The Levers of Management Control System in Organizational Life Cycle

This article discusses the application of management control system (MCS) in each stage of organizational life cycle (OLC). MCS is described using Simon's (1995) levers of control (belief, boundary, interactive, and diagnostic control system). This study explains OLC in four stages, namely, birth, growth, maturity, revival, and is measured using eight indicators (environment uncertainty; the influence of board, owners, and shareholders; decentralization of authority; strategic planning; diversification; marketing and distribution; innovation; managers' focus on decision-making). This study was conducted on 37 limited liability companies in Indonesia by distributing questionnaires in the form of Likert scales to managers. The data is processed using Compare Means One-way ANOVA. The results indicate that belief, boundary, and interactive, diagnostic control system are used to a greater extent in revival stage. This article provides information for managers about type of controls that are often used in each of the OLC stage, thus managers are able to decide the right MCS in managing the strategy for the company.