Management control
Management control coordinates how resources and actions are directed towards strategic objectives. It includes budgets, responsibility, measures, reporting and behavioural mechanisms, not only checking whether spending stays below a limit. It sits between strategic direction and task-level operational control in a common planning hierarchy. This meaning of control differs from investor control used to identify a subsidiary in financial reporting.
Worked example
Managers review capacity, costs and service outcomes across departments and revise actions where the operating plan is not delivering the strategy.
Common mistake
Do not merge management control with the IFRS subsidiary-control test merely because both use the word control.
Where it appears in your exams
| Qualification | Exam | Relationship | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACCA | APM | Direct | September 2026–June 2027 |
| ACCA | BT | Direct | September 2026–June 2027 |
| ACCA | MA | Direct | September 2026–June 2027 |
| ACCA | PM | Direct | September 2026–June 2027 |
| FIA | FBT | Direct | September 2026–June 2027 |
| FIA | FMA | Direct | September 2026–June 2027 |