| 1. |
- Abrahamsson, Gun, et al.
(författare)
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Exploiting institutional contradictions : the role of management accounting in continuous improvement implementation
- 2006
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Ingår i: Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management/Emerald. - Bradford : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1176-6093 .- 1758-7654. ; 3:2, s. 126-144
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: Based on an institutional perspective, this study explores the role of management accounting (MA) in promoting or impeding changes in the employees’ conceptions of shopfloor worker responsibility in a company trying to implement a Continuous Improvement (CI) working practice. Methodology/approach: We use an ethnographically inspired research method where weekly CI meetings in two workgroups were observed over a period of eight months and in-depth interviews with managers and operators were conducted regularly. Findings: The study reveals that active and skilful exploiters of inconsistencies within social arrangements may use MA as one important way of transforming a traditional vertical view of worker responsibility into a more horizontally-oriented view by: creating collective reflection and reasoned analysis of the limits of the present order; and, by visualizing and justifying an alternative model(s) of social behaviour. However, the study also shows that MA may contribute to the reinforcement of a vertical view by the use of group-level measures strictly as a one-way performance monitoring device. Research limitations/implications: Arguably, it is worthwhile to explore the existence of ‘institutional heterogeneity’ because our study highlights that ‘contradictions’ between social orders may not only nurture institutional stability, but may also be a necessary (although not sufficient) condition for institutional change.
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| 2. |
- Abrahamsson, Gun, 1961-, et al.
(författare)
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On the (re)construction of numbers and operational reality : A study of face-to-face interactions
- 2016
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Ingår i: Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management/Emerald. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1176-6093 .- 1758-7654. ; 13:2, s. 159-188
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: This paper aims to examine the mobilization of management accounting (MA) numbers and metrics in social interactions. The purpose is to develop a model of how and why managers perceive and mobilize (new) MA numbers/metrics in a changing way over time in situated face-to-face interactions.Design/methodology/approach: An observation-based qualitative field study of a change project in a large manufacturing company is used as the basis for our analysis.Findings: The empirical study shows that MA numbers and metrics are essential when semi-distant managers strive to solve problems and achieve radical improvement targets, but that the ways in which existing and new metrics are perceived and mobilized during face-to-face interactions change over time. The study provides both a detailed account of the emergent nature of the transformation process and a number of mechanisms as to why managers (inter-)act the way they do to produce such change.Originality/value: The paper problematizes the generally held view that MA numbers and metrics primarily work as a structuring device in face-to-face interactions, and also, how the processes are constituted through which MA is transformed into such a structuring device. The paper also adds new insights to our understandings of why managers (inter-)act the way they do to produce MA change.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Ahrens, Thomas, et al.
(författare)
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Guest editorial : Special issue on accounting for tacit coordination … and beyond
- 2024
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Ingår i: Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management. - : Emerald Publishing. - 1758-7654 .- 1176-6093. ; 21:3, s. 253-254
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this special issue is to stimulate the scholarly debate around accounting theorising. We are particularly concerned with the social structures that keep accounting practices active and connected with one another and various other social practices. The trigger for this debate is Hendrik Vollmer’s (2019) article “Accounting for tacit coordination: the passing of accounts and the broader case for accounting theory”. The origin for this special issue lies with our surprise upon reading the article. Its essay form is unusual for accounting scholarship. Its breadth transcends the order of individual accounting literature streams. Its pursuit of the sociologically motivated problem of tacit coordination creates new connections between disparate aspect of accounting research. It makes sense but challenges its readers on the strength of its unconventional “stature” and deeply sociological involvement with everyday accounting. The paper does not purport to present a ready-made framework that can be instrumentally applied. Instead, it dares the reader to engage with considerations anchored in micro-sociology to craft their own analytical tools.
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| 5. |
- Andersson, Thomas, et al.
