During the last couple of decades, management control studies have taken an increased interest in the multiplicity of management controls. Broadly speaking, research has focused on the consequences of management controls. However, research has rarely examined how a multiplicity of management controls comes to exist. Answering this question will shed light on the variety of rationales, processes, and conditions that contributes to creating management control in organizations. Therefore, this thesis has the following research question: How does a multiplicity of management controls come to exist in an organization?  

This thesis investigates management control in a Swedish central government agency through documents, interviews, workshops, listening to presentations, and meetings. The study focuses on the development of management control from the decision to create a new central government agency in 2009 to 2015 when management control was being reformed in the agency because it had become too extensive. Between 2009 and 2015, new management control technologies were continuously added. 

Overall, the analysis illustrates that management control technologies are being added through three interrelated aspects. First, the analysis illustrates three processes that contributed to the management control technologies being introduced: reproducing process – i.e., management control technologies reproduced in the new agency; reactive processes – i.e., government-specific management control technologies created, for example, to respond to criticism from external actors; and proactive processes – i.e., management control technologies modified for a new context. Second, the analysis illustrates that similarities and differences of management control technologies enable the coexistence of these technologies. Third, the analysis illustrates that management control technologies are linked to a reference point that is expressed as a pursuit of holism, a local condition for the multiplicity of management controls. These findings suggest that the emergence of management controls becomes possible through three interrelated aspects. This thesis contributes to the management control domain by highlighting the complex processes, rationales, and conditions that enable a multiplicity of management controls to co-exist.