Beyond the Technical Use of Management Control Systems: Valuing Public Employees’ Experience of Interactional Fairness

The growing demands from civil society to be more effective, efficient and accountable have increasingly made relevant for Public Organizations (POs) the role of Management Control Systems (MCSs) for enhancing the congruence of employees’ behaviours with organizational objectives. Managers are the main recipients of MCSs, but the only attention to the technical-formal use of these systems may not allow them to reach their purposes. Executive employees’ perceptions of MCSs’ managerial use decide to what extent these latter will bring performance improvements. Mostly, fairness perceptions, within the superior-subordinate relations during MCSs’ managerial use, can be a relevant driver in ensuring employees’ motivation to contribute to the pursuit of organizational objectives. Focusing on executive employees’ perceptions and adopting the theoretical perspective of fairness in the psychology-based approach to MCSs, this paper aimed to analyze the role of public employees’ Perception of Interactional Fairness (PIF) and of its two sub-dimensions, namely Perception of Interpersonal Fairness (PINFF) and Perception of Interpersonal Fairness (PINTF), in arising employees’ Work Engagement (WE) and Goal Commitment (EGC). To test the model, a survey was conducted among employees of an Italian municipality. A regression analysis was performed. The results showed that: PIF, PINTF and PINFF have a positive effect on WE and EGC; furthermore, WE mediates the link between PIF, PINTF and PINFF and EGC. The study contributes to the psychology-based management control literature that explores the influence of MCSs on public employees’ attitudinal and behavioural outcomes from the perceptive perspective.