(författare)
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When complexity meets culture : new public management and the Swedish police
- 2009
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Ingår i: Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management/Emerald. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1176-6093 .- 1758-7654. ; 6:1/2, s. 41-56
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how new public management (NPM) reform from the national level is implemented as practice in a local unit within the police sector in Sweden.Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative case-study approach is applied using semi-structured interviews, participant observations and analysis of documents.Findings: The paper illustrates different kinds of resistance at the organizational level. The dominant form of resistance was found to be cultural distancing. The paper demonstrates a tendency among police officers to deal with a changing and more complex work context by embracing a traditional work role.Research limitations/implications: The paper shows that reforms that add complexity may fail because of potential contradictions and the limited capacity and motivation of employees to deal with the complexity in the manner prescribed by NPM. Practical implications: The paper shows that the popular trend to adopt multi-dimensional forms of control (for instance the balanced-scorecard approach) may fail if there is a lack of consensus about what goals and measurement are important and/or there is a lack of dialogue about how the new goals should be implemented in practice.Originality/value: Research about NPM-reforms in the police sector is rare. The original contribution of this paper is to study NPM-reforms with a focus on the role of complexity in relation to resistance.
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| 6. |
- Argento, Daniela, et al.
(författare)
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The disillusion of calculative practices in academia
- 2020
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Ingår i: Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management/Emerald. - 1176-6093 .- 1758-7654. ; 17:1, s. 1-17
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to highlight and compare insights from research conducted in different disciplines on the effects of the use of calculative practices in academia. It also acts as an introduction to the special issue on “governing by numbers: audit culture and contemporary tales of universities’ accountability”.Design/methodology/approachThis paper reviews the findings and reflections provided in academic literature on the various types of consequences stemming from the diffusion of the “audit culture” in academia. In so doing, it draws upon insights from previous literature in education, management and accounting, and other papers included in this special issue of Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management.FindingsThe literature review shows that a growing number of studies are focussing on the hybridization of universities, not only in terms of calculative practices (e.g. performance indicators) but also in relation to individual actors (e.g. academics and managers) who may have divergent values, and thus, act according to multiple logics (business and academic logics). It highlights many areas in which further robust academic research is needed to guide policy and practice developments in universities.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper provides academics, regulators and decision-makers with relevant insights into the critical issues of using calculative practices in academia. Despite the negative effects have been observed in various disciplines, there is an evident perpetuation in the use of those practices.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the ongoing debates on the disillusion of calculative practices in academia. Yet, positive changes can be achieved within the complex settings of “hybrid” universities when the apparent class division between academics and managers is bridged.
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| 7. |
- Argento, Daniela, et al.
(författare)
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The disillusion of calculative practices in academia
- 2020
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Ingår i: Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management/Emerald. - 1176-6093. ; 17:1, s. 1-17
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight and compare insights from research conducted in different disciplines on the effects of the use of calculative practices in academia. It also acts as an introduction to the special issue on “governing by numbers: audit culture and contemporary tales of universities’ accountability”. Design/methodology/approach This paper reviews the findings and reflections provided in academic literature on the various types of consequences stemming from the diffusion of the “audit culture” in academia. In so doing, it draws upon insights from previous literature in education, management and accounting, and other papers included in this special issue of Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management. Findings The literature review shows that a growing number of studies are focussing on the hybridization of universities, not only in terms of calculative practices (e.g. performance indicators) but also in relation to individual actors (e.g. academics and managers) who may have divergent values, and thus, act according to multiple logics (business and academic logics). It highlights many areas in which further robust academic research is needed to guide policy and practice developments in universities. Research limitations/implications This paper provides academics, regulators and decision-makers with relevant insights into the critical issues of using calculative practices in academia. Despite the negative effects have been observed in various disciplines, there is an evident perpetuation in the use of those practices. Originality/value This paper contributes to the ongoing debates on the disillusion of calculative practices in academia. Yet, positive changes can be achieved within the complex settings of “hybrid” universities when the apparent class division between academics and managers is bridged.
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| 8. |
- Baldvinsdottir, Gudrun, 1962, et al.
(författare)
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Accounting Research and Trust - A Literature Review
- 2011
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Ingår i: Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management. - : Emerald. - 1176-6093. ; 8:4, s. 382-424
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a structured overview of literature in the nexus of trust and accounting. This can serve as a basis for future research, and thus provide a framework for asking more precise and focused research questions. Design/methodology/approach – All papers published in prominent accounting journals during a 15-year period were examined. Papers pertaining to the field of trust and accounting were categorized and analyzed in more detail, and qualitatively classified in accordance with selected dimensions. The review focused on papers explicitly exploring the link between accounting and trust. Findings – A large proportion of the papers is in the field of management accounting (MAN). The majority of published papers in the field are based on sociological theory, but there are some economics-based papers. Sociologically based analysis seems to provide more structure, but is also less paradigmatic in nature than economic theory. Only a small number of papers have an explicit definition of the concept of trust. The authors’ conclusion is that the state of research has been developing to become more paradigmatic in recent years. Originality/value – This is the only literature review that provides a comprehensive overview of research on trust and accounting. Thus, it is an aid to future research in the area.
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| 9. |
- Carlsson-Wall, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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The role of management controls in managing heterogeneous interests during extreme situations: the Swedish migrant crisis in 2015
- 2021
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Ingår i: Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management. - : Emerald. - 1176-6093. ; 18:1, s. 1-25
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PurposeThis paper aims to explore the role of management controls in managing heterogeneous interests during extreme situations.Design/methodology/approachThrough interviews and observations, the authors analyse the Swedish Migration Agency's management controls and study routines during the peak of the European Migrant Crisis.FindingsPrior to the crisis, the strategy used by the employees was to mediate between two interests (labelled legal security and empathy) to create a workable compromise. During the crisis, however, the authors observed filtering in the form of the previous hierarchical ordering of interests was further strengthened as the employees increasingly relied on just a single interest (the interest which they previously had deemed to be the most important) at the expense of the other interest. The findings suggest that behavioural and social controls helped such filtering; social controls helped certain employees to filter the empathy interest as more important during extreme situations and behavioural controls helped other employees to filter the legal security interest as more important. This help us explain why the authors observe less mediation between the two heterogeneous interests and rather a stricter dominance of one of the interests. The authors also illustrate how especially behavioural controls may become unsupportive of the operations during extreme situations as it consisted of rule-based standards, built to cope with "normal" situations. The heterogeneous interests affected the probability of actors, at times, ignoring behavioural controls when such controls were unsupportive. Actors whose day-to-day operations were mainly guided by the legal security interest remained tightly coupled to behavioural controls even when they felt that these controls were no longer useful. On the other hand, actors who were mainly guided by the empathy interest ignored behavioural controls when they felt that they were unsupportive.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors acknowledge that bias might arise from the reliance on retrospective views of past processes and events, which the authors primarily gathered through interviews.Practical implicationsThe authors highlight an important relationship between heterogeneous interests (i.e. legal security and empathy) and management controls during the crisis and how this relationship can lead actors to fundamentally different actions.Originality/valueThe two bodies of study on the role of management controls in managing heterogeneous interests and the role of management controls during the crisis have been largely unconnected and it is in this intersection that this study contributes.
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| 10. |
- Carrington, Thomas, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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The politics of profit production
- 2022
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Ingår i: Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management/Emerald. - : Emerald. - 1176-6093 .- 1758-7654. ; 19:4, s. 441-472
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose - This paper aims to analyze the process of producing a reported profit number to understand how different actors overcome the tensions arising from the often conflicting value frames that apply in different situations during this process and how the actors can benefit from the ensuing friction.Design/methodology/approach - The tensions found in the profit production process are theorized in terms of dissonance (Stark, 2009), emphasizing how multiple voices, drawing on different value frames, contribute to the search for a profit number. The authors study this by means of a case study of a large listed company in the construction industry, where, because of how judgment pervades the profit production process, the search for profit is particularly exposed.Findings - The authors find three important value frames – caution, control and compliance – which managers, accountants and auditors draw on in the profit production process, depending on the situation they find themselves in. With this finding, the authors contribute to the previous research on financial reporting and management work and the production of profits by demonstrating how the relationships between the involved actors – primarily the auditor–client relationship – can be characterized by principled and constructive rivalry in which competing value frames can coexist alongside each other and how the dissonance created in these situations can produce generative and productive friction.Originality/value - Previous research has mostly focused on profit measurement, taking the existence of a “true” profit number for granted. The auditor–client negotiation literature typically suggests that actors endeavor to solve situations in a zero-sum game where different value frames are present. This paper, drawing on an incipient theoretical approach to accounting research which emphasizes multivocality and perspective, contributes to the nascent research on financial accounting and management work in general and the profit production process in particular. With empirical illustrations of the dissonance found in this process, this paper suggests that tensions resulting from dissonance (Stark, 2009) may be a resource in situations like the profit production process.
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