Barbara E. Weissenberger Recommends “Management Control Systems: Performance Measurement, Evaluation, and Incentives” by Kenneth A. Merchant and Wim A. Van der Stede

Abstract

A key challenge in management is to achieve behavioral control, i.e., to ensure employees contribute effectively to a firm’s goals. Kenneth A. Merchant and Wim A. Van der Stede address this challenge through their seminal economic “object-of-control framework,” which allows us to integrate the multifaceted theoretical lenses from economics, psychology, sociology, or politics and philosophy for understanding, analyzing, and resolving management control problems—a fascinating approach and economic idea well worth remembering.