Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to increase our understanding of how enabling perceptions of new management controls (MCs) can be fostered. Prior research suggests that employees are more likely to use new MCs if they perceive them as enabling. However, rapid implementation of new MCs due to circumstances such as mergers and acquisitions can leave employees feeling coerced into using them, making it difficult to foster enabling perceptions. Based on a case study where an acquirer faces pressure to impose rigid controls on an acquired firm, we suggest factors contributing to enabling perceptions. Using interviews, observation, and document analysis, we find that positive relationships and mutual trust between the acquirer and the acquiree facilitated enabling perceptions of the MCs. We show that managers at the acquirer actively fostered trust using trust‐building activities and communicated their intentions underlying the implementation of new MCs. Doing so helped employees rationalize the controls as tools to help them do their work tasks. We also find that positive relationships reinforced by regular meetings were a way of providing assistance to employees in dealing with rigid MCs. This study contributes to the literature on enabling controls by developing a processual framework that suggests how trust can foster enabling perceptions from the intentions behind the implementation of new MCs, to their development process and daily use. In doing so, the study further develops our understanding of the relationship between enabling control and trust and helps in understanding how rigid controls can be implemented without generating mistrust.