Integrating futures studies with organizational development: Design options for the scenario project ‘RWS2020’

Most futures studies are not used by managers and strategists and do not influence the direction of organizational development. Although the contribution of future studies to management is in theory all but self-evident, the practice in organizations is that futures knowledge is hardly used, or at most, is used selectively and strategically (‘politically’). This article acknowledges that gap and claims that it is a fundamental divide between to very different domains. However, out of that re-conceptualization of the relation between futures studies and management, a new direction for an integrated praxis arises. In an empirical case study, we show that by means of an intelligent process-design and professional balancing of several key-dilemmas, futures studies can be connected to management processes and organizational development. The future can be brought back into the everyday practice of management. However, in order to do so, the futures field needs to set aside some of its methodological claims and move towards the field of strategic management. Not because futurists need to abandon their specific knowledge and expertise, but to make the most of it.     

From Accounting to “Forecounting”*

Using Ross Skinner's 1995 CA Magazine article, “Judgment in Jeopardy", as a stepping stone, we revisit the meaning of professional judgment in accounting in light of developments in standard setting, financial markets, and business operations that have taken place over the past two decades. We argue that it is time to change the view that accountants' professional judgment is the application of accounting‐based knowledge and experience in the selection of an appropriate accounting method. Accountants now face a standard‐setting context that emphasizes the estimation of future cash flows as well as new business and financial realities. This context implies that, in exercising their professional judgment to choose between forecast alternatives, accountants must rely on knowledge and experience from other disciplines (even though this is not well integrated into accounting). Hence, accounting must evolve from its traditional stewardship role to the new role of “forecount‐ing” (the estimation of future cash flows). The implications as well as the challenges of that evolution are discussed.     

Strategy on a Page: An ArchiMate‐based tool for visualizing and designing strategy

Nowadays, organizations need to be able to adjust more rapidly to the circumstances of their environment, at a strategic, tactical, and operational level. However, most software tools are designed to support the tactical and operational levels, while at a strategic level there are not many options available. In this paper, we propose a software tool which supports modelling of strategic information, covering several well‐known strategy techniques, and also facilitates the design of highly customizable management dashboards. To validate our proposed software tools, we perform two case studies, with two inherently different organizations, namely a public university and an investment fund.     

Introducing T-shaped managers. Knowledge management's next generation

Most companies do a poor job of capitalizing on the wealth of expertise scattered across their organizations. That's because they tend to rely on centralized knowledge-management systems and technologies. But such systems are really only good at distributing explicit knowledge, the kind that can be captured and codified for general use. They're not very good at transferring implicit knowledge, the kind needed to generate new insights and creative ways of tackling business problems or opportunities. The authors suggest another approach, something they call T-shaped management, which requires executives to share knowledge freely across their organization (the horizontal part of the "T"), while remaining fiercely committed to their individual business unit's performance (the vertical part). A few companies are starting to use this approach, and one--BP Amoco--has been especially successful. From BP's experience, the authors have gleaned five ways that T-shaped managers help companies capitalize on their inherent knowledge. They increase efficiency by transferring best practices. They improve the quality of decision making companywide. They grow revenues through shared expertise. They develop new business opportunities through the cross-pollination of ideas. And they make bold strategic moves possible by delivering well-coordinated implementation. All that takes time, and BP's managers have had to learn how to balance that time against the attention they must pay to their own units. The authors suggest, however, that it's worth the effort to find such a balance to more fully realize the immense value of the knowledge lying idle within so many companies.     

Who Influences the Design of Management Accounting Systems? An Exploratory Study

This paper outlines the results of an exploratory, survey‐based study of the relative influence of managers and management accountants on management accounting system (MAS) design. The findings reveal that, on average, corporate management have the stronger influence on MAS design. However, the strength of their influence does vary both across firms and the sub‐areas of management accounting and, in a significant number of cases, the management accountants’ influence is the greater. The results, therefore, suggest that the processes by which MASs evolve differ across firms due to the variation that exists in the influence exerted by these two parties in MAS design. This finding is significant for researchers studying change and difference in management accounting practice.     

Match your sales force structure to your business life cycle

Although companies devote considerable time and money to managing their sales forces, few focus much thought on how the structure of the sales force needs to change over the life cycle of a product or a business. However, the organization and goals of a sales operation have to evolve as businesses start up, grow, mature, and decline if a company wants to keep winning the race for customers. Specifically, firms must consider and alter four factors over time: the differing roles that internal salespeople and external selling partners should play, the size of the sales force, its degree of specialization, and how salespeople apportion their efforts among different customers, products, and activities. These variables are critical because they determine how quickly sales forces respond to market opportunities, they influence sales reps' performance, and they affect companies' revenues, costs, and profitability. In this article, the authors use timeseries data and cases to explain how, at each stage, firms can best tackle the relevant issues and get the most out of their sales forces. During start-up, smart companies focus on how big their sales staff should be and on whether they can depend upon selling partners. In the growth phase, they concentrate on getting the sales force's degree of specialization and size right. When businesses hit maturity, companies should better allocate existing resources and hire more general-purpose salespeople. Finally, as organizations go into decline, wise sales leaders reduce sales force size and use partners to keep the business afloat for as long as possible.     

