The relationship of organizational culture with management control systems and environmental management control systems

Abstract

This paper expands upon examinations of the flexibility–stability continuum of organizational culture in the extant literature by identifying how the four culture types of the competing values framework are associated with the emphasis on management control systems (MCS) and environmental management control systems (EMCS). By analyzing data drawn from a dyadic survey addressing both heads of management accounting and heads of sustainability or environmental management, this paper provides empirical evidence for multiple direct associations of different culture types, specifically, adhocracy, bureaucracy, clan, and market cultures, with a set of environmental and general management controls, specifically, action, cultural, personnel, and results controls. For instance, bureaucracy cultures are positively associated with action, personnel, and results controls for MCS and cultural controls for EMCS, while clan cultures are positively associated with cultural and personnel controls for MCS but negatively associated with action and results controls for EMCS. According to our findings, firms cannot transfer their emphasis on general MCS to specific EMCS because different organizational cultures are associated with MCS and EMCS in different ways. This disentanglement of organizational culture facilitates a deeper understanding of environmental controls at the organizational level.