The Role of Management Controls in the Higher Education Sector: An Investigation of Different Perceptions

A variety of empirical studies have investigated the relationship between management controls (MCs) and the financial and nonfinancial performance of for-profit firms, but there is a dearth of research on MCs in the higher education (HE) sector. Our study contributes to MC research by investigating the mediating role of MCs in the relationship between structural autonomy and both research and teaching performance in HE institutions and by comparing the perceptions of two major actors: heads of administration and academic deans. We use survey data of two paired subgroups with 104 heads of administration and 104 academic deans and perform a multigroup analysis with structural equation modeling. We find significant differences between heads of administration and academic deans concerning the relationship between structural autonomy and MCs and between MCs and teaching and research performance for the diagnostic and interactive use of controls. For heads of administration, we find that only strategic boundaries and strategic beliefs are significantly associated with teaching performance, whereas for academic deans, more autonomy is associated with more emphasis on most MCs. Furthermore, for academic deans, more emphasis on diagnostic use, but less on interactive use, is associated with higher research performance.