Bridging organizational resilience and management control systems - a systematic review
- Organizations have repeatedly faced challenges due to (natural) disasters such as pandemics, economic or financial crises, and unexpected events. One reason why some firms cope more efficiently with such unexpected events than others has long been the subject of research, might be found in their resilience design. However, there is still no consensus in the literature and there is no common understanding of the definitions, the conceptualizations of resilience at the organizational level, and the interaction with management control systems (MCS). This study bridges MCS and resilience literature and provides a broader understanding of the relationship between the organization and adversity. Due to its ability to successfully control an organization and provide an effective control environment, we use Simons’ levers of control framework (LOC) as framework for integrating organizational resilience into MCS.
We perform a systematic reviewing of analytical conceptualizations and definitions of management control systems (levers of control) and organizational resilience, supplemented by current empirical findings. Based on literature, we provide a framework which integrates organizational resilience into management control systems. Our findings show that the integration of resilience aspects into MCS enables firms to manage resilience at the organizational level.