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Who's Afraid of Managing?
The Ataraxic Function of Management Control Systems
Yves - Marie Abraham, HEC Montreal
Fabien De Geuser, University of Lausanne
ABSTRACT. Fear is everywhere in firms: fear of being fired, fear of not reaching objectives, fear of mistakes,... Yet this issue is only seldom used as an "independent variable" explaining managerial behaviors. Our purpose in this paper is to show that management control systems (MCS) can be used by managers to cope with their own fear, defining a latent function of MCS that we call an "ataraxic function". We address this issue by analysing the main sources of fear for managers. Then, building upon Devereux, the founder of ethno-psychoanalysis, we analyse the mechanism of this ataraxic function of MCS. We show that it implies two different levels: the over-simplification of situation and the mechanization of managerial decisions. We demonstrate the consequences of this function being latent and not explicit. We link this with managerial mimetism. We conclude on the necessity to include the ataraxic dimension in the design of the MCS.
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