Cultural-Ideological Modes of Management Control: A Theory and a Case Study of a Professional Service Company

1993 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mats Alvesson
Keyword(s):  
Management Control ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Company

Strategy in Action

2018 ◽  
pp. 131-144
Keyword(s):  
Strategic Change ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Management Control ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Strategy Maps ◽  
Managerial Practices ◽  
Professional Service Firm ◽  
Complex Settings

Recently performativity has emerged as a new conceptual and methodological tool in management and accounting research. This concept emphasizes the process view of organisational phenomena by drawing attentions to the provisional ontology of managerial practices in complex settings. Building on the performativity turn in accounting, this chapter provides insights in the active role that a special kind of management control tools, strategy maps, plays in exploring new strategic patterns. A qualitative case study of strategy renewal in an Italian professional service firm was undertaken. Preliminary findings confirm that strategy maps enact knowledge production in strategic change processes by figuring concerns, negotiating meaning and discovering new patterns.

Automating attendance recording of contingent labours at a large construction site

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (8) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Saroj Koul
Keyword(s):  
Power Plant ◽  
Radio Frequency Identification ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Management Control ◽  
Class Discussion ◽  
Construction Site ◽  
Large Power ◽  
Content Type

Subject area Operations and human resourcing. Study level/applicability This case study is intended for use in graduate, executive level management and doctoral programs. The case study illustrates a combined IT and HR driven participative management control system in a flexible organization structure. It is intended for a class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Case overview The case describes the situation of managing unskilled workforces (≥14,000 workers) during the construction phase of the 4 × 250MW power plants both for purposes of turnout as well as due compensation, in the event of an accident. The approved labour forces appointed for 45 × 8 h. Man-days after a rigorous fitness test and approvals of the safety officer are allocated housing and other necessary amenities and a commensurate compensation system. Expected learning outcomes These include: illustrating typical organizational responsibility structure at a construction site of a large power plant; illustrating the planning and administrative control mechanism in implementing strategy at a construction site of a large power plant; offering students the opportunity to understand and view a typical operational (project) structure; allowing students to speculate adaptations in the wake of an ever-changing business and company environment; and providing an opportunity to introduce a power scenario in India, Indian labour laws and radio frequency identification technology and to relate this to the case in context. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available; please consult your librarian for access.

Outsourcing relationship management: accounting in the decision mix

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 41-49
Author(s):  
Mirghani Nimir Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Management Accounting ◽  
Accounting Information ◽  
Relationship Management ◽  
Internal Audit ◽  
Management Control ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Monitoring Cost ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The paper aims to examine the role of management accounting and accounting information in decisions to outsource and manage outsourcing relationships. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a case study method. Data are collected through semi-structured interviews and informal discussions with executives of the participating companies. Official documents and secondary materials were analysed. Findings The findings of these cases present evidence of some roles given to accounting information and varying tasks assumed by accountants and finance staff in the outsourcing projects undertaken. These roles and tasks range from financial evaluation of new outsourcing proposals and alternatives, consultation and price negotiations in the planning and feasibility stages to the management of outsourcing relationships including monitoring, cost analysis, performance measurement, internal audit, design and implementation of risk-reward payment schemes. Managing the outsourced functions in one case involved in the use of informal control mechanisms such as trust, knowledge sharing, mutual understanding and cooperation between partners. Practical implications The paper highlights the role of management accounting and information in outsourcing relationship management and evaluation. The case findings provide the opportunity for management practitioners to understand the strategic role of management accountants in the management of inter-firm relationships. Originality/value The case study presents new empirical evidence of the role of management accounting and accounting information in the management control of outsourcing relationships.

scholarly journals Internal control effectiveness: A study of medical institutions

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 66-74
Author(s):  
Shih-Nien Lee ◽  
Tzu-Ching Weng ◽  
Hsin-Yi Huang
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Internal Control ◽  
Medical Knowledge ◽  
Management Control ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Corporate Management ◽  
Medical Quality ◽  
Medical Institutions ◽  
Internal Control System ◽  
Management Staff

As a healthcare organization, hospitals should professional service to their clients. Therefore, hospitals have obligation to improve overall service quality. In exploring the relationship between hospital budget control and organizational effectiveness, the hospital’s management staff has rich professional medical knowledge, they still have not received the training of general corporate organization and the management technology of corporate management. To improve the effectiveness of the organization, managers in hospitals should have enough experience in management control and rely on peer control. Therefore, internal control is a management process that integrates various management control and evaluation measures within the hospital, this study believes that the management staff of medical institutions should use common standards to evaluate the degree of a hospital operation, management efficiency, and medical quality. An internal control system can be simultaneously built and implemented by the topmost level of management in a hospital. It involves the commercial and business experiences related to an organization’s control, financial, and other systems. It regularly and effectively ensures compliance with management policies while safeguarding assets as well as the completeness and accuracy of safety records. Internal control is an indispensable aspect of the governance norms and methods of many companies. The hospital can also achieve value enhancement and sustainable existence through the continuous operation of the internal control system designed, and the supervision of external audit firms.

Enabling characteristics of new budgeting practice and the role of controller

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiina Henttu-Aho
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Management Control ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
New Developments ◽  
Role Change ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Paper Company

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the emergence of the enabling characteristics of new budgetary practices and their implications for the role of controller. Design/methodology/approach The longitudinal perspective of this qualitative case study is based on interviews of controllers and managers involved in budgetary work. This study monitored the four enabling characteristics of management control, namely, repair, internal transparency, global transparency and flexibility (Adler and Borys, 1996), related to the new budgeting practices in one global paper company. Findings The findings of the study demonstrate that the implementation of rolling forecasting was a major attempt at “repair” to remedy the incompleteness of accounting information, which made controllers experts in producing and delivering more realistic forward-looking information in the organization. The increasing internal and global transparency of new budgetary practices enabled controllers at various levels of organization to develop new competences, which helped controller network to build a holistic view of the totality of control and supply more relevant information in organization. Moreover, the inherent flexibility of the system was a major condition for improving organizational effectiveness in budgetary work. However, the study shows that the controller’s attitude towards enabling formalization is not necessarily positive if the system is not aligned with professional mindset and competence. Originality/value This study adds to the understanding of the complementarity between new developments of budgeting and controller role by addressing the enabling uses of management control systems, which have the potential to enhance the controller role change.

Professional Service Firms and Identity

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mats Alvesson ◽  
Dan Karreman ◽  
Kate Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Management Control ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Professional Workers ◽  
Elite Identity ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Multiple Actors

This chapter examines the relationship between individual and organizational identity in PSFs and the significant but tenuous nature of elite identity in this context. The authors identify four main identity-related issues for management control in PSFs: autonomy/conformity tensions, the client conundrum, ambiguity saturation, and intangibility. They explore three main modes of identity-focused control in PSFs: positive image, homogenization of the workforce, and anxiety-regulation. The chapter examines contemporary challenges to elite identities and the increasing critique of concepts of professionalism in this context and highlights key areas for future research on identity in PSFs and among professionals. These include: the need to acknowledge the homogeneity of professional service firms and professional workers; how professionals regulate their identity to respond to identity challenges; the roles that multiple actors play in a professional’s identity construction; and the depth of identity construction with regard to both organizational and professional identity.

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