SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Business Administration
No 5:
The effects of increasing turbulence on organizational control: some reflections
Lars A. Samuelson
Abstract: The following question is addressed in this paper: what
will be the impact of an increase in the uncertainty and turbulence facing
organizations on the way control is carried out? First, a survey of
research in organizational control will be presented. After that the
principle nature of control in a relatively certain and a relatively
uncertain situation will be explored. Then it is pointed out that a change
in control when the situation is considered to be turbulent should not be
made unless a comprehensive analysis of the situation has been undertaken.
Next, the factors constituting an uncertain situation will be explored.
After that the adaptation of controls to a more turbulent and uncertain
world will be discussed. Many trends in the current debate and practice on
control in organizations seem to be naturally explained according to the
perspective chosen in the paper. The importance of studying the interplay
between the various means of control is stressed as opposed to the
dominating focus on one or two means of control in mainstream research. The
paper itself is mainly of the survey type. Results from a couple of recent
empirical studies in Sweden undertaken by the author have been utilized.
Keywords: Control; organizational structure; turbulence; uncertainty; (follow links to similar papers)
21 pages, December 2, 1998, Revised August 16, 1999
Before downloading any of the electronic versions below
you should read our statement on
copyright.
Download GhostScript
for viewing Postscript files and the
Acrobat Reader for viewing and printing pdf files.
Full text versions of the paper:
hastba0005.pdf.zip 
(zipped) (114kB)
hastba0005.pdf (154kB)
hastba0005.ps.zip PKZipped PostScript (181kB)
hastba0005.ps PostScript file (390kB)
Download Statistics
Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Helena Lundin ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ()
or Helena Lundin ().
Programing by
Design by Joakim Ekebom
