The controllership and the intellectual capital: an empirical study on its management

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to investigate through the Controlling Departments how the Management Information Systems in large Brazilian companies treat investments on Intellectual capital elements. It has been assumed that the Controlling Department is the companies' most adequate area to identify, evaluate and measure such elements, and to provide the managerial information required for the accomplishment of each company's mission. The exploratory research is based on a sample of 30 managers of large Brazilian companies. The qualitative analysis of the data collected (Contents Analysis) lead us to the conclusion that the great majority of managers invest on detecting Intellectual Capital elements and have tools to evaluate such investment, but not in an integrated manner that permits to correctly quantify the invested amounts and to evaluate the return on the investment. On the other hand, managers have been receptive to adopt a managerial model for that purpose, if available, and have considered the Controlling Department as the most adequate area to manage such model.