Management control system design, ownership, and performance in professional service organisations

The objective of this study is to investigate the implications for organisational performance of the interplay between ownership and management control system design in professional service organisations. Based on transaction cost economic (TCE) theory, we expect that low ownership by professionals working in a professional services organisation will be more efficiently managed with a boundary MCS archetype and high ownership by an exploratory MCS archetype. Of direct relevance, we predict that a failure to conform to these optimal archetypes will manifest in relatively poorer performance. The study was conducted based on a survey of 120 practice managers of primary healthcare organisations in Australia. These results provide empirical support for the stated prediction.