Management Control as a Performance Lever: A Case Study of a Moroccan Public University

Résumé

This research examines how management control can become a genuine performance-steering mechanism in a Moroccan public university. It addresses a gap concerning the organizational appropriation of performance systems in a university context characterized by massification, multiple objectives and fragmented management tools. An exploratory qualitative case study was conducted at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fez. The empirical corpus comprises twenty-seven qualitative interactions: fifteen exploratory pre-test interviews and twelve semi-structured consolidation interviews. Data were analysed with MAXQDA through open, axial and thematic coding. The findings show that management control is expected to support decision-making, resource optimization and transparency, but its effectiveness depends on prior organizational capabilities, including data quality, objective clarification, managerial commitment, coordination and collective learning. The article proposes a contingent model linking institutional pressures, organizational capabilities, managerial uses of control and multidimensional university performance. It therefore shifts the analysis from a narrow reporting logic towards an adaptive steering logic.