Purpose – Management controls are the processes and mechanisms managers use to influence the behaviour of individuals and groups towards the organisation’s objectives and goals. Discrete management controls and management control system (MCS) frameworks have been extensively researched, but there is little research on organisation-level MCS types. This study aims to identify organisation-level MCS types. Design/methodology/approach – This study draws on the MCS type literature, the competing values framework and the upper echelons theory to form organisation effectiveness and top management team constructs to characterise firms. Cluster analysis was used to group a sample of 318 firm-years into MCS types. Findings – This study reports a theory-based measurement construct that is initially validated with new empirical data. The authors found from the empirical data four different categories of firms based on the general type of their MCSs labelled clan, adhocracy, market and hierarchy. Originality/value – This study makes two contributions to the MCS literature. Firstly, it presents a theory-based measurement construct to identify organisational and top management attributes that can be used to classify organisations’ overall MCS types. Secondly, it demonstrates how information from annual reports and other publicly available data sources can be used to identify the overall MCS types of organisations.