Management control systems provide information that is intended to be useful to managers in performing their jobs and to assist organizations in developing and maintaining viable patterns of behaviour. Any assessment of the role of such information therefore requires consideration of how managers make use of the information being provided to them.

management control describes a feedback process of planning, objective setting, monitoring, feedback and corrective action to ensure that outcomes are in accordance with plans. Two attempts have been made in the past to link this framework with strategy. The first is Anthony’s ( 1965, 1988) - strategies are taken as given and management control systems motivate, monitor and report on their implementation. Another attempt to couple strategy and management control can be seen in the concept of strategic control. Strategic control has been described as a system to assess the relevance of the organization’s strategy to its goals, and when discrepancies exist, to highlight areas needing attention.
My research indicates that management control systems are not only important for strategy implementation, but also for strategy formation. I define management control systems, therefore, to recognize that these systems are more than devices of constraint and monitoring: management control systems are the formalized procedures and systems that use information to maintain or alter patterns in organizational activity. Using this definition, these systems broadly include formalized procedures for such things as planning, budgeting, environmental scanning, competitor analyses, performance reporting and evaluation, resource allocation and employee rewards (Simons, 1987a).
Management control systems are used not only to monitor that outcomes are in accordance with plans, but also to motivate the organization to be fully informed concerning