Controllers and strategic decision-making: The role of cognitive flexibility in controller-manager collaboration

Extending research about controllers’ different roles, we develop new insights into how controllers collaborate with line managers and thereby shape strategic decision-making quality and speed. We introduce the concept of cognitive flexibility as an important characteristic of the controller-manager collaboration and hypothesize that the business partner role is positively related to cognitive flexibility in controller-manager collaboration, whereas the watchdog and scorekeeper roles are expected to have a negative association. Data collected through three surveys empirically supports these hypotheses for the business partner and scorekeeper roles. Furthermore, our results support the notion that cognitive flexibility in interpersonal collaboration is a key mechanism through which controller roles can influence strategic decision-making. Specifically, we find that the positive (negative) relation between the business partner (scorekeeper) role and the quality of strategic decisions is mediated by cognitive flexibility.