Controlling strategy has been portrayed as a matter of managing tensions. But what arethese tensions and how do they arise in firms? In this paper, organisational strategy isrepresented by a target operating model that is maintained by dialectical relationshipsbetween functional areas. Using a pragmatic constructivist framework, the functional areasmay be conceptualised as specialised managerial topoi. Drawing on field work in the hos-pitality industry, the paper employs an actor-based research methodology to show thatorganisational tensions may develop out of conflicts between the different goals and logicsassociated with the various functional areas such as marketing, sales, revenue manage-ment and finance. Although there was evidence of accountants acting as custodians of thebudgetary system, in some situations, other functional areas such as marketing or revenuemanagement seemed to be the corporate policemen as they protected the corporate brandagainst unplanned price discounting or short term cost saving tactics. Rather than see-ing functional specialisation as a disruptive obstacle to organisational coherence, the paperpresents arguments and evidence which suggest that with the deployment of the principlesof dialectical management, tensions between the different business functions can enhancestrategic control and development.