Management control systems: universal practices or national practices?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the neutrality of a management control approach and verify if it incorporates North‐American values. Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies a discourse analysis methodology to make evident the North‐American values involved in legitimating the rationality embedded in the practices of a management control approach. Findings – The approach imposes North‐American values as the best choice, pretending to be neutral and context‐independent. Practical implications – The paper calls attention to the need to contextualise imported management knowledge supposed to be technical, neutral and universal. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the process of revealing the reproduction of Anglo‐Saxon ideologies in organisational knowledge transferred to Latin America.