. Compared to previous research that has taken an interest in the organizational-level climate, the authors theorize about and investigate (parts of) the individual-level psychological climate as an explanation of within-system variability.

The purpose of the article is to outline the insights provided by Alan Fox in Man Mismanagement in relation to the rise of the New Right political economy and the spread of unitarist managerialism. The article assesses the contemporary work and employment relations implications of mismanagement arising from a “second wave” of the New Right ideology from 2010 in the UK.

Responding to the Special Issue on Alan Fox, the article focuses on Alan Fox's book Man Mismanagement, considering industrial relations developments arising between the 1st (1974b) and 2nd (1985) editions relating to the political rise of the New Right. It reviews various literature that illustrates the contemporary IR relevance of the book and Fox's insights.

The New Right’s ideology has further fragmented work, disjointed labour rights and undermined collective industrial relations institutions, and macho mismanagement praxis is even more commonplace, compared to when Fox wrote Man Mismanagement. The stripping away of the institutional architecture of IR renders the renewal of pluralist praxis, like collective bargaining and other forms of joint regulation of work, a formidable task.

The value of the article relates to the identification of dramatic historical industrial relations events and change in the UK in Alan Fox's book Man Mismanagement, most notably relating to the rise to power of the Thatcherite New Right in 1979. Originality is evidenced by the authors’ drawing on Fox's ideas and assessing the implications of the “second wave” of the New Right in the contemporary industrial relations (IR) context of the 2020s under the conceptual themes of fragmented work, disjointed labour rights and undermined collectivism.

This study aims to respond to calls for more research to understand how sustainability control systems (SCSs) feature (or do not feature) in short-term operational and long-term strategic decision-making.

An in-depth case study of a large multinational organisation undertaking several rounds of sustainability reporting is presented. Data collection was extensive including 26 semi-structured interviews with a range of employees from senior management to facility employees, access to confidential reports and internal documents and attendance of company meetings, including an external stakeholder engagement meeting and the attendance of the company’s annual environmental meeting. A descriptive, analytical and explanatory analysis is performed on the case context (Pfister et al., 2022).

Simon’s (1995) levers of control framework structures our discussion. The case company has sophisticated and formalised diagnostic controls and strong belief and boundary systems. Conventional management controls and SCSs are used in short-term operational decision-making, although differences between financial imperatives and other aspects such as environmental concerns are difficult to reconcile. SCSs also provided information to justify company actions in short-term decisions that impacted stakeholders. However, SCSs played a very limited role in the long-term strategic decision. Tensions between social, environmental and economic factors are more reconcilable in the long-term strategic decision, where holistic risks and opportunities need to be fully identified. External reporting is seen in a “constraining” light (Tessier and Otley, 2012), and intentionally de-coupled from SCSs.

This paper responds to recent calls for rich, holistic and contextually-grounded perspectives of sustainability processes at an extractives company. The study provides novel insight into how SCSs are used (or not used) in short-term or long-term decision-making and external reporting. The paper illustrates how a large company is responding to sustainability pressures within the unique contextual setting of New Zealand. The study outlines the imitations of existing practice and provides implications for how sustainability-based internal controls can be better embedded into organisations.

A large number of studies indicate that coercive forms of organizational control and performance management in health care services often backfire and initiate dysfunctional consequences. The purpose of this article is to discuss new approaches to performance management in health care services when the purpose is to support innovative changes in the delivery of services.

The article represents cross-boundary work as the theoretical and empirical material used to discuss and reconsider performance management comes from several relevant research disciplines, including systematic reviews of audit and feedback interventions in health care and extant theories of human motivation and organizational control.

An enabling approach to performance management in health care services can potentially contribute to innovative changes. Key design elements to operationalize such an approach are a formative and learning-oriented use of performance measures, an appeal to self- and social-approval mechanisms when providing feedback and support for local goals and action plans that fit specific conditions and challenges.

The article suggests how to operationalize an enabling approach to performance management in health care services. The framework is consistent with new governance and managerial approaches emerging in public sector organizations more generally, supporting a higher degree of professional autonomy and the use of nonfinancial incentives.

Power is one of the single most critical concepts for understanding industrial relations management. Yet, despite having been subject to much scholarly attention, existing research often implicitly assumes an organizational level of behavior or examines influence tactics within the confines of an individual-level dyad. This has led to a limited understanding of influence exercises involving a third person. Motivated to advance the understanding of this phenomenon, this study aims to explore how boundary spanners from a buying organization influence supplier representatives by involving a third person.

This study uses a longitudinal single case study design grounded in social control theory. Data consist of interviews, observations and documents collected over a period of 27 months in a global sourcing context.

The findings demonstrate how the influence agent from the buying organization can invoke a third person’s mediated and nonmediated social power base through either direct or indirect social control mechanisms. With these findings, this paper makes a novel theoretical contribution by developing a deeper understanding of underexposed social influence tactics unfolding in individual-level triads.

This study offers boundary spanning managers with practical insights into subtle and indirect forms of social influence with which they can influence external exchange partners.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to draw on social control theory to examine interpersonal influence tactics in buyer-supplier relationships. By integrating this theoretical perspective with extant research on social power, this study emphasizes the importance of considering how the influence agent mobilizes a third person’s social influence base.

This study aims to focus on the legal status of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) regulatory spread in spite of its limited membership in international law. This is conducted by examining the regime of the FATF with the normative regime of public international law and trying to identify common grounds and conflicts between the two.

This study adopted an exploratory approach involving a thorough examination and analysis of accredited text, command papers and reports, archival materials, national obligations, websites as well as other documentary evidence.

This research gives an empirical determinant of compliance behaviour in response to FATF regulatory standards and the interplay of international law.

The findings here are not exhaustive and could be approached from other perspectives. Researchers are therefore encouraged to engage by testing the findings further, as this is only a blueprint for further research.

This study provides implications for the need to open up the current membership of the FATF, as it appears discriminatory in nature and could inhibit effective compliance with its regulatory standards.

FATF regulatory standards do not just revolve around its members and rule-takers but also affect unintended and vulnerable people who were never in contemplation when these regulations were debated without a global consensus.

The main aim of this study is to advocate for a rethink of FATF’s regulatory strategy by ensuring that its operations are more inclusive, where jurisdictions can participate as members, creating a sense of belonging and commitment in the fight against money laundering.

This paper aims to clarify the relationship between digitalization and the employees’ autonomy. It proposes a positive relationship between digitalization and employees. It explains why strategic human resource management (HRM) is essential in this relationship. The study aims to solve the control autonomy paradox related to the use of technology in organizations.

The paper opted for the explanatory study using a cross-sectional design. Responses were received from the alumni of a French business school using the survey strategy. Structural equation modelling has been used to validate the measure and to test the hypotheses.

The paper provides empirical evidence for the positive relationship between digitalization and employees’ autonomy. It suggests that an enabling control-based HRM system mediates the positive relationship between digitalization and autonomy.

The study enriches the literature in information technology by solving the control autonomy paradox associated with information technology. Moreover, the study also highlights the importance of an enabling control-based HRM system by underlining its role in developing the empowering organizational context.