Contradictions and Institutional Praxis in the Design of Management Controls in a Family Business

Abstract

The research aims to analyze the contradictions and institutional praxis in the design of management controls in a family business. A case study was carried out in an aluminum extrusion industry, by a family business group. The results show that characteristics of family businesses are present in the organization, such as the focus on economic and non-economic results, rooted and long-term leadership, partially intuitive and emotional, and family managers trained at work. There were contradictions of technical inefficiency of the management controls with greater intensity, but the institutional incompatibility and the misalignment of interests in a lower spectrum, which led to the praxis of family and non-family managers, that is, reflective, active moments and multilateral action, designing the controls management in family management, in relation to the characteristics of information and control techniques, which are considered traditional, with a focus on the operational. The study has theoretical implications, as it advances in the Seo and Creed framework (2002), when approaching it in the context of design (informational and technical aspects) of management controls considering the characteristics of return, leadership and family management, as well as practical implications because it allows managers of family businesses to know the background to the design of management controls and to better define control mechanisms.