A further interpretation of the relational agency of information systems: A research note

This paper proposes a reinterpretation of the agency of information system (IS) as relational. It explores how the agency of IS has been articulated in the extant stream of accounting information system (AIS) research and explains how a relational view of agency can enhance our understanding of IS in its organizational context. This reinterpretation highlights the limitation of viewing IS as technology (technocentric view) with predefined functionality and predictable effects. Attention is also shifted away from an anthropocentric conceptualization of IS; where the technology is seen as a tool and agency is attributed only to humans. We argue in the paper that both the technocentric and anthropocentric views of IS limit what can be learned about the agency of IS. Drawing on actor-network theory (ANT), this study conceptualizes IS as a relational network and proposes a relational view of the agency of IS. This relational view suggests that the social and material entities that make up IS have no absolute essence when viewed in isolation; rather, their collective force defines the agency of IS. The implications of the relational view of agency for AIS research are also highlighted.     

Impact of IT governance mechanisms on organizational agility and the role of top management support and IT ambidexterity

Organizations have increasingly relied on information technology (IT) to remain agile in today’s business environment. This study examines the antecedents of organizational agility by integrating top management support, IT governance mechanisms (i.e., structural, process-based, and relational governance), and IT ambidexterity (i.e., IT exploration and exploitation) into a research model. We test our model using statistical data collected from 326 firms in China. Our findings indicate that top management support positively influences structural, process-based, and relational governance. Results show that process-based and relational governance positively influence IT exploration and exploitation, whereas IT exploration and exploitation positively influence organizational agility. In addition, top management support positively impacts organizational agility through the dual mediation of process-based and relational governance and IT exploration and exploitation. We interpret and discuss these findings as well as their theoretical and practical implications.     

Alternative work arrangements and perceived career success: Current evidence from the big four firms in the US

This study examines the influences of alternative work arrangements (AWAs), subordinate gender, and supervisor attitudes and beliefs regarding AWAs on performance evaluation judgments in public accounting. One hundred and forty-two experienced professionals from two US Big Four firms evaluated a hypothetical subordinate’s performance in an experimental setting. Results indicated that subordinate gender and AWA participation were significantly related to supervisors’ perceptions of the subordinate’s career success. We also found that individual differences in supervisors’ attitudes and beliefs regarding AWAs were systematically related to their performance evaluation judgments, and indicate that cultural support for AWAs is not uniform among experienced Big Four professionals. Further, the association between these attitudes and beliefs and performance evaluation judgments are consistent with an organizational justice interpretation of AWA use. Implications of these results for the Big Four’s work-life balance initiatives in the US are discussed.     

Factores que explican la extensión de revelación de activos intangibles de los bancos que cotizan en la Bolsa de Valores de Panamá

This paper analyzes the level of voluntary disclosure of intangible assets, and identifies the factors that explain the disclosure of such information by the banks listed on the Panama Stock Exchange during the period 2005-2009. The information is recorded on an index that contains 158 indicators divided into five categories: human capital, technological structural, organizational structure, relational business and social relational. Three hypotheses are posed: H₁ there is a positive relationship between the size and extent of disclosure of intangible assets; H₂ a positive relationship between the extent of incorporation and disclosure of intangible assets; H₃ there is a positive relationship between leverage and the extent of disclosure of intangible assets. The results indicate that for Panama banks it is more important to disclose information on intangibles in the following order: business relational capital, social relational, organizational structure, human and technological structural. H₁ was accepted as a size category except for the structural capital; H₂ was accepted for the years in all categories, while H₃ was rejected.     

