Management accountants’ image, role and identity : employer branding and identity conflict

Purpose This study aims to take a step toward integrating research regarding the image, role and identity of management accountants by understanding how employers’ perceptions of the ideal management accountant image differ from operational managers’ perceived role expectations, how management accountants perceive their identity and how those factors shape management accountants’ understanding of who they are and want to be. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative design draws upon the case company’s 100 job advertisements and 31 semi-structured interviews with management accountants and operational managers. Those data are entwined with role theory and its core concepts of expectations and identities and also early recruitment-related theoretical aspects such as image and employer branding. Findings The findings reveal how employers’ perceptions of the ideal image and operational managers’ role expectations shape and influence the identity of management accountants. However, management accountants distance themselves from a brand image and role expectations. They experience identity conflict between their current and desired identity, the perception of not being able to perform the currently desired role. Although this study presents some possible reasons and explanations, such as employer branding for the misalignment and discrepancy between perceptions of employer (image), expectations of operational managers (role) and management accountants’ self-conception of the role (identity), this study argues that the identity of a management accountant results from organizational aspects of image and role and individual aspects of identity. Research limitations/implications Image and external role expectations can challenge identity construction and also serve as a source of conflict and frustration; thus, a more comprehensive approach to studying the identity of management accountants is necessary to understand what contributes to the fragility of their identity. Practical implications The results provide an understanding of the dynamics of the image, role and identity to support management accountants and employers and to further address the suggested dissonance and ambiguities. Originality/value This study contributes by showing how the dynamics and connections between the image, role and identity influence the identity construction of management accountants. Moreover, this study shows how overpromising as a part of employer branding might not reflect the reality experienced by management accountants but may cause frustration and threaten the management accountants’ identity.© Virpi Ala-Heikkilä and Marko Järvenpää. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcodefi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Bayesian Hierarchical Modelling for Image Processing Inverse Problems

The main motivation of this work is to review and extend some recent ideas in Bayesian inverse problems especially in the context of image processing problems. Often these problems are solved using deterministic optimisation algorithms. A Bayesian hierarchical model for total variation is presented in this thesis. This approach allows all the parameters of an inverse problem, including the “regularisation parameter”, to be estimated simultaneously from the data. The model is based on the characterisation of the Laplace density prior as a scale mixture of Gaussians. With different densities on the mixture variable, other total variation like regularisations are also obtained. An approximation of the resulting posterior mean is found using a variational Bayes method. In addition, algorithms for computing just the maximum a posteriori estimate, although not a fully Bayesian approach, are presented. The methods are illustrated with examples of image deblurring, image denoising and inpainting, the first of which being the main application of this thesis. Examples show that the methods generally work well for deblurring problems and the parameters can be succesfully estimated. Maximum a posteriori estimates preserve edges of “blocky” images well. The results given by variational Bayes method are more smooth than corresponding maximum a posteriori estimates which make it more suitable for problems where preserving the edges is not the top priority. As future work faster algorithms could be implemented as well as considering more complex and specialised models based on the ideas of this work

Conflicting interests but filtered key targets : Stakeholder and resource-dependency analyses at a University of Applied Sciences

Abstract: Stakeholder theory (SHT) emphasizes that different stakeholders and their interests need to be identified and addressed to maximize firm performance. This emphasis can make the design of performance measurement systems (PMS) challenging because the interests of stakeholders are often in conflict. Based on previous research and using stakeholder and resource dependency theories, we develop a theoretical model suggesting that resource dependency acts as a “filter” in selecting which of the PMS design measures are emphasized for decision making. We find various conflicting interests between stakeholders in our case organization (a unit of University of Applied Sciences in Finland) that affected PMS design. Contrary to the earlier studies, however, we found that despite conflicting interests, all of the different stakeholders considered one nonfinancial indicator to be the most important: attractiveness, or the number of applicants divided by number of new students. As suggested by resource-dependency theory (RDT), the stakeholder providing the most resources had the most significant impact on the selection of the key performance indicators used. The key resource provider may also have had some effect on the expectations of other stakeholders

Perceptions of Management Control in Post-acquisition Integration Context Through Sense-making : An Interpretive Case Study

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore perceptions of a management control system (MCS) in a post-acquisition integration context through sense-making using interpretive case study methodology. The study draws from the theories of the two types of bureaucratic formalization, sense-making in organizations and MCSs. The study material consists of semi-structured interviews with the managers at the corporate, divisional, and business unit levels. At the time of the study, the case company was growing through several acquisitions per year, which created constant challenges with post-acquisition integration and a need for more formal MCS. The article shows how the backgrounds of the acquired business units are related to the perceptions of the MCS. We found that the identity threat and retrospection were properties of sense-making that explained the business unit managers’ attitudes towards the corporate MCS. Particularly prior experiences of production-centred line-manager positions in small entrepreneurial firms seem to foster coercive perceptions of MCS. The results of this study contribute to MCS literature.© 2023 Sage. The article is protected by copyright and reuse is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses. Users may also download and save a local copy of an article accessed in an institutional repository for the user's personal reference.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Non-IFRS and changes in accounting institutions : lessons from Nokia

