Beyond accounting change: design and mobilisation of management control systems

This paper discusses how organisational transformation is situated between design and mobilisation of management control systems. Change occurs even after implementation and design can transform organisational action to the point where organisations may run wild. The procedures developed by the design are actors that over time can transform organisations radically, and this calls for others to intervene into the effects of the design. This is mobilisation where managers intervene and supplement the design with processes and procedures that take the edge in terms of unintended effects away from the designs. Therefore, the mobilisation of the design is oriented towards its rectification so that it is possible to live with it. It is suggested that design can create effects that are highly nonintuitive and that ongoing mobilisation is added all the time. Economic value Added and balanced scorecard are used as examples in this discussion, and a small empirical illustration is provided.