Kyocera’s use of amoeba management as a performance management system

Management control systems, or what the literature is increasingly calling performance management systems, comprise formal and informal mechanisms, processes, systems, and networks that help senior managers implement their organizations’ strategies (Anthony, 1956) and, at least according to the performance management literature’s more recent conceptualizations, assist with the formulation and control of strategy itself (Mintzberg, 1978; Merchant and Otley, 2007). As noted by Ferreira and Otley (2009), performance management systems play a crucial role in communicating key objectives and goals set by the organization’s senior managers, helping employees throughout the organization manage performance (by instituting appropriate ongoing systems of planning, measurement, control, and reward), and supporting organizational programmes of learning and change.