Samenvatting
The Management Control Function
Robert N. Anthony
In this new book, Professor Robert N.
Anthony continues his landmark contribu
tions to management control by refining his
framework for planning and control in
organizations.
In 1965, Anthony wrote Planning and Con-
trol Systems: A Framework for Analysis. In it
he set forth a useful conceptual framework
that later appeared in a great many books,
articles, and doctoral dissertations. At that
time, management control was not recog-
nized as a discrete activity; now it is. The
Management Control Function goes into more
detail and offers more specific statements
on certain topics; it also adds other topics
such as project control. Relationships
among strategic planning, management
control, and task control are outlined, but
the primary focus is on the system that fa-
cilitates management control. Anthony's
goal is to provide the reader with some-
thing useful; his updated framework does
just that.
Areas covered include:
the influence of corporate structure and
culture on management control systems;
the process of controlling ongoing opera-
tions: programming, budget preparation,
reporting, and evaluation;
the management control of projects;
the design and installation of information
systems; and
.the distinctiveness of systems for service
companies, nonprofit organizations, and
entrepreneurial situations.
Also of great interest is an appendix ex-
plaining the use of the phrase "currently
useful generalizations about the manage-
ment control function." Here the author
analyzes the evidence on which thesee
generalizations are based.

Managers will find Anthony's book
thought-provoking and relevant. It provides
the intellectual tools for the implementation
of strategy. The author's framework is also
useful to researchers, teachers, and stu-
dents and to designers and users of man-
agement control systems.
Robert N. Anthony is Ross Graham
Walker Professor of Management Control,
Emeritus, at Harvard Business School. He is
also the author of Management Accounting,
Accounting Principles, Management Control in
Nonprofit Organizations, The New Corporate
Directors, and Essentials of Accounting. Pro-
fessor Anthony is a past president of the
American Accounting Association and was
elected to the Acounting Hall of Fame in
1986. (bron: Bol.com)