| 1. |
- Borell, Anton, 1991-
(författare)
-
In Between Competing Ideals : On the Relationships among Accounting, NPM, and Welfare
- 2021
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- We know that public organizations today are expected to manage activities on multiple, and somewhat incongruent ideals. Since the development of the New Public Management (NPM) wave, public organizations have been increasingly subject to governance by markets, economic frugality and outputs for the purpose of improving efficiency. At the same time, they are also required to manage their daily work according to the ideals of needs, equity and professional expertise, which have traditionally been foundational to the realization of a welfarian agenda. Together, these requirements make up dual expectations of public organizations as well as the accounting technologies used to manage them: a form of paradoxical management that seeks to measure, evaluate and document both efficiency and welfare. But how do actors realize these plural ideals in practice? And what is the role of accounting in this? These are some of the aspects and problems with control that lie at the very heart of this dissertation.Based on 41 interviews and 28 observations in a Swedish school context, this dissertation shows how the paradoxical expectations become manifest in the design and use of accounting technologies. On the one hand, it shows how school actors attempt to integrate welfare and NPM in practice by relying on accounting technologies, which results in hybrid outcomes. On the other hand, the dissertation also shows the fragility of such a style of governance, which continuously leads to failures and breakdowns that actors have to readdress as a consequence of attempting to achieve competing ideals by relying on accounting.By leaning on governmentality as a metatheoretical framework, this dissertation contributes to some new understandings of control in public sector contexts. First, in contrast to the literature on colonization, which suggests that the expansive use of accounting is a direct threat to welfarian ideals, this dissertation shows that accounting can equally serve as a means for welfarian ideals to eclipse NPM. Second, in contrast to the stream of separation that treats the loose or minimal use of accounting as a mechanism for sealing off welfare from NPM-led intrusions, the dissertation shows that even a marginal or loose application of accounting can in fact be conceived as a threat to welfarian ideals. Third, this dissertation also provides additional understanding in relation to the hybridity approach, not only by illuminating how NPM and welfare were brought together through various hybrids, but also by showing how these hybrids were facilitated by accounting technologies, whose functions served to make integration a practically viable outcome amenable to both breakdowns and reintegration. Overall, the dissertation thus contributes to current knowledge on public sector governance in general, and more specifically about the relationships among accounting, NPM, and welfare, in terms of their entanglement, disentanglement, interdependencies, and modes of reproduction in public sector life, a gap also echoed by recent calls in research.
|
|
| 2. |
- Eriksson, Kim, 1990-
(författare)
-
Att anordna styrning : tillblivelse av en mångfald av styrteknologier
- 2021
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During the last couple of decades, management control studies have taken an increased interest in the multiplicity of management controls. Broadly speaking, research has focused on the consequences of management controls. However, research has rarely examined how a multiplicity of management controls comes to exist. Answering this question will shed light on the variety of rationales, processes, and conditions that contributes to creating management control in organizations. Therefore, this thesis has the following research question: How does a multiplicity of management controls come to exist in an organization? This thesis investigates management control in a Swedish central government agency through documents, interviews, workshops, listening to presentations, and meetings. The study focuses on the development of management control from the decision to create a new central government agency in 2009 to 2015 when management control was being reformed in the agency because it had become too extensive. Between 2009 and 2015, new management control technologies were continuously added. Overall, the analysis illustrates that management control technologies are being added through three interrelated aspects. First, the analysis illustrates three processes that contributed to the management control technologies being introduced: reproducing process – i.e., management control technologies reproduced in the new agency; reactive processes – i.e., government-specific management control technologies created, for example, to respond to criticism from external actors; and proactive processes – i.e., management control technologies modified for a new context. Second, the analysis illustrates that similarities and differences of management control technologies enable the coexistence of these technologies. Third, the analysis illustrates that management control technologies are linked to a reference point that is expressed as a pursuit of holism, a local condition for the multiplicity of management controls. These findings suggest that the emergence of management controls becomes possible through three interrelated aspects. This thesis contributes to the management control domain by highlighting the complex processes, rationales, and conditions that enable a multiplicity of management controls to co-exist.
