Management Control: The Influence of Cybernetics and the Science of the Unknowable

Our contribution will consider the work conducted by Tony Lowe and closely associated authors in and around the application of systems and cybernetics concepts to management accounting and control systems. Our particular focus is on the potential shown by these concepts to provide insights about the operation of management control systems. We will also examine whether the potential of these ideas has remained, to some extent, unfulfilled. Tony's work would fit with what Pickering describes as a world perceived as a regular law-like place that can be known more or less exhaustively. While unknowns are acknowledged to exist, they are something to be conquered and drawn into the world of the known (Pickering, 2004, p. 30) Tony Lowe spent a good deal of time considering how management control systems might be better designed to enable enterprises to adapt to a dynamic external environment (Lowe, 1971; Lowe, & McInnes, 1971). One strand of research considered how the structure of management control systems influence the ability of the firm to gather relevant information about its environment. A second strand examined the implications of the law of requisite variety (LORV). Tony Lowe's systems and cybernetic work had some influence over a period of time, as evidenced by the production of systems-based accounting texts, but longer-term impacts have been limited. One of our aims is to examine how more recent research reflects and extends Tony's work.