Funções efetivamente exercidas pela controladoria em empresas de médio porte: alinhamento entre a prática e a teoria

Abstract

Assuming that neither theory nor practice are appeased, the study seeks to map the functions of controlling and the alignment between practices and theories, expounding what actually occurs and how it occurs in certain set of medium-sized companies. Companies in this niche have come up with significant progress in their degree of complexity, which in turn require new organizational control mechanisms. In addition, there is a growing interest in the implementation of controllership by companies, and for the training of controllers in universities and other institutes. These and other motives deserve an academic research that oxygenate the concepts, present the controllership functions in their day-to-day, not without first addressing: the ordering of current theory disciplined by the proposed categorization, analysis of the hierarchical situation of control in organizations, the influence of the control over accounting, its competence in risk management and the identification of control practices with respect to the budget and the strategic compound. Six companies participate of this empirical research for the execution of this work. They are all medium-sized companies with heterogeneous characteristics that enriched and focused practices exercised effectively by the controller, because of their different characteristics and approaches, which ultimately also reveal the controller’s management perspective. The methodology presents a quantitative and qualitative approach based on multiple case studies, with exploratory appeal. After the implementation of semi-structured interviews, the questionnaire in Likert scale and the documentary research was applied on the subjects: directors, controllership, and associate professionals. The results indicate that the functions are still dictated by the managers' understanding, however, the transversal character of controllership and the knowledge and skills of the controller are determinant. Finally, the analysis of the alignment between theory and the evidences of this research provides an updated treatise, which points out that the controllership is strategic. Lastly, the more strategic the controllership is in an organization, the greater the benefit.