|
|
| 3. |
- Höglund, Linda, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
-
Spänningar i styrningen: en strategisk angelägenhet : en fallstudie inom Trafikverket
- 2016
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Denna rapport utgör resultatet av delprojekt 2 i ett större treårigt projekt som Akademinför ekonomistyrning i staten (AES) vid Företagsekonomiska institutionen, Stockholmsuniversitet, driver i samarbete med Trafikverket. Finansiering har skett inom ramen förFoI-portfölj nummer sex, Trafikverket – en modern myndighet. Målet med delprojekt 2 äratt utveckla kunskap om Trafikverkets verksamhetsstyrning genom att identifiera ochförstå de utmaningar som uppstår vid översättningen av strategier från övergripandestrategisk ledningsnivå till operativ nivå. Detta har skett genom att fördjupa kunskapenom både det strategiska arbetet och verksamhetsstyrningen in Trafikverket.Tidigare delrapporter inom projektet har visat att det i praktiken uppstår svårigheter närTrafikverkets övergripande strategier förverkligas i verksamhetsstyrningen. Det återfinnsbland annat en utmaning i att kunna hantera både vertikala och horisontella krav inomramen för den strategiska styrningen eftersom spänningar mellan Trafikverkets strategieroch andra styrformer och –verktyg uppstår. Följande fråga har således väglett arbetet medrapporten: vilka spänningar uppstår i styrning i relation till strategin? Rapportens syfte äratt bidra till förståelsen för relationen mellan verksamhetsstyrning och strategiskt arbeteinom statliga myndigheter.Strategiforskning betonar hur viktigt det är att en organisation i sitt strategiskaarbete är långsiktig, proaktiv och helhetsorienterad. Dock visar resultaten av denna studieatt långsiktighet, proaktivitet och helhetsorientering är betydligt svårare att föreverkliga ioffentlig sektor. Detta beror på att de kontextuella förutsättningarna i offentlig sektorskiljer sig från de i privat sektor. Bland annat ”äger” inte en offentlig organisationmöjligheterna att påverka alla aspekter i den strategiska styrningen. Resultaten visar ocksåatt det inte bara är de kontextuella förutsättningarna som en offentlig organisation måsteta hänsyn till för att förstå sitt strategiska arbete, utan även den styrningspraktik och despecifika styrningsverktyg som används i verksamheten. Dessa olika styrningspraktikeroch specifika styrningsverktyg bidrar till att rikta verksamheten åt olika håll, ibland ienlighet med den formulerade strategin och ibland i andra riktningar.En slutsats är att det i en verksamhets styrning finns ett behov av ytterligare endimension av styrning, nämligen styrning av styrning. På basis av de spänningar somgenom denna studie identifierats, nämligen 1) del/helhetssyn i styrningen, 2)kortsiktighet/långsiktighet i styrningen, 3) reaktivitet/proaktivitet i styrningen och 4)komplexitet/enkelhet i styrningen, föreslås sålunda en konceptuell modell för attkaraktärisera verksamhetsstyrningen i förhållande till strategin.
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
- Svärdsten Nymans, Fredrik, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
-
Audit credibility and LGBTQI rights : certification operation in the margins
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal. - 0951-3574. ; 37:9, s. 53-74
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: The aim of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge about the diversity of credibility arrangements in new audit spaces “in the margins” of auditing and the implications of such arrangements.Method: The paper is based on an in-depth qualitative study of the LGBTQI certification run by the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Rights (RFSL) during its first decade of business. We have interviewed employees and studied documents at the certification units within the RFSL. We have also interviewed certified organizations. Findings: We highlight two features that explain the unusual credibility arrangements in this audit practice: the role of beneficiaries in the organizational arrangements chosen and the role of responsibility as an organizing value with consequences for responsibility allocation of this certification. These features make it possible for the RFSL to act as a credible auditor even though it deviates from common arrangements for credible audit. Originality/value: The RFSL certification is different in several ways. First, the RFSL acts as both trainer and auditor. Second, the trainers/auditors at the RFSL have no accreditation to guarantee their credibility. Third, the RFSL decides itself what standards should apply for the certification and adapts these standards to the operation being audited. Therefore, this case provides a good opportunity to study alternative credibility arrangements in the margins of auditing as well as their justifications.
