The Functional Controller for Sustainable and Value Chain Management: Fashion or Need? A Sample of Job Advertisements in the COVID-19 Period

• Main Authors: Ewa Walińska, Justyna Dobroszek
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-06-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: controllers; supply chain; sustainable management; value chain; competences; tasks
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/13/7139

This article aims to present a profile of functional controllers created in German-speaking countries in the context of their competences and tasks for sustainable management and value chain creation. Sustainable chain management requires finding a balance between the economic, social, and environmental spheres, inside and outside the organizations, in all business functions/processes related to value chain formation. Managers for sustainable management need to have adequate and high-quality financial and non-financial information. They are crucial during the pandemic COVID-19 period. Functional controllers can provide this. Content analysis of job advertisements was used as a research method. The identification of competences was based on Cheetham and Chivers’ model. Tasks were referred to as essential functions of controlling. Descriptive statistics and the Student’s <i>t</i>-test with Cochran–Cox correction and the Wilcoxon-Mann–Whitney test were used to analyze the data. In terms of the studied controllers, more functional than meta competence was identified. There were more hard skills than soft skills. In terms of tasks, studied controllers are preoccupied with analysis, coordination and optimization, participation in management, definition of new tools, and reporting. The results confirm that functional controllers have an impact on sustainable development and value chain creation.