Abstract:
Purpose – This paper explores how management controls of a clustered apparel firm in Sri Lanka (Stitch-It) is
shaped by institutional field and societal logics, firm’s head office prescriptions, clusters’ own attributes and
strategic behavior of cluster managers.
Design/methodology/approach – It follows the research philosophy of interpretivism and embedded case
study approach within the qualitative research design, while institutional complexity within the institutional
logics perspective and paradoxical tensions, organizational attributes and strategic responses to institutional
processes provide the theoretical underpinning.
Findings – The findings suggest that market, profession and state logics in the apparel field, alongside
community logic at the societal level, develop a state of complexity in Stitch-It and its clusters. At the cluster
level, such complexity is further intensified by head office guidelines (on controls), which gets filtered by the
organizational attributes of the particular clusters. At this state, paradoxical tensions are developed within
clusters, and to mitigate such tensions, key organizational members employ different strategies, which in turn
shape management controls of the clusters.
Practical implications – This paper highlights that practicing managers need to be mindful of different
logics in the field, organizational attributes, resulting tensions, complexities, strategies to deal with them and
their ramifications on controls.
Originality/value – The paper asserts that management controls is a dynamic and a situational phenomenon,
which continuously evolves in light of organizational attributes, multiple logics and head office prescriptions. It
conceptualizes the “tensions” evident in the design and implementation of management controls, arising due to
multiplicity of pressures as “paradoxical tensions.” Although important and relevant to management control
arena, “paradoxical tensions” has been scantly explored by prior researchers.