|
|
| 6. |
- Svärdsten Nymans, Fredrik, 1977-
(författare)
-
Constituting performance : Case studies of performance auditing and performance reporting
- 2012
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to problematize how and under what conditions organizational performance is constituted in the practices of performance auditing and accounting. Organizational performance disclosure is a world-wide phenomenon for enabling accountability relationships in large organizations regardless of the societal sector they operate in. In constitutive accounting literature, there is a well-established notion that accounting and performance auditing enable “government at a distance” by representing organizational actions and results of those actions, i.e. by constituting performance. Accounting and performance auditing have been regarded as “technologies of government” that make government from spatial and temporal distances possible by linking political and programmatic ambitions, i.e., the will of a superior, to everyday organizational conduct. However, whereas many previous studies of accounting and performance auditing as technologies of government focus on the discourses over the technologies of accounting and performance auditing, this thesis focuses its analysis on the operationalization of these technologies in local organizational settings. By studying the constitution of performance in the practices of accounting and performance auditing this thesis contributes by problematizing that which supposedly makes government at a distance possible.The thesis is based on two case studies of performance audit and two case studies of performance reporting. On the basis of these papers, the thesis studies the constitution of performance in performance auditing and accounting. Whereas the constitution of performance may seem stable and unproblematic at the level of discourse, this thesis suggests that constituting performance is a complex process of social construction that requires significant organizational efforts and that the ability of accounting and performance auditing to connect political and programmatic ambitions to daily organizational conduct cannot be taken for granted. The thesis suggest that once we acknowledge that performance is a socially constructed representation of organizational actions and begin to pay attention to how performance is constituted in local organizational settings, we can find new ways of addressing the ongoing challenge of constituting performance in accounting and performance auditing and increase our understanding about the ability of these practices to enable government at a distance.
|
|
| 7. |
|
|
| 8. |
- Svärdsten Nymans, Fredrik
(författare)
-
Making numbers calculable : A case study of the production of governable numbers
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper builds upon a case study of the way organizational activities are represented with numbers in a performance report. A common notion in accounting literature is that accounting numbers enable “government at a distance” (Miller & Rose, 1990, p. 9) by making organizational activities visible, calculable and comparable. The paper shows that if organizational activities are to be represented with numbers that can be calculated and compared, these numbers must be made calculable. For this to happen, the represented activities must be framed in a certain way. Drawing on Goffman’s (1974) frame analysis, this paper suggests that organizational activities have to be keyed, i.e., transformed, into quanta and then re-keyed into generic concepts. Only then can the numbers be open for calculation by others and used as tool for governing. The paper also shows we should not overestimate the capacity of accounting numbers to enable government from a distance.
|
|
| 9. |
|
|
| 10. |
- Svärdsten Nymans, Fredrik, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
-
Partially responsible? Partial organization and (de-)responsibilization in sustainability standard work. Illustrations from two opposite certification practices
- 2022
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The paper contributes to the emerging discussions on responsibility implications of partial organization in the world of standards, that is, decided order outside of and among formal organizations around the use of standards (e.g., Arnold, 2020; Gustafsson & Tamm Hallström, 2018; Gustafsson, 2020; Brunsson et al. 2022). More specifically, we are interested in responsibility implications in how sustainability is performed in contemporary markets through sustainability standards and certifications. Rather than focusing on how sustainability standards are implemented (or not) in organizations, the paper answers the recent call by Christensen, Morsing and Thyssen (2017) to examine productive implications of organizational work with sustainability standards in terms of contestation, reflection and innovation around sustainability issues.Accordingly, we examine if, how and why different modes of organizing standard work construct and shape responsibility in and around organizations complying with sustainability standards. We draw on two empirical studies of certification practices with different degrees of partial organization: one where one and the same organization sets standards and performs certification (the Swedish LGBTQI certification used by e.g., preschools and libraries), and another where different “independent” organizations write standards and perform certification (the Swedish eco-label KRAV for organic produce used by e.g., farmers and retailers). Our findings show that the conditions for contestation, reflection and innovation, and thus the performance of sustainability in markets, indeed are affected by the way certification standards are (partially) organized – and thereby the number of organizations involved in partially organizing others – however in more intricate ways than expected. ReferencesArnold, N. (2020) Accountability in transnational governance: The partial organization of voluntary sustainability standards in long-term account-giving. Regulation and Governance, 28, 1–17.Brunsson, N., Gustafsson, I., & Tamm Hallström, K. (2022). Un-responsible organization. How more organization produces less responsibility. Forthcoming in Organization Theory.Gustafsson, I. (2020). How standards rule the world: The construction of a global control regime. Edward Elgar Publishing.Gustafsson, I., & Tamm Hallström, K. (2018). Hyper-organized eco-labels – An organization studies perspective on the implications of Tripartite Standards Regimes. Food Policy, 75, 124–133.
|
|
