Organising multiple objectives: Sustainability in control as practice

• Contemporary organisations struggle with integrating sustainability into their management control systems, especially when facing qualitative sustainability dimensions that defy easy quantification within financially focused systems. Drawing on a qualitative case study of a Swedish savings bank, which traditionally balances multiple objectives and values, this study theorises when and how multiple objectives are balanced in management control. We propose a situational perspective that shifts from continuous integration to understanding how control practices relate to organisational goals in specific situations. Drawing on a practice theory perspective, we introduce "teleoaffective macro-structures" to explore the influence of societal meaning structures on organisational practices and the management of tensions. Our findings reveal that integration is a dynamic process that builds on the formation of objects and doings relations that draw on an infrastructure of meaning to balance and control variations in organisational practices.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

sustainability control

multiple objectives

sustainability

practice theory

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)