Simon's four levels of control

Abstract

The Levers of Control Framework is firstly introduced as a Managemment Control Systems tool in Simon's "Levers of Control: How managers use innovative control systems to drive strategic renewal" (1995). The LOC framework is constituted by four blocks: Belief systems and Interactive Control systems creating positive forces, and Boundary Control Systems and Diagnostic Control Systems creating negative forces. It must be noted that positive/negative forces are not considered as good/bad forces but as different types of forces that must be balanced to achieve proper business strategy. The concept of balance is central to the proper use of the tool as the later publications took effort on demonstrating (Anne- Marie Kruisa, 2015). Despite the fact that his theory about opposing forces allowing to manage tensions between direction and creativity has been criticized for giving ambiguous and unclear definitions of its control blocks or levers, the number of citations (over 3000 in Google Scholar) gives Simon´s LOC framework a consolidated position within Management Control Systems literature. This article intends to give a theoretical basic description of the LOC framework presenting the different blocks of the framework and then intending to summarise some of the balance theories in litterature.