The Use of a Management Control System to Enhance the Perception of Meaningful Work – A Bibliometric Analysis and Literature Review

This study examines the relationship between management controls and the perception of meaningful work by employees. It refers to the construct “purpose clarity” proposed by Gartenberg et al. (2019). Purpose clarity is positively associated to financial performance on organizational level, and it is closely related to meaningful work on individual level. Based on bibliometric analyses and a structured literature review of academic research from organizational, management and accounting literature, this paper examines the most influential articles that have dealt with the relationship between meaningful work and management controls. From the resulting overview, we develop a conceptual model of the relationship between the levers of control (LoC) framework and the perception of meaningful work. First, we propose that the use of the LoC framework enhances both, meaningfulness in working, that refers to shaping the context in which the work is performed as well as meaningfulness at work, that refers to a common vision, shared values, and community building. Second, we suggest that the intensity of use of the levers of control matters to enhance meaningful work. Either too loose or too intense controls may impair meaningful work, following an inverted u-shaped relationship. This paper contributes to behavioral accounting literature by shedding light on the intensity of use of controls to achieve positive behavioral outcomes and promotes the examination of curvilinear relationships in management accounting research.