Navigating logic multiplicity: How middle managers mobilize management controls in Vietnamese universities

Abstract This study explores how universities in a Confucian-influenced, state-controlled context, such as Vietnam, manage competing institutional logics through their management control systems (MCS). Through 30 interviews with academics, managers and external staekholders of three cases (F1, F2, and F3) the study highlights four key contributions. First, it documents the role of middle managers in using MCS to navigate and reconcile competing logics, identifying three distinct strategies: compliance-oriented, strategic decision-making, and negotiation and compromise. Second, it examines how middle managers’ characteristics, such as teaching involvement, overseas experience, and involvement with teaching responsibilities, shape their ability to balance multiple logics. Third, the findings demonstrate the influence of institutional histories, governance structures, and strategic priorities on partial hybridization, showing how Confucian values impact middle management’s MCS use. Fourth, it expands on how middle managers use MCS to manage logic incompatibility within a developing country’s higher education sector, identifying an “accommodation package” including separation, compromise, and hybrid organizing. Overall, the study contributes to the literature on institutional complexity by providing a nuanced understanding of how middle managers in higher education sector within developing countries navigate competing logics through MCS adaptability, emphasizing the importance of personal charactersitics and institutional factors.