We analyse the lessons learned from Nokia to illustrate the changing focus in accounting and organisational practices that affect the perceptions of relevant accounting work and the key measures of success. In the course of an analysis covering 25 years, the introduction of management accounting innovations was first emphasised regarding managerial relevance but were later replaced by financial accounting emphasis and innovations (e.g. non-IFRS reporting). Our data includes public reports, newspaper articles and 21 interviews made between 1996 and 2019. We present a framework for analysing shifts in the focus of accounting. Our case analysis on changing accounting practices, on shifting perceptions of relevance and reliability, and on primary measures of success, contributes to understanding the focus of key accounting measures in historical developments regarding perceived success or failure, and in changing institutional practices in terms of ‘institutional work’, especially through valourizing either the actions or valourizing reports.©The Author(s) 2022. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us-sagepub-com.proxy.uwasa.fi/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Developing a sampling system for quality control tests based on statistical data

The main objective of this thesis was to investigate sample plans in quality control and introduce the statistical software Minitab to BonAlive Biomaterials Ltd, Class III medical device manufacturer. Sampling and inspection of sample items is time-consuming and in some cases samples cannot be reused. Hence, sample size is kept to a minimum. On the other hand, the amount of the analysed items should be statistically representative of the entire batch. The goal of this thesis was to find the best possible combination between these two specifications. The thesis is largely based on the interpretation of ISO standards and the fitting of these to processes of the client company. Minitab 17 has used as a statistical tool. As a result of the thesis work it is showed that the smallest sample size can be reached when a variable, i.e., numeric format data can be measured. This is especially true when the standard deviation of the process is known. If variable data cannot be used and attribute data methods are used, then sequential sampling gives the smallest average sample size. The risk level that a lot with nonconforming items is accepted does not increase or decrease if the sample plan is changed between single, double, multi, sequential or variable sampling plans. In addition, this thesis presents bulk material sampling and the sample size for that. The results and the company specific processes are classified information and not presented in the thesis. As a result of the thesis the client company can reduce sample sizes and based on the given training start to use Minitab as a statistical tool for different process analyses.Tämän opinnäytetyön tavoitteena oli tutkia laaduntarkastuksen näytteenottosuunnitelmia ja esitellä Minitab-tilastotyökalun käyttöä BonAlive Biomaterials Ltd:lle. Näytteiden ottoon ja tarkastukseen kuluu paljon aikaa eikä tuotteita tämän jälkeen voida kaikissa tapauksissa enään hyödyntää. Tästä syystä näytteiden määrä pyritään pitämään mahdollisimman pienenä. Toisaalta näytemäärän tulee tilastollisesti edustaa koko tuotantoerää tai muuta vastaavaa erää. Opinnäytetyössä etsitään näiden vaatimuksien mukainen paras mahdollinen yhdistelmä. Opinnäytetyö perustuu pitkälti ISO-standardien soveltamiseen asiakasyrityksen prosesseihin. Tilastollisena työkaluna on käytetty Minitab-ohjelmaa. Tuloksena esitetään, että pienimpään näytekokoon päästään, kun mitattavalla suureella on numeerinen muuttuja ja tuotannon keskihajonta on tunnettu. Mikäli numeerisen muuttujan käyttö ei ole mahdollista ja käytetään kategorista muuttujaa, niin keskimäärin pienimpään näytekokoon päästään sarjallisella (Sequential) näytteenotolla. Riskitaso sille, että asiakas saa viallisen tuotteen on käytännössä sama kaikkien käsiteltyjen näytteenottometodien välillä. Lisäksi työssä esitetään ratkaisu massatavaroiden, kuten nesteiden ja jauheiden, homogeenisuuden toteamiseen tarvittavaan näytemäärään. Tulosten perusteella asiakasyritys pystyy pienentämään näytekokoja ja hyödyntämään Minitab-ohjelmaa prosessien kyvykkyyksien seurantaan

Machine Learning in Management Accounting Research : Literature Review and Pathways for the Future

This paper explores the possibilities of employing machine learning (ML) methods and new data sources in management accounting (MA) research. A review of current accounting and related research reveals that ML methods in MA are still in their infancy. However, a review of recently published ML research from related fields reveals several new opportunities to utilize ML in MA research. We suggest that the most promising areas to employ ML methods in MA research lie in (1) the exploitation of the rich potential of various textual data sources; (2) the quantification of qualitative and unstructured data to create new measures; (3) the creation of better estimates and predictions; and (4) the use of explainable AI to interpret ML models in detail. ML methods can play a crucial role in MA research by creating, developing, and refining theories through induction and abduction, as well as by providing tools for interventionist studies.© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Management accountants—A gendered image

It has been argued that masculinity in the field of accounting is in flux and that new gendered expectations may be emerging. This study takes an important step toward a discussion on management accountants’ gendered image and broadens understanding of masculinity in the field of management accounting. The question it raises is whether the notion of hegemonic masculinity is dominant in the image and whether the image might be expanding. A qualitative case study of a global technology company was conducted, drawing on 100 of its job advertisements for management accountants and 31 semi-structured interviews with its management accountants and operational managers. The findings revealed that even though some caring attributes, such as empathy, were constructed as important, causing the hegemonic masculinity to seem softer, the image of the ideal management accountant predominantly aligns with hegemonic masculinity, more specifically with transnational business masculinity and entrepreneurialism, which emphasize business performance and maximization of the self. The dominance of hegemonic masculinity leads to the colonization of “othered” bodies, namely women in management accounting. The results critique mainstream management accounting research, which considerably lacks gender analysis.© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed