Configuring Management Control Systems for Resilience

This research project investigates how management control systems (MCSs) can be designed to ensure resilience in social services and primary care during wartime, with a focus on Ukraine’s Sumy region.

About the project

Through collaboration with Jönköping International Business School (JIBS) and local authorities in Ukraine, the research explores how public organizations configure cultural, administrative, cybernetic, strategic, and reward-based controls to maintain service delivery under extreme crisis. Drawing on over 60 interviews with frontline managers and staff across five municipalities, the project provides rare real-time insights from a war-affected setting.

The study is divided into three work packages, examining social services, primary care, and the development of a practical guide for Swedish municipalities. By analyzing patterns of control system use through both qualitative and fuzzy-set comparative analysis, the project aims to deliver actionable strategies for crisis preparedness, continuity, and resilience in essential services. This research directly contributes to international crisis management knowledge and will result in academic publications, a practitioner-oriented guide, and applied training in partnership with Swedish public agencies.

Research team