This article seeks to initiate research around the potential roles of the accounting profession for tackling the challenges of the vulnerable. Its backdrop is the current consideration of the profession's public interest role. The importance of dialogue around the public interest role is evidenced by the increasing levels of vulnerability, even within developed countries. Accounting underpinned by broader values has potential to provide knowledge of issues relating to the vulnerable. However, the accounting profession has only engaged with such potential to a limited degree. The article overviews existing knowledge and areas within which more research is required. In order to illustrate the potential for such research, initial findings from two case studies of homelessness (an example of the vulnerable) provide evidence as to the importance, and challenges, of accounting for the vulnerable. This article highlights the need to: take a principles-based approach in defining the vulnerable, undertake an accounting that reflects the lives they value, acknowledge that there are different ways for addressing these issues, recognise that an absence of perfect numbers should not become a barrier to action, and that accounting for the vulnerable is one way that the accounting profession may discharge their public interest roles.
Anthony Giddens is generally considered one of the most prominent sociologists of modern time. In this paper, we draw upon a micro-process case study to explore how his theory of structuration (ST) can be used to analyze the interplay between strategy and accounting in day-to-day-organizational life. In short, we find that strategizing and accounting should not be viewed as two separate practices, but rather as two aspects of one and the same practice, which form and feed each other in a recursive manner over time. Based on these findings, we also elaborate on how ST may be usefully applied to understand continuity and transformation of strategizing practices more generally. An overall conclusion is that ST not only provides a strong and consistent ontological framework for theorizing about these practices, but also offers a rich conceptual toolbox which can be usefully applied to better understand how and why structural continuity and change may coexist and intermingle in daily organizational life.
Article impact statement: New collaborations with accounting research can improve conservation impact of ecosystem-based information systems.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore two hospital departments, one of which is laterally dependent on the other to function, but which are subject to distinct vertical managerial controls. This complexity in vertical-lateral relations generates tension amongst the hospital's senior managers and a perception of coordination difficulties. However, this paper shows how the interplay between managerial and non-managerial controls, plus important employee "work", moderates tension and facilitates day-to-day lateral coordination at the patient-facing level. Design/methodology/approach - This is a case-study, relying mostly on the findings of semistructured interviews. Theoretically, the paper draws from previous insights on inter-organisational relations (but informing the focus on intra-organisational coordination) and an "institutional work" perspective. Findings - Consistent with much extant literature, this paper reveals how non-managerial controls help to moderate tensions that could emerge from the coercive use of managerial controls. However, the authors also show a maintained influence and flexibility in the managerial controls at patient-facing levels, as new circumstances unfold. Research limitations/implications - The findings of this paper could generalise neither all laterally dependent spaces in hospitals nor patterns across different hospitals. The authors recommend future research into the dynamics and interaction of managerial and non-managerial controls in other complex settings, plus focus on the purposeful work of influential agents. Originality/value - The paper has two primary contributions: extending our knowledge of the interplay between managerial and non-managerial controls inside complex organisations, where non-managerial controls reinforce rather than displace managerial controls, and highlighting that it is seldom just controls per se which "matter", but also agents' purposeful actions that facilitate coordination in complex organisations.
The role of the management accountant in the United Kingdom (UK) is fairly well documented, and this chapter summarises its evolution. We examine some of the key drivers of change, including new policies, the adoption of new business models in UK organisations, social perceptions, education and training. Evidently, the shift from once being a mainly manufacturing based nation to one which is dominated by its service sector has required considerable change in its accounting profession. In addition, government policy changes during the 1970s, and the prevalence and high-status of accounting qualifications in boardrooms has brought influence and increased power to those individuals and groups who elect for a career in accounting. Whilst the social and professional standing of an accountant per se is currently strong, the future of UK management accountants in particular is very much up for debate, and possibly at an important juncture of its development. More specifically, there have been numerous recent discussions in both academic and professional-oriented literatures concerning the ‘balance’ of their organisational roles, and whether UK management accountants should remain rooted in traditional aspects or develop broader and more strategic roles.