Management Accounting Change

Question 1

Organisational change, contingency approach?

Answer 1

Change = affected by contingent factors
Takes into account interaction between organisation and business environment
Contingent factors:
- Economic conditions
- Competition
- Political and legal factors
- organisational size, strategy and structure
- Technology
*Does not provide a roadmap for change*

Question 2

Organisational change, consulting approach?

Answer 2

Consultative rather than academic perspective
Eg, Kotter (1996) - ‘recipe for successful change’
Advantage - based on actual experience, incorporates context and history
Disadvantage - not possible to derive a generalised approach to change in orgs

Question 3

Organisational change - processual approach?

Answer 3

Recognises org change as a continuous evolutionary process, may not often have a clear start or end

Question 4

Processual change factors?

Answer 4

External - competitors’ strategy, legislation, social expectations and technology
Internal - Administrative structures, technology, product/service, history and context of org
Substance - scale/scope/characteristics of the change, timeframe
Politics - power relations internal&external to the organisation eg government pressures, head office influence, relationship between management and operations staff

Question 5

Johnson and Kaplan (1985) ?

Answer 5

Not much had changed in previous 100 years for management accountants.
Post Johnson and Kaplan, some new techniques emerged eg ABC
Research shows many MA still use traditional methods
Is MA more stable than changing?
INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK MAY HELP

Question 6

Institutional theory?

Answer 6

The way things are done around here
Physical elements of underlying practices eg government/organisation
Action is necessary for institutions to be maintained
- New Institutional Sociology
- Old Institutional Economics
OIE may be more relevant to MA change

Question 7

NIS - organisational field?

Answer 7

Organisational field? - community of organizations partaking in a common meaning system, whose participants interact more frequently and fatefully with one another than with others outside the field” (Scott, 1995/2014)

Field can be: government, funders, special interest groups, general public

Question 8

OIE Rules and Routines?

Answer 8

Rules - formal, written procedures
Routines - how things are done/acted out
Both result in institutionalised ways of doing things
Once institutionalised, hard to get out of habit

Question 9

Can institutionalised MA practices change?

Answer 9

Always potential for change
Gradual change may occur within practices but can retain a similar pattern (Quinn, 2014)
Change can be brought about by external shocks/shifts (Technology/laws)
IFRS16 - good regulatory factor affecting MA - NIS
Possibility of institutional agent - someone who instigates change from within the firm

Question 10

OIE vs NIS

Answer 10

OIE focuses on micro-level (habits and actions), seems to ignore macro level influences
NIS - opposite, nearly over focus on macro levels
Study of both might be useful to study/explain complex change