Strategic Management Control: Successful Strategies Based on Dialogue and Collaboration

Strategic management control differs from traditional management control in several important respects. First, it supports both strategy formulation and strategy implementation. Second, it is to a large extent based on non-financial information. Third, it deals with both the long and short term and supports not only tactical, but also strategic and operational decision-making. Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, strategic management control is designed for, and adapted to, each organisation’s unique strategies.

In this context, the book emphasises the importance of dialogues. The authors argue that it is unwise to assume that decisions taken at the top of the organisation will automatically be executed and obeyed throughout the organisation. Instead, they highlight the importance of dialogue and collaboration, both between hierarchical levels within the organisation and between actors in the network. Such communication is essential to making management control processes both strategic and successful.

The book follows a clear structure, from the design of strategies to the everyday evaluation and discussion of performance and results. Though primarily intended for professionals working in strategy and management control at organisations, it will also benefit students and academics interested in strategy and management control.

About the Authors

Fredrik Nilsson has been Professor of Business Studies, specialising in Accounting, at Uppsala University, Sweden, since 2010. Previously he was Professor of Economic Information Systems at Linköping University, Sweden. In his current research he focusses on how different information systems (e.g. related to financial accounting, management control and production control) are designed and used in formulating and implementing strategies.

Carl-Johan Petri is Assistant Professor of Economic Information Systems at Linköping University, Sweden. He has worked with management control development for more than 20 years. He is mainly interested in the use of strategy maps and balanced scorecards, both in research and practice. He has published several books on the balanced scorecard that have been translated into a dozen languages.

Alf Westelius is Professor at Linköping University, Sweden, specialising on how new and mature organisations navigate and function in the ever-more digitised and dynamic world. People build, manage and control, and shape organisations. Therefore a corner-stone of his research and consulting is Perspectives Management, identifying and paying heed to perspective differences among people. His analyses pay attention both to the specific and the general, and often transcend borders between the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.