This presentation shows the cross cultural implications on Management Control Systems and was made during the Cross Cultural Management Erasmus Intensive Programme at the TEI of Crete - Greece.

1. CROSS
CULTURAL
IMPLICATIONS
ON
MANAGEMENT
CONTROL
SYSTEMS
Paulino Silva
paulino@iscap.ipp.pt
ISCAP - IPP, Portugal

2. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 2
OUTLINE
1. Introduction
2. Management Control
3. Control Problems
4. Types of Controls
5. Cultural implications on MCS
6. Conclusion

3. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 3
WHAT
IS
MANAGEMENT
CONTROL?
“Management Control is thus fundamentally
concerned with ensuring that appropriate actions
are taken to implement overall organizational
plans, and with monitoring the effectiveness of
such action and plans.” (Emannuel et al., 1990)
“Management Control is the function that makes
sure that actual work is done to fulfill the original
intention” (Drury, 2003).

4. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 4
CONTROL
PROBLEMS
l People may fail in an organization’s best interest
for three basic reasons:
1. Lack of direction
2. Lack of motivation
3. Lack of abilities

5. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 5
LACK
OF
DIRECTION
l People do not always understand what they are
expected to do.
l Some employees perform poorly because they
do not know what the organization waits from
them à managers have to inform them how
they can maximize their contributions in favour of
organization’s objectives.

6. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 6
LACK
OF
MOTIVATION
l Some people who know what is expected from
them are not interested in behaving conveniently
because of their individual incentives are not
adequate to motivate them to perform.
l This happens when organizational objectives are
not coincident with those of individuals.
l Some drastic examples of motivational problems
are employee theft or fraud.
l A particular form of “stealing” happens when
employees manipulate their performance reports.

7. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 7
LACK
OF
ABILITIES
l There are two types of abilities, innate abilities,
or acquired abilities.
l This problem occurs when people know what is
expected from them and are very motivated.
l The cause can be lack of intelligence, training,
experience or even competencies for the
function.
l Another cause that happens very often is that
jobs are not well designed.

8. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 8
DIFFERENT
TYPES
OF
CONTROL
l To make sense of the vast number of controls
that are used we can classify them into three
categories using approaches of Ouchi (1979)
and Merchant (1998). They are:
n Results (or output) controls;
n Action (or behavioural) controls;
n Personnel and cultural (or clan and social) controls.

9. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 9
RESULTS
CONTROLS
l Results controls are presented through the form of
results accountability.
l To implement results controls, managers should:
n Define the dimensions along which results are desired;
n Measure performance on these dimensions and
compare them with pre-determined standards;
n Provide rewards to compensate desired results.
l The most important form of results controls is the
budgetary control, as it measures outputs as well as
inputs.

10. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 10
RESULTS
CONTROLS
–
CONDITIONS
l Conditions to use results controls:
n Managers should know what results are most
wanted in the areas being controlled;
n Employees whose behaviours are being
controlled have considerable influence on the
results for which they are being held
accountable;
n Managers should measure the results effectively.

11. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 11
RESULTS
CONTROLS
-­‐
ADVANTAGES
l Results controls can influence people’s
behaviour without put in question their
autonomy;
l Results controls can provide effective control,
even where necessary knowledge is short of to
what actions are desirable;
l Results controls are normally cheap.

12. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 12
ACTION
CONTROLS
l Action controls aim to ensure that individuals
perform certain actions that are known to be
desirable.
l Involve observing the actions of individuals as
they go about their work.

13. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 13
FORMS
OF
ACTION
CONTROLS
l Behavioural constraints: provide a preventive
form of action control by making difficult some
undesirable behaviours. For example, locks,
personnel identification, passwords, etc.
l Pre-action review: involves observing the work of
others before the task is complete and making
corrections if needed. For example, planning
reviews, approvals on capital expenditure
proposals, etc.

14. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 14
FORMS
OF
ACTION
CONTROLS
l Action-accountability controls: similar to results-
accountability controls. They require i) defining
the limits of acceptable behaviours; ii) tracking
the behaviours; and iii) punishing deviations.
l Redundancy: involves assigning more
employees (or machines) to a task than the
necessary.

15. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 15
ACTION
CONTROLS
-­‐
ADVANTAGES
l There is a direct link between the control and the
object being controlled, that is actions;
l Action-accountability controls have a tendency to
lead to documentation of the accumulation of
knowledge about effective organizational
practices;
l Action controls are an efficient way to support
organizational coordination;
l Some action controls can prevent the first
occurrence of undesirable actions.

16. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 16
PERSONNEL
&
CULTURAL
CONTROLS
l These controls are used by managers to benefit
in two different ways: individual self-control and
social control.
l Individual self-control is a present force that
pushes most people to perform the best way.
l Social control is a pressure exerted by
workgroups on those who deviate from group
norms and values.

17. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 17
PERSONNEL
&
CULTURAL
CONTROLS
l These controls can be put in place through upgrading
the capabilities or reliability of staff in key positions;
l Some forms of personnel and cultural controls are:
n to institute training programmes;
n improving communications to help individuals understand
their roles better;
n To provide resources that people need to perform their jobs
well;
n Encouraging peer control by establishing cohesive
workgroups with shared goals;
n Build a strong corporate culture that increases staff’s
identification with corporate goals and values.

18. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 18
CONTROL
PROBLEMS
AND
TYPES
Control Types
Control problems
Lack of direction Lack of motivation Lack of abilities
Results controls:
- Results accountability X X
Action controls:
- Behavioural constraints
- Pre-action reviews
- Action accountability
- Redundancy
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Personnel controls:
- Selection and placement
- Training
- Provision of necessary resources
- Creation of a strong organizational culture
- Group-based rewards
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

19. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 19
CONTROL
SYSTEM
DESIGN
l Managers need to adapt combinations of the
feasible controls (results, action and personnel) to
the demands of the situations being controlled.
l The first step to design a control system is to
identify the control problems that exist à this is
important because the control types are not equally
effective at addressing each of the control problems.
For example, results controls do not help solve
personal limitations, and training does not solve
motivational problems.

20. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 20
CULTURAL
ISSUES
l Countries, and even regions within countries
have different cultures;
l These differences may not affect the design of
the management control system, but they can
have a great effect on how information from the
system is used.

21. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 21
MULTINATIONALITY
l Normally, controlling multinational organizations is more
difficult than controlling domestic organizations;
l Managers face a multidimensional organizational
problem: their organizations are organized not only by
function and product line, but also by geography.
l The geographic factor requires managers adapt their
organizations to each of the national (and even
regional) cultures in which they operate.
l Management Control Systems adaptation across
borders is difficult, and if done improperly the
organization may suffer.

22. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 22
NATIONAL
CULTURES:
SIMILARITIES
l People, in all countries, and all regions of all
countries, have the same basic physiological
needs and similar desires for safety, comfort
and accomplishment.
l This means that people tend to respond to the
set of incentives with which they are faced to
further their own self-interests.

23. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 23
EXAMPLE
FROM
CHINA
l For example, in Beijing, in China’s socialistic
economy, different types of taxi fare structure
exist.
n Type 1: earn only 1 yuan (about 0,10 €) for the first
km of travel, but 1,5 yuan for every km after that à
these drivers are highly motivated to find customers
wanting long rides, and refuse short ones.
n Type 2: earn 10 yuan for the first km of travel, but 1
yuan for every km after that à these drivers are
highly motivated to find customers wanting short
rides, and refuse long ones.

24. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 24
EXAMPLE
FROM
CHINA
l These examples from China provide evidence
that results controls should work anywhere
in the world.
l People, even in a country that has used a
socialistic economy for a long time, respond to
the environment with which they are faced in
satisfying their own self-interests.
l Besides that, money proves to be a powerful
motivator!

25. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 25
NATIONAL
CULTURES:
DIFFERENCES
l Despite the basic similarities, there are also
many differences:
n National culture: “the collective programming of the
mind which distinguishes the members of one group or
society from another”.
n National culture admits that people’s tastes, norms,
values, social attitudes, religions, personal priorities,
and responses to interpersonal stimuli differ across
nations.
n An important factor of MCS’s effectiveness is whether
the staff perceive them as culturally appropriate.

26. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 26
HOFSTEDE
CULTURAL
DIMENSIONS
l The four cultural dimensions identified by Geert
Hofstede are:
n Individualism
n Power distance
n Uncertainty avoidance
n Masculinity
l However, these four dimensions do not explain
all the differences between people in different
countries, but explain a part of it.
l Each dimension has an implication for MCSs.

27. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 27
INDIVIDUALISM
(VS.
COLLECTIVISM)
l People from an individualistic culture tend to
place their self-interests ahead of those of the
group;
l People from a collectivistic culture are
motivated by group interests and emphasize
maintenance of interpersonal harmony.

28. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 28
POWER
DISTANCE
l It relates to the extent to which members of a
society accept that institutional or
organizational power is distributed
unequally.

29. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 29
UNCERTAINTY
AVOIDANCE
l Uncertainty avoidance can be strong or weak;
l Individuals strong in uncertainty avoidance feel
uncomfortable when the future is unknown and
ambiguous.

30. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 30
MASCULINITY
l The masculinity dimension relates to the
preference for achievement, assertiveness
and material success (masculine);
l This is opposed to an emphasis on
relationships, modesty and the quality of life
(feminine).

31. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 31
COMPARING
CULTURES
l If we compare Taiwanese culture with U.S.
culture, we found the U.S. culture more
individualistic and more masculine, while
Taiwanese culture is higher in power
distance and uncertainty avoidance;
l These cultural dimensions are so important, that
some researchers have suggested that high
individualism is a key factor of U.S.
management theories.

32. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 32
INDIVIDUALISM
EFFECTS
l Employees very individualistic tend to prefer
individual-oriented work arrangements, performance
evaluations and compensations à this is what
happens very often with U.S. companies that make
relatively high use of individual incentives.
l Employees high in collectivism tend to prefer more
group-oriented work arrangements, and as so group
performance evaluations and compensations à
Group performance is the basis for the performance
compensation in firms from countries with a very
collectivistic culture.

33. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 33
POWER
DISTANCE
EFFECTS
l People who are high in power distance tend to
prefer greater centralization of decision-
making authority and less participation on
decision-making processes;
l In this stream, it is expected to see higher
decentralization and more employee
participation in standard setting in companies
from low power distance cultures.

34. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 34
UNCERTAINTY
AVOIDANCE
EFFECTS
l Planning and budgeting systems should be
more elaborate, with more ritual, to reduce
employees’ level of anxiety;
l Managers should also use more formal, more
rigid performance standards and less
subjectivity in performance evaluations.

35. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 35
MASCULINITY
EFFECTS
l Managers should design MCS taking into
account that masculine cultures permit the focus
on performance, relative performance
evaluations , and performance-based incentives.
l In feminine cultures, emphasizing performance
without taking into account the well-being of
members is likely to be less accepted or even
counterproductive.

36. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 36
LOCAL
INSTITUTIONS
l Social, government, and legal institutions vary
significantly across nations (government agencies,
baking systems, labor unions, etc.);
l Legal systems can be very important as well, since
they include property rights, regulations, access to
legal remedies, and the enforceability of contracts;
l For example, organizations in countries with strong
labor unions often find it difficult to implement
performance-based pay for incentive purposes.
Most unions prefer basing pay on seniority.

37. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 37
LOCAL
BUSINESS
ENVIRONMENTS
l Business risk can be caused by security problems,
such as military conflicts, kidnappings, bombings,
etc.
l Inflation: environmental factor that differs
significantly across countries. Inflation variations
affect the value of currencies à create financial
risk;
l Labor availability, quality and mobility: In
developing countries skilled and educated labor is
limited. In these situations MCSs tend to be more
focused on action controls than on results controls.

38. PAULINO SILVA – CCMIP 38
CONCLUSION
l Problems of control can be overcome with
different types of control;
l Cultural issues can be very important, not only in
the design of a MCS, but also in its use;
l Other external factors, besides culture, should
be taken into account by managers when
implement and use MCSs.

39. Thank
you
very
much!
Questions & Comments?
Paulino Silva
paulino@iscap.ipp.pt
ISCAP - IPP, Portugal