Marginson [1999] noted the prevailing orthodoxy that strategy formulation is the domain of senior management, whilst middle managers are responsible for implementing these plans through the exercise of management control.
Lower management levels are responsible for operational control. However, he found a lack of any appreciable distinction between the roles played by the company's managers across this hierarchy in the formulation of strategy and contended that distinctions between the activities of strategy formulation and implementation, and management control at these three hierarchical levels may be of limited relevance. According to Marginson, this situation may be explained by the focus of the formal MCS on accounting controls, which may have been overly restrictive and underestimated the role of informal controls across the hierarchy in channeling managers' actions and decisions towards the organization's strategic agenda.