Setting a Price on Human Lives: MCS in an NGO with Ethical Dilemmas and the Development of Bridging Accounts

Abstract: In this paper we study how management control systems (MCS) play a role in organizations where multiple logics prevail and ethical dilemmas arise in the intersection between these logics. We study this phenomena in an NGO in the humanitarian aid sector. We draw upon the literature developing the distinction of MCS into socio-ideological and technocratic forms of control. We contribute to the literature on NGOs as well as the literature on accounting in hybrid organizations by stating that the previous focus on improving measuring strategies for these organizations find little application if instead the core issue is a reluctance of measuring in the first place, for example due to ethical dilemmas. We conclude by developing the concept of socio-ideological controls as bridging accounts by showing that the implicit nature of socio-ideological controls enables them to relate two organizational objectives to one another without explicit dilemmas arising that hinder organizational action.