The role of performance measurement and evaluation in building organizational capabilities and performance

This study examines the processes through which the availability of broad-based strategically relevant performance information impacts on the performance outcomes of organizations. We explore the role of evaluation mechanisms in influencing managers’ use of broad-based performance measurement information for feedback and feed-forward control. We hypothesize that these resultant decision-making patterns impact the exploitation and identification of strategic capabilities within an organization and in turn organizational performance. Using a structural equation model, we find support for a model in which the degree of commonality between measures identified as decision-facilitating and decision-influencing is significantly associated with the use of decision-facilitating measures for both feedback and feed-forward control. In turn, the extent to which decision-facilitating measures are actually used by strategic business unit managers impacts on the strategic capabilities of the organization and subsequently its performance. Overall the results suggest that to encourage managers to use the multiple financial and non-financial performance indicators increasingly incorporated in contemporary performance measurement systems it is imperative that performance evaluation schemes are also designed to reflect these measures. To the extent performance evaluation schemes do not reflect such decision-facilitating measures it is less likely managers will use these indicators to effectively manage performance. The resultant performance implications for the organization arise from the impact of these decision effects on the exploitation of existing capabilities and the search for and identification of new strategic opportunities.     

Is sin always a sin? The interaction effect of social norms and financial incentives on market participants’ behavior

Using alcohol, tobacco, and gaming consumption data and people’s attitudes toward these sin products to proxy for social norm acceptance levels, we show a strong interaction effect between social norms and financial incentives, which significantly influence the behavior of market participants. Specifically, institutional investors’ shareholdings and analyst coverage of sin companies increase with the degree of social norm acceptance. The association between shareholdings/coverage and social norm acceptance is less pronounced for firms with higher future expected performance. Our results show that social norms and financial incentives have a powerful interaction effect in determining the behavior of market participants, suggesting that social norms can be crossed when motive and opportunity exist.     

Using a robust performance measurement system to illuminate intellectual capital

The central premise of the “fit-as-mediation” view states that knowledge-related factors could determine the usage and design of specific organizational systems, such as management accounting and control systems. This could, in turn, facilitate information processing and bring about positive organizational outcomes. While the influence of knowledge-based assets on measurable performance has been examined extensively in the intellectual capital literature, little is known concerning the role of an organizational control system in fostering the management of intellectual capital as the most strategic asset for organizations. As such, this study primarily aims to explore what role a performance measurement system plays in terms of the diversity of measurement in the relationship between intellectual capital and organizational performance. We incorporate social capital into the general three-dimensional classification of intellectual capital; namely, human capital, structural capital, and relational capital, to provide a more comprehensive measure of intellectual capital. Further, we conceptualize the diversity of measurement by supplementing the original Kaplan and Norton's BSC model with a new perspective, social and environmental measures. Such integration of financial, customer, internal business process, learning, and growth, along with social and environmental measures could result in an overarching and robust conceptualization of performance measurement; a concept that was barely mentioned in previous literature. We conducted a questionnaire survey involving chief financial officers of 128 Iranian public listed companies. Using the partial least squares (PLS), we find that companies with higher levels of intellectual capital emphasize a greater diversity of performance measures. The findings also show that the diversity of measurement mediates the relationship between intellectual capital and organizational performance. This paper may offer guidance to companies concerning the competencies needed for securing positive organizational outcomes from their knowledge resources, such as intellectual capital.     

Synthesizing enterprise data to strategically align performance: The intentionality of strategy surrogation

Strategic performance measurement systems (SPMS) are employed by senior management as a means of translating strategy into performance measures. Recent research suggests that this translation can lead managers to focus on personal performance measures as opposed to overall organizational strategy—a phenomenon referred to as strategy surrogation. Emerging technologies are increasingly used to operationalize SPMS via smart phone/tablet/laptop formats that inherently promote the use of small subsets of performance measures and have the potential to exacerbate strategy surrogation effects. This study explores executive managers' motivations in deploying dashboards and the resulting effect on operational managers' focus on associated performance measures. An exploratory cross-sectional field study is conducted with 27 executive to mid-level managers to establish a theoretical model explaining how and why organizations deploy dashboards and why managers use dashboards to facilitate their activities and decisions. Despite concerns over the propensity of managers to focus on performance measures and lose sight of strategic objectives (i.e. strategy surrogation), the interview data indicate that executive management intentionally designs dashboards to achieve strategy surrogation. The impact of this intentional surrogation appears to arise through operational managers' beliefs that dashboard measures align with organizational strategy and lead to improved managerial and organizational performance. However, this relationship between perceived alignment of performance measures and managerial and organizational performance is mediated by dashboard quality and information quality. These findings have important implications as the effects of SPMS on strategy surrogation are further explored by researchers, and as system designers consider the side effects of emerging technologies on effective strategic performance measurement.     

