ABSTRACT
In this historical study of management and accounting approaches to the conceptual specification of control, the development of the management stream of thought and then the accounting stream of thought were studied as two distinct progessions over time, both covering the period 1900 to 1979, Numerous control concepts were identified and assembled into models based on the schools of thought which they represented. Such a model-based historical analysis of control concept development has not been available to date in the literature of management or accounting. These models have revealed the conceptual nature and structure of control to be rather more complex than simple definitional statements have hitherto implied.
