Congruence in management control practices

We investigate the degree of congruence between preferred and actual levels of ten management control system (MCS) practices in the areas of budgeting, performance evaluation, and compensation. Survey results from responsibility centre managers indicate significant disagreements between preferred and actual levels for most MCS practices. Congruence states of deprivation, satisfaction, and saturation exist for eight MCS practices, and deprivation is the most frequent state for seven MCS practices. Congruence is significantly correlated with performance, and eight MCS congruence variables are markedly related to the congruence variables found to have performance effects.