Comparative Management: The Current State of the Art

After the objectives and scope of comparative management are defined, a classification and analysis of past research in this area reveals that no study on control as a management process has been done so far. It has either been treated superficially as part of larger studies on management practices in general or only parts of control have been studied.1 Most frequently, control has been studied from the point of view of the multinational corporation2 and thus not truly cross-nationally. The analysis also reveals that findings are too inconclusive and contradictory to permit identification of solidly based a priori hypotheses. In fact, all authors concur on the need for more empirical, operational research before we can usefully set down some hypotheses. The general issue is whether or not management principles are universal and hence transferable. The means of pursuing the question chosen here is to see whether or not data on control practices from three European nations can best be explained by referring to universalist management principles or to some of the more differentiated models drawn from work in comparative management.