Controlling COVID-19

: management control systems in a COVID-19 world: “traditional” vs “modern” approaches

Abstract

2020 was a particular and memorable year that brought a wide variety of new challenges and obstacles, not only for people, but also for organizations, due to the pandemic. In organizations, the traditional planning process, with the annual budget definition and respective business goals, has been criticized for its inefficiency as a management tool (Otley, 1994) even in a relatively stable environmental context. The environmental changes resulting from the pandemic COVID-19, with high levels of uncertainty and volatility at an economic and social level, have created additional challenges in the application of more “traditional” methodologies and processes of planning and control management. The management control systems known “traditional” are still very present in the Portuguese companies, despite the criticisms they have been targeted in the most recent literature, where their gaps have been explored intensively. Thus, in recent years, several alternative management control systems continue to be developed, with the emergence of new control methods and processes, in order to create a more adaptable and decentralized management process to deal with highly competitive and volatile environments. The main objective of this dissertation is to evaluate the way in which companies, with the application of different control mechanisms and processes (which constitute an integrated management control system), faced and continue to face the new challenges of uncertainty, volatility and operational restrictions resulting from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Firstly, the author carried out a mixed quantitative-qualitative study, through a clustering analysis, grouping companies in Portugal according to the type of control mechanisms and processes they use, in order to study which are the most common. Based on the universe of 1,538 companies that responded to the initial survey, were selected for a qualitative analysis (interview) two companies that stood out by using diverse approaches, contrasting a more “traditional” perspective of management control systems to more “modern” approaches. Ultimately, through these case studies, it was possible to explore how both companies dealt with the changes in the environment resulting from the pandemic, how they adapted their management control systems and what role they have been playing in this context.

Date of Award	19 Jul 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Luís Marques (Supervisor)