Abstract
Based on a case study from a food service company which required to balance quality and cost performance, this paper aims to clarify the role of management control in balancing such a multiple requirements from the perspective of employee’s subjective cognition. Finding from this paper suggests that whether management control systems causes conflict or help to pursuing multiple tasks, depend on that how employee recognize and assign meaning to management controls. In the Case Company, at the first time, management control systems increased employee's role conflict ; however latter that increased their quality conscious, and had a role in pursuing of dual tasks. Implication from this suggest that, even though the formal structure management control system are the same, on the company's different historical and social stages, they may have different influence to human cognition and motivation.
