| 21911. |
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| 21912. |
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| 21913. |
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| 21914. |
- Catasús, Bino, et al.
(författare)
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The "death" of calculation : Exploring the conditions of calculative practices
- 2020
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper draws attention to people’s pension savings and their responses to the increasing calls urging them to engage in practices of calculation about their future life as retirees. Recurring studies report that these calculation exercises have turned out to raise problems to people, provoking – at times – frustration or even indifference among pension savers. But why is that so? Why do people not engage in this kind of calculations?Prior literature suggests that mechanic calculation presupposes a set of conditions. Individual knowledge-based capacity (Lusardi and Mitchell 2007) as well as commensurate translations that enables possibilities for comparisons between different kinds of choices (Espeland and Stevens 1998; Callon & Law, 2005) are but a few conditions that are suggested to be fulfilled in order to make rational calculation feasible. There are situations, however, when calculation is called for and expected to be attended to without controversy, but still turn out as moments where rational principles of calculation do not seem to apply (Espeland and Stevens 1998). Calculating one’s pension might be argued to represent one such situation. Based on our empirical observations, the basis for rational calculation seems to be challenged when pension savers are asked to imagine an existence taking place in a future several decades ahead from the life they lead today. Hence, in order to further explore the reasons to this experienced calculative dilemma, we ask: What role does future play in practicing pension calculations?The aim of this paper is to extend our understanding of the conditions of calculation. The idea is to investigate situations in which calculation entail dilemmas of rationality. To frame the conditions of calculation, we draw on Jaspers’ idea of boundary situations (2010). A boundary situation is a moment in which a person is faced with discrepancies and contradictions that cannot easily be resolved by means of rational thinking. We suggest that people’s pension management offers such a moment, investigating how people read and understand pension accounts in the light of a future that involves different kinds of ‘deaths’: the termination of professional life; the consequences of physical decay, and the end of life itself.The study demonstrates that practices of calculations inevitably links to imagining the future but also, and by consequence, how calculations become circumscribed when these future imaginations involve existential concerns that rule out rational reasoning. In such cases, calculations transforms into a practice that stretches beyond rationality, suggesting that when the future is unimaginable, calculation becomes nonsensical or even absurd. This, in turn, adds a time dimension to the conditions of calculation, an issue which to date has not explicitly been addressed in prior accounting literature.
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| 21915. |
- Catasús, Bino, 1962-, et al.
(författare)
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The proxemics of accounts
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Earlier literature has shown that accounting overcomes distances to make the things actionable. This paper aims to add to this literature by proposing that it is the account that is at stake when organizations produce distance. We mobilize ideas from the study of proxemics which holds that social interaction is dependent on the ways distance is achieved between two actors. By reporting on a study of a board designing a scorecard as well as producing and analyzing reports, this paper shows that the board is committed to achieving different distances and that the accounts are mobilized differently to accomplish a comfortable proximity. Albeit the strains of making fair representations is a recurring issue for the board, we find that the board mobilizes accounting to achieve separate, and plural distances by imagining ‘the other.’ The board recognizes that accounts are enacted by others (including themselves in the future), and this puts demands on the board to mobilize accounts in ways in which the outcome is a comfortable and plural distances. The board adds to earlier research by concluding that the work of producing, communicating and consuming reports are affected by the ways 'the other' is imagined. That is, the representational dilemma, so often highlighted in accounting, would benefit from including the presumed consumer of the report. After all, there might be someone reading and be acting on the incomplete representation.
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| 21916. |
- Catasús, Bino, 1962-
(författare)
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The Relevance of IC Indicators
- 2017
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Ingår i: The Routledge Companion to Intellectual Capital. - Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. : Routledge. - 9781138228214 - 9781315393100 ; , s. 492-504
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter elaborates on the ways in which intellectual capital (IC) indicators can work. It emphasizes the idea of relevance of numerical representation of an organization's IC. The chapter considers Power's proposition about the limits of indicators by discussing the production, transmission, and consumption of IC indicators. The 'accountingization' of IC is an example of how members of organizations demand numbers to make sense of their activities. The objective of measurements in financial reports is, according to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), for the measurement to be decision useful. The main argument for this is that the IASB develops standards to support investors and other suppliers of financial resources. An alternative approach to IC indicators is to define relevance from a managerial or even strategic perspective. The managerial approach dominates control literature in general, and the balanced scorecard in particular, and the literature emphasizes that measurements should be connected to what is important in the organization.
