We found it!: The missing link in management control systems (MCS) in Not for Profit (NPO) Organizations

In our talk/webinar we present the findings from our research into how Non Profit Organisations (NPOs) engage with the need to support mission centric service users with limited capacity, and relatively weak voice, and the implications of this for mission realisation. We explore, in this context, what this means for management control systems (MCS) and accountability design and use. Our research comprised an in-depth case study of four NPOs providing support services to people with intellectual disabilities in Ireland. We examined the NPOs MCS and accountability systems and probed management’s perceptions of the importance and voice of service users within their organisations. We identify the recognition and monitoring of service user advocacy within the organisation (‘internal advocacy’), as part of the MCS and accountability processes, as being critical for NPO mission realisation. In so doing the we provide theoretical insights for the design of MCS and accountability systems for NPOs involved in human service provision. Our findings contribute not just to NPO management and MCS literature but empirically to the relational interaction of service users with support organisations and what this may mean for the realisation of their life objectives.#

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This is one of a series of events in Whitaker Webinars. Dr Geraldine Robbins and Dr Frank Conaty will be representing the Performance Management research cluster.