16

The aim of this paper is to understand the position and role of the management control function in the organization in order to propose a typology of management control functions. This typology is drawn from 12 case studies and 73 interviews. Four ideal-types are highlighted: The discrete, safeguard, partner, and omnipotent management control functions. This paper shows that the management control function can fulfill diverse roles: providing discrete supervision, providing internal and external legitimization for decisions and training of managers, aiding local decision making, and centralizing power. The results show that the experience of controllers is usually very different from the business partner model which remains a myth and a pseudo-panacea whose negative side effects we often omit.