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| 21917. |
- Catasús, Bino, et al.
(författare)
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What gets measured gets … on indicating, mobilizing and acting
- 2007
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Ingår i: Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal. - : Emerald. - 1368-0668 .- 1758-4205 .- 0951-3574. ; 20:4, s. 505-521
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the relationship underlying the often used adage “what gets measured gets managed”.Design/methodology/approach– The paper starts by reviewing the critique of the adage and then testing it by surveying 109 managers from 41 organizations. The paper includes the idea of mobilizing in the adage in order to highlight that there are other factors than indicating, which affect acting. In the positive test the paper uses the linear structural relations (LISREL) method to analyze the data.Findings– The paper finds that that the relationship between indicating and acting is not significant and that the introduction of mobilizing gives a better model fit. As a result the reformulation of the adage is: “What gets mobilized gets managed, especially if it gets measured”.Research limitations/implications– The paper shows that measuring is not per se a means to activate the organization. Rather, measurements support those issues that are already important in the organization. In practical terms, a reformulation could be: what gets talked about gets done, especially if there are numbers.Practical implications– The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it finds no significant relationship between indicating and acting; and second, it introduces mobilizing to explain the relationship between indicating and acting.Originality/value– The paper scrutinizes the conventional wisdom encapsulated in the adage and by introducing mobilizing as an additional variable. The findings suggest that the adage needs to be reformulated.
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| 21918. |
- Cattaneo, Cristiana, et al.
(författare)
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Management accounting change as an amplifier of a leadership dispute: an ethnography of convergent and divergent leader-follower relations
- 2021
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Ingår i: Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal. - : Emerald Group Publishing. - 1758-4205 .- 0951-3574. ; 34:9, s. 104-134
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of leadership in management accounting change processes and outcomes.Design/methodology/approach - The paper draws on an ethnographic study in a Southern European company and mobilizes leader-follower relations as a method theory to analyse the observations.Findings - The findings show how a leadership dispute between two top managers can be amplified during the management accounting change process and percolate throughout an organization. The authors identify five contested areas where the role of accounting amplifies the leadership dispute by unfolding its reach to other organizational actors. The leadership dispute can shape and reinforce a fragmented organization, with some organizational members creating convergent leader-follower relations while others divert and fragment with an increased turnover. This amplification can lead to unexpected outcomes of the change process in terms of how and by whom accounting is performed.Research limitations/implications - The authors propose the study of leadership and followership as an important but, to date, largely neglected theme in management accounting research.Originality/value - In contrast to the prior management accounting literature, the paper departs from a leadership-centric and role-based approach and employs a co-constructionist and relational approach to leadership and followership to analyse management accounting change. In addition, it applies and extends Alvesson's (2019a) theory on "divergent relationalities" between the presumed leaders and followers. In doing so, the paper also adds to the leadership field by theorizing and integrating the situation of a leadership dispute in this novel theoretical framework.
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| 21919. |
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| 21920. |
- Cayla, Julien, et al.
(författare)
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Mapping the play of organizational identity in foreign market adaptation
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of marketing. - : SAGE Publications. - 0022-2429 .- 1547-7185. ; 76:6, s. 38-54
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While organizational identity can be a powerful tool for mobilizing and directing organizational members, the authors' findings demonstrate that it can also constrain the process of foreign market adaptation. Drawing from extensive ethnographic fieldwork in India, where they followed several multinational companies, they show how well-entrenched and enduring identities can obstruct the learning and strategic adjustments that are necessary to appeal to consumers in a new market environment. By explaining how organizational identity comes into play as a frame of reference and guiding principle, orienting managers in their efforts to preserve the character of their firm as it expands and globalizes, this research offers new insights into foreign market learning and adaptation. The authors extend this analysis to provide valuable recommendations to managers for making organizational identity a more explicit component of global marketing strategy.
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