To Örebro University

A key challenge for management accounting and control is the extent to which the control’s intentions correlate with how it is received and perceived by those who are subject to it. Building on Adler & Borys’ (1996) enabling and coercive bureaucracy, this thesis explores the role of perception; that is, local actors consider controls as enabling their work instead of privileging only those at the top. With insights from international development programs (IDPs) and survey data from individuals managing the IDP interventions at recipient organizations, the thesis investigates the micro-level explanations and outcomes of varied users’ perceptions of enabling qualities of the same management control.

The thesis finds that individual differences in knowledge about the control, cultural orientation, and institutional-based trust positively influence the variation of enabling perceptions of controls. These perceptions result in positive attitudinal and in-role performance outcomes.

The thesis makes a three-fold contribution. First, it advances towards cognitive theory perspective on the enabling perception of control, complementing Adler & Borys’ (1996) system-level theorization. Second, it deepens our understanding into of role of middle managers’ heterogeneity in the enabling perception of control: it extends the conceptualization of local actors’ knowledge as an individual phenomenon other than a collective one, shows how institutional-based trust is critical, particularly in inter-organizational exchanges and where controls are already established group-wide, and addresses cultural meanings personally embodied by individuals that provide premises to interpret control’s intention. Finally, this thesis extends the conceptual elaboration of enabling qualities of control: The enabling features have two domains of definition–the design and perceptual parts–and the absence of flexibility in the perceptual part does not eliminate the general perceived enabling quality of the control. Further enabling perceptions affect performance outcomes in the same way as they affect psychological empowerment outcomes.