Sistemas de controle gerencial como instrumento de poder

Abstract

The exercise of power is fundamental for the attainment of organizational goals, since the efficiency of each individual can be evidenced and controlled by means of standardizations and norms related to the managerial control systems (MCS). This research presents a case study that aimed to understand how the MCS adopted by Mount Olympus are configured as instruments of power, under the bourdiesian perspective of power relations. As contribution and theoretical innovation, an empirical model was elaborated that outlines the package of MCS as an instrument of symbolic power and theoretical propositions about the researched topic were developed. As theoretical bases, both Bourdieu's symbolic power (1989), and the typology of Malmi and Brown (2008) were adopted, in order to address the socio-technical and socio-ideological elements of managerial control systems. The active role of MCS was considered in this study. Qualitative research was carried out through a single case study, according to Stake's (1995) understanding, positioned in the poststructuralist paradigm. For the purpose of the research, the controllership department of a large company (family holding company) was selected as the analysis unit and the MCS adopted by the company as a research object. Data collection took place through qualitative interviews and documentary research. Open, axial and selective encodings (Strauss & Corbin, 2008) were also used as analytical procedures and triangulation of multicriteria data.. In the analysis of MCS, the complementarity between cultural controls, planning, cyber controls, remuneration and rewards and administrative controls was noted. As for the aspects that involve power relations, it was verified that the MCS establish norms for the operation of the field and produce and reproduce hierarchies of power. This structural composition of the field enables the company and organizational members to seek the power resources of their choice. The company, in general, seeks economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capital, and, for that, it appropriates the cultural capital of its employees. The social and symbolic capitals are considered as the main power resources by the organizational members; however, the increase of these resources depends on the development of cultural capital. The MCS generate illusio for the commitment with the work and in the disputes by power, understood like rewards by the subjects of research – financial, non-financial rewards, prestige, and recognition. The influence and control of actions derived from MCS, used to ensure compatibility between organizational strategies and objectives and individual actions, establish the habitus, ie the general dispositions to act socially, which are mentally incorporated by means of from the universal point of view to the field (doxa), and physically through physical attitudes and ways of speaking, thinking, and feeling (hexis). It is concluded that the MCS are defined mainly as a function of the controls culture symbolic instruments of power. In addition, managerial control systems establish power relations that result in the definition of the company's actions towards society and its own employees, in establishing hierarchies of domination and influence and control over organizational members. On the other hand, power also serves as an input for the establishment and application of MCS in the organization.