Meaningful work through formal controls? The use of the levers of control and the tendency to be innovative

This paper investigates the relationship between the levers of control (LoC) framework and the perception of meaningful work (MW). Meaningful work is a critical organizational success factor, that consists of meaningfulness in (job characteristics) and at work (vision and contribution). We suggest that the interdependent system use of the LoC in contrast to the use of individual control levers is positively associated with the MW perception. We also propose that the intensity of use of the controls matters. A too intense control use can lead to a shift from meaningful to meaningless work following an inverted u-shaped relationship. The results from our cross-sectional survey of 277 management accountants support the system use of the LoC to enhance the perception of MW but reject the non-linear relationship. Instead, we gather evidence through cluster analysis that innovative firms use controls more intense than stable firms. These significantly different LoC uses lead to different associations towards the MW perception of employees. Whereas innovative firms show a positive association between the control use and the overall perception of MW, in stable firms only associations towards meaningfulness in working perceptions are significant and positive.