Executing management control through decision technology

Abstract

When competition is tough and resources are scarce, management may seek ways to systematise their decision-making process so as to control their operations and resource allocations. Yet little is known about how decision technology is used as a means to administer managerial control. This research investigates how an organisation used decision technology to execute management control to manage the work activities of their employees in a group decision-making setting. It assesses the impact decision technology has had at the firm level focusing on the transformation of the formalised decision process and the individuals involved. The research is carried out using case study, where the data is collected from multiple sources including passive observations in board meetings and functional team meetings, and interviews with decision makers of different hierarchal levels. We found that the decision technology not only enabled management to execute management control vertically across different hierarchal levels but also horizontally over their fellow peers. We also learned that product development decisions that were previously avoided (due to fear of project failure) are now made. This is noted from the increased number of radical (for the firm) new products commercially launched.