Debate: Shrinking the quango state— an international view

Social exchange theory is used in this paper to explore how the quality of leader–member exchange (LMX) and perceived organizational support (POS) affect Brazilian nursing professionals’ perceptions of bullying and harassment and, in turn, their wellbeing. Data was obtained from 868 nursing professionals in four public hospitals in Brazil. Statistically significant linkages were found between LMX, POS, bullying/harassment and wellbeing, except for the relationship between POS and bullying/harassment. Healthcare managers and human resource managers clearly need to take initiatives to strengthen LMX and POS, minimize bullying and to strengthen nursing professionals’ wellbeing.     

Top management adoption of a locally driven performance measurement and evaluation system: A social network perspective

This paper traces the adoption process by top management of a performance evaluation system initiated by the financial controllers at the Research And Development site of a leading multinational company. The research puts forward that the success of the change efforts depends on the nature of relationships among the organizational members involved in the process. Because performance measurement and evaluation systems have notoriety for being controversial, the notion of trust, operationalized through strong ties, emerged as pivotal to reduce uncertainty during the change process and facilitate the introduction of the performance evaluation system. The research also points out that the structural position of financial controllers within organizational networks is an important aspect in the success/failure of implementing such problematic control systems. Also, the social network analysis used in this paper has proved to be a useful methodology for studying the relational patterns that occurred during the change process.     

组织公平、组织认同感与组织公民行为关系的实证研究

本文以16家企业的181名员工为调查对象,运用统计方法对组织公平、组织认同感与组织公民行为关系进行了实证研究。结果发现：国内员工的组织认同感主要是员工对组织的情感认同,组织公平是影响组织认同感的重要因素,组织认同感对组织公民行为具有显著的影响。这些研究结果为国内企业员工组织认同理论提供了证据支持。     

Consumer reactions to unfamiliar technologies: mental and social formation of perceptions and attitudes toward nano and GM products

Abstract

Using focus groups, the research analyses the mental and social processes through which consumers form perceptions and opinions about unfamiliar technologies and the derived products, taking the perception of nanotechnology and nano-products, GM and GM products as example. Our findings suggest that limited understanding of the technological principles and lack of (visible) products prevent the formation of experience-based attitudes and behavioral intentions. In this context, consumers interpret and assess cognitive interventions such as product labels or product information, as well as the trustworthiness of unfamiliar information sources, based on heuristic clues, association, mutual reassurance and previous attitudes. The established determinants of technology risk perception (e.g. knowledge, social norms, perceived risks and benefits and controllability) were the subject of constant deliberation and negotiation among participants. Consequently, the perception of risk and technology communication interventions might vary greatly across different locations and segments of the public, complicating risk communication and trust-building.     

Synthesizing enterprise data through digital dashboards to strategically align performance: Why do operational managers use dashboards?

Based on a cross-sectional field study, Reinking et al. (2019) propose a complex theoretical model for understanding the characteristics of dashboards that promote use and lead to individual and organizational performance gains. This study tests the theoretical model using survey data collected from 323 middle and upper level managers with experience using corporate dashboards. The data were analyzed using components based structural equation modeling, and the results provide strong support for the external validity of the Reinking et al. (2019) theoretical model. The results show that two primary constructs, strategy alignment and interactive management control, are important factors impacting the extent of dashboard use, perceived managerial performance, and perceived organizational performance. Prior research has expressed concerns over the tendency of managers to lose sight of strategic objectives (i.e., strategy surrogation) and focus solely on performance measures. However, our results indicate that operational managers perceive that dashboards focused on specifically tailored KPIs lead to both improved managerial and organizational performance. This study contributes to management control and strategy research in two important ways. While prior research has examined strategy in the executive level context through evaluations, changes, or initiative implementations, this study investigates strategy alignment at the operational levels of the organization. Second, the results suggest that intentional strategy surrogation may have beneficial effects at the lower operational levels in an organization.     

