| 1. |
- Knutsson, Hans, et al.
(författare)
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Do strategy and management matter in municipal organisations?
- 2008
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Ingår i: Financial Accountability & Management. - : Wiley. - 1468-0408 .- 0267-4424. ; 24:3, s. 295-319
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In Sweden, a large share of public services are organised, produced and delivered by municipalities, large and small, rich and poor. Contextual conditions (size and location) and economic conditions (efficiency and wealth) differ considerably among these service-providing organisations. The question raised in this paper is whether a municipality's economic situation is a direct consequence of the contextual situation or the organisation's strategy and management - that is: Do strategy and management matter? Our analysis rests on a resource-based view of organisation strategy. Both quantitative and qualitative observations have been made. First, cost savings data from 50 municipalities were examined for patterns and relationships between contextual and economic conditions. Second, about 100 representatives - municipal executive board members and leading officials - from 20 municipalities with different characteristics were interviewed. In this paper we outline an analytical framework and propose that sound and sustainable provision of municipal service depends on whether organisational decision-making is in harmony with work methods and objectives. The results indicate that strategy and management do matter. Among the municipalities included in our study, we identify four prevalent basic strategies. Strategy tends to coincide with the economic situation rather than the contextual situation. A low-performing municipality tends to have a predominantly outward orientation in its decision-making, whereas a higher-performing municipality makes decisions with both inward and outward orientation.
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| 2. |
- Tagesson, Torbjörn, 1969-, et al.
(författare)
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What Do Auditors Do? : Obviously they do not scrutinize the accounting and reporting
- 2011
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Ingår i: Financial Accountability and Management. - : Blackwell Publishing. - 0267-4424 .- 1468-0408. ; 27:3, s. 272-285
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Auditors and auditing firms are important actors in the process of institutionalising accounting standards. However, the formal and institutional requirements to de facto ensure professionalism and independence in the Swedish municipal sector have been strongly questioned. The aim of this paper is to investigate and explain how deviations from accounting standards are treated and reported by auditors. The results indicate deficiency in both competence and independence among the auditors. The institutional arrangements in Sweden do not seem to ensure that auditors facilitate and support the implementation of accounting standards.
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| 3. |
- Collin, Sven-Olof Yrjö, 1957-, et al.
(författare)
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Explaining municipal audit costs in Sweden : Reconsidering the political environment, the municipal organisation and the audit market
- 2017
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Ingår i: Financial Accountability and Management. - : Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Inc.. - 0267-4424 .- 1468-0408. ; 33:4, s. 391-405
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- With the purpose of explaining professional audit costs in Swedish municipalities, we hypothesised that audit costs are partly driven by various signalling and monitoring incentives in order to manage stakeholder relationships. Our model of the determinants of audit costs was tested on data from Swedish municipalities, thus extending the study of audit costs to political organisations in a Scandinavian institutional context. The test supported to some extent the traditional propositions of organisational complexity, risk and market determinants, as well as the proposition of the political environment. Our results indicate that audit costs are used to signal accountability, thereby suggesting that audit as a signal could be managed without managing professional auditors.
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