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ORIGINAL PAPERJournal of Management Controlhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s00187-026-00417-z Sven Siverbosven.siverbo@kau.se1 Karlstad Business School, Karlstad University, Karlstad SE-651 88, SwedenReceived: 3 October 2024 / Accepted: 21 April 2026© The Author(s) 2026Management control through verbal rewards – a systematic review and research agendaSven Siverbo 1AbstractThis article reviews empirical research on the impact of verbal rewards on work-place performance and proposes a research agenda for future studies. A theoretical model is developed and examined through a systematic literature review encom-passing 22 empirical studies on the relationships between verbal rewards, motiva-tion, direction, and performance in organizational settings. The fi ndings from the review are consistent with the theoretical model in several respects: verbal rewards have a positive ef f ect on performance in most of the studies; the attributes of ver-bal rewards inf l uence their associations with performance; direction mediates the relationship between verbal rewards and performance; and work complexity moder-ates the relationship between controlling verbal rewards and autonomous motiva-tion. However, the fi ndings are inconsistent with the model’s assumption that the relationship between verbal rewards and controlled motivation weakens in high-complexity work contexts, and overall, the theoretical model requires further testing in additional empirical studies. The article concludes with theoretical implications, implications for management control systems, practical implications, and a research agenda for future studies.Keywords Management control · Verbal rewards · Performance · Motivation · Direction · Systematic review1 IntroductionManagement controls foster coordinated, goal-directed, and motivated behavior within organizations. This is accomplished through various control tools, one of which is the reward system (Bonner & Sprinkle, 2002; Merchant & Van der Stede,