Control and empowerment as an organising paradox: implications for management control systems
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
ISSN: 0951-3574
Article publication date: 12 March 2019
Issue publication date: 28 May 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reframe the debate about the tension between management control and employee empowerment by drawing on a theory of paradox. Reframing the problem in this way draws attention to the variety of ways in which organisations can attend to both control and empowerment simultaneously.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors undertake a conceptual examination of the relationship between empowerment and control using a paradox theory lens. First, the authors bring together two dimensions of empowerment – structural empowerment and psychological empowerment – and combine them to produce three new empowerment “scenarios”: illusory empowerment, obstructed empowerment and authentic empowerment. For each of these three scenarios, the central tenets of paradox theory are applied in order to explain the nature of the paradoxical tension, anticipated behavioural responses and the resulting challenges for ongoing management control.
Findings
The authors find that neither structural nor psychological empowerment alone can account for variation in behavioural responses to management control. The conceptual analysis highlights the interplay of socio-ideological control and systems of accountability in generating psychological empowerment and demonstrates that this does not come at a cost to management control but instead results in a reduction in the scale and scope of ongoing challenges.
Originality/value
This paper contributes a new theoretical perspective on the classic problem of tension between management control and employee empowerment. Rather than positioning control and empowerment either as a managerial choice or dialectic, the authors identify three different ways in which organisations can engage with both paradoxical elements simultaneously.
Keywords
Citation
Lewis, R.L., Brown, D.A. and Sutton, N.C. (2019), "Control and empowerment as an organising paradox: implications for management control systems", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 32 No. 2, pp. 483-507. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-11-2017-3223
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited