Capital Allowances and the Incentive to Invest

In recent years many organisations have moved towards a total quality management (TQM) path in their quest for quality. Accounting researchers have become interested in understanding how accounting systems are implicated within a TQM environment. This paper reports on a case study of TQM adoption and changes in management accounting systems (MAS) within a New Zealand construction company. It evaluates organizational approaches to implement TQM as a strategic option and the subsequent change in MAS. The paper suggests that an organisation may initiate TQM practices to promote ‘institutional’ and ‘quality’ culture rather than for purely technical reasons. It also suggests that when an organisation adopts new management practices such as TQM, it may lead to changes in the organisation's internal control mechanisms, such as management accounting and reporting processes.     

Revenue growth in not-for-profit organisations: The effects of interactive and diagnostic controls and organisational culture

Using survey and archival data for 180 not-for-profit aged care organisations, we find that interactive use of performance measurement systems positively affects the organisations’ revenue growth, while the diagnostic use negatively affects revenue growth. We also find that organisational culture, specifically attention to detail, innovation and respect for people, moderates these effects. Our findings have implications for the literature in terms of understanding the combinatorial effects of formal management control and culture on organisational performance. The findings also have practical implications for designing performance measurement systems and developing organisational cultures, to create an internal environment effective in enabling revenue growth.     

Knowing stories that matter: learning for effective safety decision-making

Ongoing safe operation of hazardous industries such as hydrocarbon production and transportation, air traffic control and nuclear power generation depends on effective decision-making by those in key positions. Safety studies often focus on the extent to which actions of operational personnel in particular are dictated by procedures or rules and hence reinforce the need for compliance to ensure the best outcomes. This article directs attention to a different area – the judgements made by experts in the cases that are not covered by rules and, in particular, the key role of stories and storytelling. This ethnographic research draws on literature related to high-reliability theory, organisational learning and naturalistic decision-making to examine how experts working in diverse critical contexts use stories to share and make sense of their experiences. It argues that such stories are vital to effective decision-making as a result of both the general and specific lessons that they embody. Our analysis shows that experts use stories as parables to nurture their ability to imagine possible outcomes and maintain a safety imagination. Stories are also embedded in work practices to support decision-making in the moment. Finally, stories are strongly linked to organisational learning for experts as a group and in mentoring less-experienced colleagues. We argue that the increased focus on incident reporting systems in hazardous industries, which is driven at least in part by a consideration of organisational learning, is failing in this regard because such systems do not facilitate story-based learning. We appeal to organisations to support story-based learning with as much vigour as formal systems for professional development and reporting.     

Innovation in entrepreneurial organisations: A platform for contemporary management change and a value creator

PurposeThis article examines the significance of innovation to organisations following strategies of entrepreneurial orientation. In particular, the study looks at the significance innovation adds to the implementation of contemporary management control systems (MCSs) and to improved performance in these organisations.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative analysis was conducted based on a random sample of Australian manufacturing companies. A structural equation modelling approach was adopted to test the study hypotheses.FindingsResults suggest that innovation mediates the relationships between entrepreneurial strategy and each of participative budgeting, the balanced score card (BSC), total quality management (TQM), just in time (JIT), and organisational performance. The study does not indicate a significant relationship between entrepreneurial strategy and activity based costing (ABC), even when innovation is in place.Originality/valueThe study empirically tests the vital role of innovation in the organisational adaptive cycle to entrepreneurial strategies, described earlier by Miles and Snow (1978). Further, the study validates a multi-dimensional strategy model first suggested by Langfield-Smith (1997).     

以全面预算管理为核心的企业内部控制研究

金融危机后的企业目前所面临的财务管理问题依然严重,既有外部发展环境影响,又有内部发展因素,尤其是企业内部控制问题的制约.缺乏内控制度影响了企业的经济效益,阻碍了企业的发展.解决这一问题,必须研究企业内部控制制度目前存在的问题,企业缺乏内控制度带来的弊端,从而得出促进企业建立内控制度的策略.以预算管理为核心的企业内部控制是一个相对来说较新的研究课题,为企业注入了新的活力与挑战.以全面预算管理为核心的企业的内部控制是企业发展的必行趋势,为企业的发展发挥了更大的作用.本篇论文从内部控制含义出发,详细阐述了全面预算管理与内部控制二者的关系,提出了企业内部控制要以全面预算管理为重要基础和管理手段,推行用全面预算管理来加强企业的内部控制.从内部控制基本要素出发,研究内部控制和全面预算管理这两者的关系,提出把全面预算管理作为核心的企业内部控制强化的思路,设计出适应企业的以全面预算管理为核心的内部控制体系并予以推行,对于企业的健康发展是十分有意义的.必须实行全面预算管理和加强内部控制相结合的方法,才能减少管理层决策的随意性、盲目性,提高资源有效运用效率、降低企业投资风险、提高防范风险的能力,实现企业效益的最大化.     

EVA AND TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Both TQM and EVA can be viewed as organizational innovations designed to reduce “agency costs”—that is, reductions in firm value that stem from conflicts of interest between various corporate constituencies. This article views TQM programs as corporate investments designed to increase value by reducing potential conflicts among non-investor stakeholders such as managers, employees, customers, and suppliers. EVA, by contrast, focuses on reducing conflicts between managers and shareholders by aligning the incentives of the two groups. Besides encouraging managers to make the most efficient possible use of investor capital, EVA reinforces the goal of shareholder value maximization in two other ways: (1) by eliminating the incentive for corporate overinvestment provided by more conventional accounting measures such as EPS and earnings growth; and (2) by reducing the incentive for corporate underinvestment provided by ROE and other rate-of-return measures. At a superficial level, EVA and TQM seem to be in direct conflict with each other. Because of its focus on multiple, non-investor stakeholders, TQM does not address the issue of how to make value-maximizing trade-offs among different stakeholder groups. It fails to provide answers to questions such as: What is the value to shareholders of the increase in employees' human capital created by corporate investments in quality-training programs? And, given that a higherquality product generally costs more to produce, what is the value-maximizing quality-cost combination for the company? The failure of TQM to address such questions may be one of the main reasons why the adoption of TQM does not necessarily lead to improvements in EVA. Because a financial management tool like EVA has the ability to guide managers in making trade-offs among different corporate stakeholders, it can be used to complement and reinforce a TQM program. By subjecting TQM to the discipline of EVA, management is in a better position to ensure that its investment in TQM is translating into increased shareholder value. At the same time, a TQM program tempered by EVA can help managers ensure that they are not under investing in their non-shareholder stakeholders.     

PERSPECTIVES ON MANAGEMENT CONTROL IN A MULTIPLE AGENCY, COMMUNITY SERVICE

This paper reports on an interpretive study of organisational control in a developing, community based, psychogeriatric service. The service was characterised by its complexity comprising a diversity of interest groups and a multiplicity of agencies. There were distinct differences in performance as perceived by the various interest, or stakeholder, groups; resulting in multiple control systems. Performance as measured by the management control system was found to be, at best, only partial. It was, therefore, of limited use in controlling existing service provision and developing new services. A case is made for recognition of these complexities when designing organisational control systems in such environments.     

Institutional contradiction and management control innovation: A field study of total quality management practices in a privatized telecommunication company

The purpose of this paper is to theorise the changes surrounding the introduction of a management control innovation, total quality management (TQM) techniques, within Telecom Fiji Limited. Using institutional theory and drawing on empirical evidence from multiple sources including interviews, discussions and documents, the paper explicates the institutionalization of these TQM practices. The focus of the paper is the micro-processes and practice changes around TQM implementation, rather than the influence of the macro-level structures that are often linked with institutional theory. The change agents used Quality Action Teams and the National Quality Council to introduce new TQM routines. The present study extends the scope of institutional analysis by explaining how institutional contradictions impact to create and make space for institutional entrepreneurs, who in turn, modify existing routines or introduce new routines in fluid organizational environments which also exhibit evidence of resistance.     

Organisational Change and Responsive Management Accounting Practice

The primary purpose of management accounting is to help maintain organisational control (Emmanuel, Otley and Merchant 1990). However, different types of problems can be controlled in different ways (of which the management accounting system is one). Organisational control probably becomes most problematic when a fundamental change, such as total quality management, is introduced because problems can manifest themselves in new and unexpected ways. This article uses two complementary field studies to argue that management accountants need to understand these different types of control problems, how they change when TQM is introduced and how they can be controlled.     

Organisational change, outsourcing and the impact on management accounting

New empirical evidence is presented on organisational change, outsourcing and the impact on management accounting in three types of organisations: private sector companies, the National Health Service and Local Authorities. Spearman rank correlations are used to examine three propositions: that (i) change in organisational form exists and may be related to an increased use of outsourcing or subcontracting; (ii) outsourcing is expected to improve organisational flexibility and/or the service of an activity, to lead to cost savings, or to allow the organisation to focus more clearly on its core business; and (iii) outsourcing promotes change in management accounting. Statistical support is found for each of our three propositions. This is further supported by reference to three illustrative case studies. Overall, we conclude that organisational change, as effected by the use of outsourcing, is related to specific changes in the organisations' management accounting systems.     

The impact of total quality management adoption on small and medium enterprises’ financial performance

This paper examines whether the management accounting practice of total quality management (TQM) positively impacts on the financial performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). While research has investigated the impact of TQM on larger firms, to date, there has been no comprehensive analysis of the impact of TQM on SMEs’ financial performance. Our analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics financial data for 3776 SMEs found no evidence that TQM improved financial performance after controlling for size and risk. Our results contribute to literature by highlighting that management accounting practices developed for larger companies may not necessarily be transposable to SMEs.     

Failures to enact the future—A social practice perspective

To be successful, organisational foresight requires a multitude of perspectives and faculties. We have adopted a social practice perspective, which we base within an interpretative world view, to better understand how organisational foresight is enacted. This offers a reading of the phenomena, of which the essential contribution is that organisational foresight is more than an organisational property; it is something that reflective people do as they engage with various inputs from the outside and as a result of the continuous interaction between activity systems and their constituting elements. A longitudinal case study illustrates the importance of understanding the construction of collective and individual meaning in working with organisational foresight. The study shows how the inherent rigidity of the existing activity system and the weak ties between these diverse subsets of the organisation may block the interaction between emerging social practices and organisational intentions resulting in ongoing failures of understanding and enactment. A model is developed to include these parameters in an augmented activity systems model. Based on this we have identified the linking of organisational levels as one of the key dimensions to be considered for which the social practice perspective holds significant explanatory strength.     

When times get tough, what happens to TQM? Case study

When Mueller Chemical Company's biggest customer, Ameriton, demanded that MCC install a total quality management system five years ago, the effort seemed worth it. Morale improved dramatically at the German company, as did quality and productivity. But now, in this fictional case study, Ameriton has gone bankrupt. As a result, MCC has had to cut its work force, and senior managers are meeting to decide whether TQM should be part of the downsized MCC. Horst Koblitz, director of TQM, and Division Manager Eva Stichen both vote yes. Stichen's division, which never supplied Ameriton, has turned its process-control system into the company's best thanks to TQM. The division is more cost-efficient, product defects are nearly nonexistent, and its safety record is spotless. As Koblitz notes, Ameriton's failure is no reason to abandon all that MCC has built. Furthermore, shareholders and customers would think that MCC was panicking. MCC just needs to tailor its TQM program to a smaller organization. But CFO Georg Becker doesn't think MCC has the time or resources for fine-tuning. And as he sees it, that might be just as well. The distractions that came with TQM took MCC away from its goal of becoming the chemicals market leader in Europe. While the company organized teams, developed measurement systems, and filled out quality reports, its competitors took away much of the market share MCC was after. TQM was a good long-term approach, but it didn't come with a plan for MCC's current situation. And CEO and Chairman Dieter Mueller won't compromise; TQM must either stay or go.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

The association between organizational culture and the use of management initiatives in the public sector

This paper examines the association between five factors in O'Reilly et al. (1991) Organizational Culture Profile and the use of Activity Management (AM), Total Quality Management (TQM) and Employee Empowerment within public sector organizations. The results show that the use of AM and TQM is lower in public sector organizations than in their private sector counterparts, and is facilitated by an organizational culture of Outcome Orientation and Attention to Detail. The extent of use of Employee Empowerment is similar across the two sectors, and is facilitated when public sector organizations exhibit higher Respect for People and Innovation.     

THE RISE AND USE OF BALANCED SCORECARD MEASURES IN AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS

This paper examines the rise and use of balanced scorecard performance measurement systems in Australian government departments. Through a survey of all Australian federal, state and territory government departments we find that Australian government departments include a broad set of financial and non‐financial measures within a balanced scorecard approach. Theoretically, our findings lend support for both economic and ‘external’ institutional rationales for the implementation and use of balanced scorecard measures. We find that those government departments reporting greater implementation of balanced scorecard performance measures also report greater benefits for organisational decisions. Our findings shed light on the use, and further potential, of BSC performance measurement systems as part of the management control system in Government departments.     

The Implementation and Adaptation of the Balanced Scorecard in a Government Agency

Despite considerable progress in understanding the adoption and practice of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) as a performance management tool in government organisations, how a well‐designed BSC can become a sustainable organisational practice remains under explored and of central importance. Through a qualitative field study carried out within a government agency (Alpha), this paper demonstrates that Alpha's senior management implemented a BSC framework because they believed it would benefit the agency to realise its broader organisational and socio‐economic goals, namely sustainable organisational efficiency and social status. We conclude that an organisation's performance management systems can travel across internal organisational boundaries over time and could be assimilated by organisational actors to become a sustained internal control mechanism in a complex socio‐political setting.     

Organisational control as cultural practice—A shop floor ethnography of a Sheffield steel mill

Field studies of management control and accounting have tended to study organisational meaning through practices. We identify three strands of practice research on organisational control (viz., governmentality, actor network theory, and accountability) and propose a forth: cultural practice. The study of control as cultural practice is grounded in observation because it conceives of cultural knowledge as practical and largely extra-linguistic. It conceptualises organisational control as an effect of the actions and ideas of organisational members beyond the ranks of management, thus widening the field of empirical inquiry. It also makes studies of steady state organisations more attractive thereby opening the possibility that the assemblages of people, purposes, and technologies, which give rise to specific forms of organisational control, may be understood as less ephemeral than, particularly, studies of governmentality and actor network theory have suggested. Our ethnography of a steel mill in Sheffield is based on 11 months of participant observation on the shop floors of the hot and cold departments. We argue that the subcultures of different shop floors were constituted in practices of control which enabled organisational members to pursue diverse objectives that were related to their various wider cultural aspirations. Organisational control practices relied on diverse accountings and accounts of organisational actions and purposes. Whilst we found considerable diversity between subcultures, we also found that individual subcultures, and the tensions and contradictions within them, exhibited much continuity. The ability of studies of organisational subcultures to bring out the diversity as well as continuity of practices holds considerable potential for our understanding of organisational control.     

Not because they are new: Developing the contribution of enterprise resource planning systems to management control research

Enterprise Resource Planning systems are fundamentally bound up with the work of accounting, and have been seen to have transformative implications for the nature of organisational integration and control. This introductory essay briefly outlines the nature of Enterprise Resource Planning systems, noting the main lines of argument in their treatment in the accounting literature so far. It goes on to set the scene for the distinctive contribution of the two papers that follow, exphasising the way in which they offer a basis for re-evaluating our understanding of organisational integration and control through their detailed field work.     

Using strategic performance measurement systems for strategy formulation: Does it work in dynamic environments?

This paper examines how strategic performance measurement systems (SPMS) influence organisational performance through the shaping of the strategic agendas and strategic decision arrays that result from the processes of (re)formulation of intended strategies. Using a combination of archival and survey data collected from 267 medium and large Spanish companies, we find evidence supporting a positive association between SPMS and organisational performance that is mediated by the comprehensiveness of the strategic decision arrays. We find this mediation is negatively moderated by the level of environmental dynamism, so that the comprehensiveness of strategic decision arrays that result from strategy (re)formulation processes mediates the association between SPMS and organisational performance when environmental dynamism is low, but not when environmental dynamism is high.