Has management accounting research been critical?

This paper examines the contributions Management Accounting Research (MAR) has (and has not) made to social and critical analyses of management accounting in the twenty-five years since its launch. It commences with a personalised account of the first named author’s experiences of behavioural, social and critical accounting in the twenty-five years before MAR appeared. This covers events in the UK, especially the Management Control Workshop, Management Accounting Research conferences at Aston, the Inter-disciplinary Perspectives on Accounting Conferences; key departments and professors; and elsewhere the formation of pan-European networks, and reflections on a years’ visit to the USA. Papers published by MAR are analysed according to year of publication, country of author and research site, research method, research subject (type of organization or subject studied), data analysis method, topic, and theory. This revealed, after initial domination by UK academics, increasing Continental European influence; increasing use of qualitative methods over a wide range of topics, especially new costing methods, control system design, change and implementation, public sector transformation, and more recently risk management and creativity. Theoretical approaches have been diverse, often multi-disciplinary, and have employed surprisingly few economic theories relative to behavioural and social theories. The research spans mainly large public and private sector organisations especially in Europe. Seven themes perceived as of interest to a social and critical theory analysis are evaluated, namely: the search for ‘Relevance Lost’ and new costing; management control, the environment and the search for ‘fits’; reconstituting the public sector; change and institutional theory; post-structural, constructivist and critical contributions; social and environmental accounting; and the changing geography of time and space between European and American research. The paper concludes by assessing the contributions of MAR against the aspirations of groups identified in the opening personal historiography, which have been largely met. MAR has made substantial contributions to social and critical accounting (broadly defined) but not in critical areas endeavouring to give greater voice and influence to marginalised sectors of society worldwide. Third Sector organisations, politics, civil society involvement, development and developing countries, labour, the public interest, political economy, and until recently social and environmental accounting have been neglected

Vad kostar kunden? : modeller för intern redovisning

Allt fler industriella företag erbjuder kundanpassade produkter. Produkterna utvecklas inom ramen för långvariga relationer med kunder. Detta har betydelse för hur de ekonomiska informationssystemen bör utformas. I uppsatsen föreslås modeller för den interna redovisningen som stödjer fokusering av både kunder och produkter. Därtill studeras hur kunder påverkar företagets kostnader. Litteraturen om redovisning och kalkylering, som har utvecklats för att i första hand fördela kostnader på produkter, analyseras utifrån att både produkter och kunder är väsentliga för uppföljningen. De föreslagna modellerna illustreras via en analys av kostnadsdata från Paroc AB. Dessutom diskuteras hur de föreslagna modellerna kan stödja kalkylering inför olika kundrelaterade handlingssituationer. Både kund och produkt bör användas som kostnadsbärare i redovisningen för industriella företag som arbetar med en hög grad av kundanpassning. Detta ökar möjligheterna att analysera kostnaderna, jämfört med att enbart produkter fokuseras. Vidare kan kategorisering av kostnader efter hur resurser som förbrukas har anskaffats ge värdefull information, som inte är beroende av analysobjekt. I uppsatsen skiljs mellan prestationsberoende, kapacitetsberoende och nedlagda kostnader. Att använda kund och produkt som kostnadsbärare i redovisningssystem komplicerar dock att etablera nivåer av kostnadsställen i redovisningen som föreslagits i ABC-litteraturen. Det är bättre att använda den traditionella nivåindelningen av kostnadsbärare enligt stegkalkylsmetoden. Kundrelaterade aktiviteter är ofta avsedda att skapa värden i senare tidsperioder. Framåtriktade aktiviteter kan redovisas som ’goda kostnader’, om de inte anses vara investeringar i formell bemärkelse. Detta medför att kostnaderna kan analyseras i senare tidsperioder utan att värdering av investeringar eller avskrivningar av tillgångar behöver göras. Investeringar i kunder skapar ofta immateriella tillgångar. För att värdera immateriella tillgångar är det väsentligt att studera möjligheterna till alternativ användning. I uppsatsen föreslås en kategorisering av tillgångar i specifika, begränsade och icke begränsade tillgångar.Rapportkod: LiU-Tek-Lic-2000:40.</p

Formal incentive systems in organization with a Swedish management style: conflict or interaction?

The aim of our study is to explore how organizations that are typically characterized as under a Swedish management style relate to the trend of increased use of formal incentive systems. Interview-based case studies of two organizations with management principles strongly rooted in Swedish culture. Both organizations operate in industries strongly influenced by external pressure, which includes the discourse of incentive systems as a modern feature of management.Our results point at companies under a Swedish management systems recoqnizes the intrustion of incentive systems, but try to align with their own ideas about management as far as possible. A broad perspective on employee motivation, with a focus on career planning and development take a central role. On a strategic level, these organization tries avoid conflicts between the ideas of incentive systems and their existing management ideas in everyday management activity, by taking an explicit stand on a high organizational level.Further consideration of how incentive systems aligns with existing management ideas is needed. The well documented negative effects of incentive systems on employee relations can be avoided through active choices concerning how to implement incentive systems. Contributes to our understanding of how ideas of incentive systems interact with management  ideas that builds on trust and open communication

Performance measurement systems, hierarchical accountability and enabling control

The theory of enabling control explains how the development and design of performance measurement systems (PMSs) induce subordinate managers to experience PMSs as enabling. However, PMSs are often vital to superior managers' control. The empirical research indicates that PMSs cease to be enabling when given a large degree of attention in control processes. We use a qualitative case study, abductive research, and a hierarchical accountability perspective to explore how superior managers' use of PMSs for control purposes may support subordinate managers' experience of PMSs as enabling. We show how superior managers' choices of how to use PMSs to demand and react to accounts may trigger subordinate managers to use the design characteristics of enabling control. We also show how PMSs can be important to superior managers' control and still be experienced as enabling by subordinate managers. We show the importance of two choices for superior managers' use of PMSs in hierarchical accountability: (1) extend performance evaluation over time and (2) limit the discretion for subordinate managers to play out within hierarchical communication

Conceptualizing dysfunctional consequences of performance measurement in the public sector

Performance measurement (PM) has become increasingly popular in the management of public sector organizations (PSOs). This is somewhat paradoxical considering that PM has been criticized for having dysfunctional consequences. Although there are reasons to believe that PM may have dysfunctional consequences, when they occur has not been clarified. The aim of this research is to conceptualize the dysfunctional consequences of PM in PSOs. Based on complementarity theory and contingency theory we conclude that dysfunctional consequences of PM are a matter of interactions between PM design and PM use, between control practices in the control system and between PM and context

Building traits for organizational resilience through balancing organizational structures

This paper describes and explains how balancing organizational structures can build traits for organizational resilience. Organizational resilience is a holistic and complex concept. In this paper, we move beyond focusing on sudden and disruptive events in favour of anticipating the unexpected in daily organizing. Organizational resilience is understood here as building traits of risk awareness, preference for cooperation, agility and improvisation and is analysed by means of a longitudinal qualitative case study. The paper contributes to the field by showing how balancing organizational structures can foster organizational resilience traits. We show that power distribution and normative control can create preparedness for unexpected events and foster action orientation at the same time as supporting organizational alignment