Simons Lever of Controls, national culture and R&D engineers’creativity framework for the Omani petroleum sector: A systematic literature review 1991-2026

Abstract

Organisations operating in research and development (R&D)-intensive industries face the challenge of maintaining effective managerial control while fostering employee creativity and innovation. Simons' Levers of Control (LOC) framework provides a valuable theoretical perspective for understanding how organisations achieve this balance through belief, boundary, diagnostic, and interactive control systems. Although the LOC framework has been widely applied to examine organisational performance and managerial decision-making, limited attention has been given to its influence on individual creativity, particularly among R&D engineers. Furthermore, the potential moderating role of national culture in this relationship remains underexplored, especially within the petroleum sector. This study aims to develop a framework that explains how belief, boundary, and diagnostic control systems may influence the creativity of R&D engineers, while proposing national culture as a moderating variable. A systematic literature review was conducted using the PRISMA guidelines to identify and synthesise relevant studies published between 1991 and 2026. The review drew upon peerreviewed literature indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, Emerald, and ProQuest. The selected studies were analysed to identify the theoretical and empirical relationships among management control systems, creativity, and national culture. The proposed conceptual framework suggests that belief, boundary, and diagnostic control systems shape engineers' creative behaviour by providing strategic direction, behavioural guidance, and performance feedback, while national culture may strengthen or weaken these relationships. The study contributes to the literature by extending Simons' LOC framework to individual-level creativity and integrating cultural perspectives within the context of R&D-intensive organisations. The proposed framework provides a theoretical foundation for future empirical research and offers practical insights for managers seeking to balance organisational control with creativity and innovation in the petroleum industry.