Firm‐ and Individual‐Level Determinants of Balanced Scorecard Usage*/DÉTERMINANTS DE L'USAGE DU TABLEAU DE BORD ÉQUILIBRÉ AU DOUBLE ÉCHELON ORGANISATIONNEL ET INDIVIDUEL

The factors influencing the organizational as well as the individual decision to utilize the balanced scorecard (BSC) approach have not been widely researched. In the first part of this paper, we study BSC adoption at the organizational level while utilizing a multifaceted perspective of socio‐psychological, economic, and resource‐based influences; specifically, we investigate the perceptions of desirability, urgency, and feasibility of BSC adoption. Our findings show that customer norms, competitor norms, and organizational resources are significant predictors of BSC adoption. In the second part of the paper, we discuss individual‐level aspects of utilization decisions. Here, we explore the impact of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and awareness on the intentions to use the BSC approach. Our findings show that both awareness of BSC capabilities and perceived ease of use are significantly related to perceived usefulness. However, only perceived usefulness is significantly related to intentions to use the BSC. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Reconfiguring relations of accountability: Materialization of social media in the travel sector

Expanding use of Web 2.0 technologies has generated complex information dynamics that are propelling organizations in unexpected directions, redrawing boundaries and shifting relationships. Using research on user-generated content, we examine online rating and ranking mechanisms and analyze how their performance reconfigures relations of accountability. Our specific interest is in the use of so-called “social media” such as TripAdvisor, where participant reviews are used to rank the popularity of services provided by the travel sector. Although ranking mechanisms are not new, they become “power-charged”—to use Donna Haraway’s term—when enacted through Web 2.0 technologies. As such, they perform a substantial redistribution of accountability. We draw on data from an on-going field study of small businesses in a remote geographical area for whom TripAdvisor has changed ‘the rules of the game,’ and we explore the moral and strategic implication of this transformation.     

Effect of perceived conflict among multiple performance goals and goal difficulty on task performance

Contemporary performance measurement systems, such as the balanced scorecard, often advocate the use of an array of financial and non‐financial measures. Despite many claimed advantages for these systems, recent research shows that the inclusion of multiple performance measures sometimes has undesirable effects. The present study examines one of the potential problems of implementing these systems; namely, the impact of perceived goal conflict on task performance. Using survey data from employees working in multiple call centres in a telecommunication company, we find that perceived goal difficulty increases perceived goal conflict. Additionally, perceived goal difficulty also has a negative, indirect effect of task performance, through the mediating role of perceived goal conflict. Our results have important implications for both the research literature and the designers of performance measurement systems.     

Management controls and their links with fairness and performance in inter‐organisational relationships

This study seeks to contribute to inter‐organisational management control literature by examining the impact of the use of management controls on fairness and performance. Findings from a survey of 232 Australian inter‐organisational relationships reveal that the use of social controls could improve procedural, distributive and interactional fairness. In turn, distributive and interactional fairness could lead to high levels of perceived relational performance. Additional analyses also confirm that formal and social controls are used as complements in managing inter‐organisational relationships.     

Antecedents and outcomes relating to public and private nurses’ use of intuition in England

This paper examines public and private sector nurses’ use of intuition in England using structural equation modeling. Leader–member exchange (LMX) and perceived organizational support (POS) correlated positively with nurses’ perception of discretionary power and use of intuition. Nurses’ perception of discretionary power and use of intuition were positively correlated with their engagement. Further, differences were identified between private sector and public sector nurses in relation to the impact of workplace relationships (POS and LMX) and intuition onto perceived discretionary power and employee engagement. The results are important for all hospital managers seeking to foster employees’ use of intuition, perception of discretionary power, and engagement.     

Risk allocation and the costs and benefits of public‐‐private partnerships

We study the agency costs of delegated public service provision, focusing on the link between organizational forms and uncertainty at project implementation. We consider a dynamic multitask moral hazard environment where the mapping between effort and performance is ex ante uncertain but new information may arise during operations. Our analysis highlights the costs and benefits that bundling planning and implementation—as under public‐‐private partnerships—can bring in terms of project design and operational costs under various scenarios, possibly allowing for asymmetric information, moral hazard and renegotiation. It also shows that relying on private finance enhances the benefits of bundling only if lenders have enough expertise to assess project risks.