The Evolution of the Concept of ‘Management Control’: Towards a Definition of ‘Performance Management System’

Although management control scholars have not achieved a consensus on the definition of the content of the discipline yet, some main trends can be depicted from the evolutionary analysis of the related literature. Through the critical review of the main literature of management control for the purpose of this study – the performance management system (PMS) can be defined as the set of “the evolving formal and informal mechanisms, processes, systems, and networks used by organizations for conveying the key objectives and goals elicited by management, for assisting the strategic process and ongoing management through analysis, planning, measurement, control, rewarding, and broadly managing performance, and for supporting and facilitating organizational learning and change” (Ferreira and Otley 2009: 264). The main characteristics of this definition refers to the following elements: