Teams and management control systems: a synthesis of three organizational development approaches

Purpose – This paper applies organizational development (OD) process-cultural and structural change strategies to synthesize Etzioni’s three approaches to power and compliance: normative, coercive and remunerative to study the management control systems of teams in organizations. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses library-archives research. Findings – OD’s process and structural differences have affected team members’ commitment and operating performance in these three control systems. Advances in information technology have introduced new forms of normative: surveillance control. Research limitations/implications – If MCS are viewed as adaptive systems, the design and implementation of MCS center on identifying those contingent OD process and structural conditions that support team management in these three control systems. Originality/value – The management control literature has not applied Etzioni’s basis of power and compliance typologies to study the administrative control of teams. This paper fills this research gap by synthesizing and integrating the OD and MCS literature.