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The illusion of no control: management control systems facilitating autonomous motivation in university research
Author(s) -
Sutton Nicole C.,
Brown David A.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
accounting and finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.645
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-629X
pISSN - 0810-5391
DOI - 10.1111/acfi.12099
Subject(s) - incentive , leverage (statistics) , management control system , control (management) , knowledge management , intrinsic motivation , exploratory research , illusion , psychology , business , public relations , computer science , social psychology , management , sociology , political science , cognitive psychology , economics , artificial intelligence , anthropology , microeconomics
Autonomous motivation, a fundamental factor influencing research success, can be undermined when people feel pressured, managed or controlled. So how do universities – which are under increasing external pressure to manage research activities to produce outcomes – exert management control without threatening the autonomous motivation of their researchers? We address this question through an exploratory case study of the management control systems used in two university faculties. Our results confirm the importance of autonomous motivation in driving researchers’ activity and show how incentives, performance evaluation and cultural–administrative structures can be designed to not only preserve, but also enhance and leverage this motivation.