| 1. |
- Beime, Kristina S., 1984-
(författare)
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Den avvikande anställda : En studie av den disciplinära processens misslyckande
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is devoted to the darker side of organizational control. How individuals, viewed by their superiors as dysfunctional or deviant, are dealt with once the everyday disciplinary standard operating procedures and social mechanisms are consider to fall short. My two research questions, how the deviant employee is constructed by management and how management handle the deviant employee, are closely related to how the threshold of deviance is defined, explicitly or implicitly, in formal organizations.Central in my work is the concept of ostracism, a process where an individual is both physically removed/banished, made redundant, isolated or relocated and socially defined as deviant, said to be disloyal, uncooperative or lazy. Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault I conceptualize this as the last step in the organizations disciplinary process, a point where the aim of normalization is replaced by a process of exclusion, to safeguard the organization.In the analysis I identify different types of deviations and how managers construct deviance in relation to different logics. The individual can be regarded as a misfit in relation to a rational economic, a bureaucratic, a collegial social and finally a socio-cultural logic of action. The individual is classified as deviant in relation to one of these frames and the manager’s attempts to normalize the individual accordingly, something that also determine if and how the individual is excluded from the organization.The wider implications of the study is that in order to understand disciplinary regimes in working life, the processes of labelling deviance and managing exclusion must be understood.
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| 2. |
- Lundh, Simon, 1980-
(författare)
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Application of Principles-based Accounting Standards : the case of internally generated intangibles
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The uncertainty involved in the application of principles-based financial accounting standards raises the general question of how such standards are applied. The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are principles-based, meaning that they provide a conceptual basis for application rather than detailed rules. This means that there is inherent room for judgment in the application, which might affect financial reporting comparability. This study aims to explore and understand the application of principles-based accounting standards. The study depicts the actual valuation of internally generated intangibles from a local perspective.The theoretical basis of this thesis is building on a Scandinavian institutional tradition since the focus is on a phenomenon that is shaped within a local context of meaning, where the judgments and the reasoning behind decisions occur. The study has a design that allowed for gathering data from several different organizations. Listed Swedish companies of different sizes and industries dealing with intangible accounting decisions and judgments are included.There are three main conclusions from this study. First, there is a continuous ambition for instrumentality and efficiency when making decisions regarding the valuation of internally generated intangibles. Second, the appearance of the company is always reflected against the expectations of relevant actors. Third, there is a co-existence of these two rationales. The judgments and the decisions within the companies are not independent of the external expectations and demands. Rather, they are affected by them through all the phases connected to research and development. A number of contributions to the literature are identified. These relate to the understanding of the application of principles-based accounting standards at an organizational level, and the development of the theoretical perspective within accounting research.
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| 3. |
- Johnstone, Leanne, 1984-
(författare)
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The Limits of Control? The Role of Sustainability Control for Constructing Accountability within Organisations
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Sustainability control is grounded in pragmatic research traditions which imply that the design of formalised sustainability control systems (de-signed by managers) is enough to ensure strategic plans are met in re-sponse to external accountability demands. Through this, the individualis-ing aspects of control in a hierarchical accountability sense are empha-sised, and the main accountability relationship becomes between the supe-rior and subordinate. Less, however, is known about the other socialising processes and accountability relationships within organisations that in-creasingly call employees to account for sustainability.To develop understandings of sustainability control and its relationship to accountability, this thesis asks: What is the role of sustainability control in constructing accountability? This thesis finds that the socialising ac-countability form is important for developing (current) understandings of sustainability control(ling) as a management practice. It elaborates on how controlling for sustainability is not only achieved through formalised con-trols designed by (top) management, but also through other accountability relationships, in the less formal spaces of the organisation and beyond. Here, compliance is complemented with elements of employee activism and incremental changes to their daily working behaviours.Managers should recognise the importance of socialisation processes and conversations in informal settings for making employees accountable and changing (un)sustainable behaviours in the workplace beyond formalised control system designs. The findings should encourage us all to think about how we (should) reconcile managerial systems with the broader sociological and ecological good inherent to sustainability as an inter-generational discourse and the responsibility of all.
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| 4. |
- Seger, Karin, 1975-
(författare)
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Institutional Logics and Accounting Professionals : The case of K2 and K3
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Accounting firms have long been considered a ‘black box’ in the literature, but over the last two decades or so, a growing body of literature has emerged which points to how the accounting profession may be seen as a profession in transformation, one in which the underlying logic of their work has gone from emphasizing professional values to one in which commercial values constitute the main rules of the game.This thesis draws upon and add to this literature as it directs attention to how co-existing and potentially conflicting institutional logics enable and constrain accounting professionals, in practice and over time. To allow this, I have conducted a qualitative and processual study of the process of converting the existing financial accounting practices for small limited companies in Sweden through new standards - K2 and K3. The scientific purpose has been to generate a micro-oriented and processual modelling of how accounting professionals influence and shape accounting practices in small limited companies, and to identify and theorize on the type of institutional logics underlying their work. My empirical findings show that the professionals influence and shape accounting practices by proposing and proclaiming suitable solutions, and by pre-packaging and marketing these as definite solutions. They also show that the construction of such solutions involves long and complex processes, during which the professionals interpret and judge different alternatives before marketing them to their clients. And from the institutional logics perspective, they show that the process may be understood as one in which the professionals mainly try to live up to professional rather than commercial expectations.Based on these findings, a number of contributions to the literature are identified, relating to how accounting professionals are enabled and constrained by the professional logic, how the effects of logics are highly non-deterministic, and how a single logic may generate tensions within itself even though it is predominant and not in conflict with other logics.
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