Management Control in Service Activities : A 'New Frontier'?
Résumé
The first part of the paper presents the specificities of management control in service activities. The second part of the paper is more specifically dedicated to the assessment of discretionary activities; it proposes a general framework for the evaluation of discretionary activities before reviewing the assessment tools available. The third part of the paper addresses the problems specific to the control of service companies. Based on a general model of cost vale creation in a service company, it discusses some issues related to the organisation of control in multi-site and network companies. Finally, the last part of the paper focuses on support departments and structures the recent debates about their possible control through new organizational forms.