Competency‐Based Education and Assessment for the Accounting Profession: A Critical Review*

In recent years many professional accounting associations have become interested in establishing competency‐based professional requirements and assessment methods for certifying accounting professionals. A competency‐based approach to qualification specifies expectations in terms of outcomes, or what an individual can accomplish, rather than in terms of an individual's knowledge or capabilities. This idea has an obvious appeal to many practitioners and administrators of professional qualification programs. However, there is limited knowledge about competency‐based approaches in the accounting profession and among accounting academics, which is constraining discussion about the value of these approaches and about the strengths and weaknesses of the different competency models that have sprung up in various jurisdictions. In this paper we review and synthesize the literature on competency‐based approaches. We identify a number of theoretical benefits of competency‐based approaches. However, we also find many alternative definitions and philosophies underlying competency‐based approaches, and a variety of visions of how competencies should be determined and assessed. We note that there is limited evidence supporting many competency‐based approaches and we identify 14 research questions that could be used to help policy makers to more effectively address policy matters related to competency‐based education and assessment.     

The apparatus of fraud risk

‘Fraud risk’ is ontologically different from fraud. Fraud itself is a disruptive event; fraud risk can and must be governed. This essay draws on Foucault’s concept of an apparatus (dispositif) to explain the emergence of this difference. The analysis begins with a concrete case and explicates the history of fraud risk which flows through a specific organizational setting. First, it is claimed that fraud risk must be understood in relation to the broader historicity of risk in which risk expands its reach as an organizing practice category. Second, it is argued that the diverse elements of the fraud risk apparatus – words, laws, best practice guides, risk maps, websites, compliance officers, text books, regulatory judgments and many more – have a trajectory of formation. This trajectory begins with auditing and expands into risk management, regulation and security more generally. Fraud risk management emerges as a highly articulated, transnational web of ideas and procedures which frame the future within present organizational actions, and which intensify the responsibility of senior managers. Overall, the paper challenges the common sense idea that the present shape of fraud risk management is a functional necessity demanded by fraud events. The purpose is to display the historically contingent regime of truth for speaking about fraud, risk and responsibility in organizations. The paper suggests that this ‘regime of truth’ consists in a form of managerial and regulatory knowledge with a ‘grammar’ governing rules for talking about and acting on risky subjects and organizations. The rise of ‘fraud risk’ management and its prominent position within the field of corporate governance in the 21st century is emblematic of an ongoing neoliberal project of individualization and responsibilization.     

The Case for Activist Directors: A Conversation with Ira M. Millstein

In this conversation held at the 2016 Millstein Governance Forum at Columbia Law School, Ira Millstein, a leading authority on corporate governance and founding chair of the Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership, discusses his new book, The Activist Director, with Geoff Colvin of Fortune Magazine. In explaining why he wrote the book, Millstein said that it is important for boards of directors to understand the key role they must play to secure the future of our corporations, and for shareholders to recognize, encourage, and support this role. The role of directors has changed significantly over the years. Yet corporate performance, broadly speaking, has not lived up to expectations, and Millstein attributes this in part to the failure of directors to adapt and evolve quickly and decisively enough—which in turn has helped to fuel the rise of activist investors. Much of the problem stems from the tendency of boards to view themselves as oversight organizations that review and “challenge” management at arm's length, as opposed to truly engaging with management to make better decisions. To address this problem, Millstein makes the case for “activist” directors who will partner with management, think deliberately and critically about the company's strategy, and work for the longterm interest of the corporation. And to provide financial incentives for directors to reinforce their commitment to the corporations they serve, Millstein favors an increase in compensation for directors that is tied to long‐term performance. As an early example of what became an activist board, Millstein describes his own experience with the board of General Motors in the late 1980s and early 1990s when it confronted managerial failure and ended up replacing the CEO. In the current environment of activist investors, activist boards must give serious consideration to shareholder proposals for change, without succumbing to pressure for shortsighted cutbacks in value‐adding investment and while ensuring that management is focused on long‐term growth and innovation. Directors must have the courage and commitment to carry out the course of action they deem to be in the best longterm interests of the corporation.     

ENERGY EFFICIENCY EVALUATION IN MANUFACTURING THROUGH AN ONTOLOGY‐REPRESENTED KNOWLEDGE BASE

Improving energy efficiency in a manufacturing company through an energy management system requires active participation of different stakeholders and involvement of different organizational entities and technical processes. Interoperability of stakeholders and entities is the key factor to achieve a successful implementation of an energy management system. Researchers have been developing approaches in applying ontologies to address interoperability issues among humans as well as machines. Ontologies have also been used for knowledge representation in different domains, such as energy management and manufacturing. In recent years, researchers have developed knowledge‐based intelligent energy management systems in buildings, especially households, which use ontologies for knowledge representation. In the manufacturing domain, ontologies have been used for knowledge management in order to provide a common formal understanding between the stakeholders, who have different background knowledge. This paper proposes an approach to apply ontology to allow knowledge‐based energy efficiency evaluation in manufacturing companies. The ontology provides a formal knowledge representation that addresses the interoperability issues due to different human stakeholders as well as machines involved in the energy management system of the company. This paper also describes the methods used to construct and to process the ontology. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.