Management accounting for lateral organisations (part 3)

Appendix A – Semi-Structured Interview Schedule

Balancing strategies and promoting integration –

1.     Use of non-financial information within and outside the MA system (Hansen and Mouritsen, 2007, Lee and Yang, 2011)

1.1  – reasons for choices?

1.2  – any compatibility issues?

1.3  – does this impact the role or perception of value and use of MA?

1.4  – are the two integrated into one system or kept separate?

1.5  – is there any conflict between the two and how is this resolved?

2.     How integrated and interactive with other function areas is MA (Shank, 2006, Northcott and Alkaraan, 2007, Hutchinson and Liao, 2009, Kurunmaki and Miller, 2011)

2.1  – reasons for choices?

2.2  – any compatibility issues?

2.3  – does this impact the role or perception of value and use of MA?

2.4  – what form does this integration take?

2.5  – is there any conflicts and how are these resolved?

3.     How do the above two facilitate or hinder interaction and integration of processes, and how does this affect the perception of MA (Pierce and O’Dea, 2003, Shank, 2006, Burns and Baldvinsdottir, 2007, Northcott and Alkaraan, 2007)

3.1  – what is the role of MA within lateral organisations?

3.2  – is it more flexible, if so, in what way?

3.3  – what forms does MA take to encourage interaction and integration?

3.4  – how powerful is MA information within the organisation?

3.5  – is MA dispersed into other roles and how does this impact the form, use and role?

4.     How is MA, and is it, used and formed to integrate processes, areas and teams at an executional level [horizontal integration](Hutchinson and Liao, 2009, Kurunmaki and Miller, 2011)

4.1  – what integration and interaction are evident and how is MA involved in this process?

4.2  – how, where and who instigates these interactions?

4.3  – how are they institutionalised and brought into action?

4.4  – what form does MA then take – simplistic/sophisticated?

4.5  – how is it used – resisted and isolated/inclusive and integrated?

4.6  – what is its role – decision-making/control/support/approval/balanced?

4.7  – how do the first two sections support and impact this integration

5.     How is MA used and formed, and is it, to integrate between structural and executional levels [vertical integration] (Hansen and Mouritsen, 2006, Hutchinson and Liao, 2009)

5.1  – what integration and interactions are evident and how is MA involved in this process?

5.2  – how, where and who instigates these interactions?

5.3  – how are they institutionalised and brought into action?

5.4  – what form does MA then take – simplistic/sophisticated?

5.5  – how is it used – resisted and isolated/inclusive and integrated?

5.6  – what is its role – decision-making/control/support/approval/balanced?

5.7  – how do the first two sections support and impact this integration

Operational and structural decisions;

1.     How is MA used, formed, and is it, and what is its role at an executional level (Cooper and Slagmulder, 2004, Johnson, 2006, Hutchinson and Liao, 2009)

1.1 – what form does MA then take – simplistic/sophisticated?

1.2 – how is it used – resisted and isolated/inclusive and integrated?

1.3 – what is its role – decision-making/control/support/integration/alignment/approval?

1.4 – what levels of executional decisions does MA support?

1.5 – is it perceived as ‘servant’ not ‘master’ and how does this perception occur?

2.     How is MA used, formed, and is it, and what is its role at a structural level (Hansen and Mouritsen, 2007)

2.1  – what form does MA then take – simplistic/sophisticated?

2.2  – how is it used – resisted and isolated/inclusive and integrated?

2.3  – what is its role – decision-making/conceptualisation/control/support/

integration/alignment/approval?

2.4  – how is MA used to create the space for executional decisions?

2.5  – how is it used before the factory, or new departments, are physically in place to conceptualise and create these spaces?

2.6  – how is it used to map the network at a structural level between geographically separate units?

3.     How much role definition and rotation of roles are there (Burns and Baldvinsdottir, 2007, Hutchinson and Liao, 2009)

3.1  – are there any management accountants?

3.2  – is the MA department decentralised, is it integrated, how inclusive is it?

3.3  – is there a common discourse; does everyone understand engineering, marketing, production, financial, strategy discourses etc. and how do these functionally distinct areas interact and support each other?

3.4  – how is MA implicated in the above?

3.5  – how frequently does role rotation occur?

3.6  – how defined are the roles; is there large specialisation or multi-skilled workers?

Intra-organisational networks

1.     Is the organisation viewed as a network (Miller and O’Leary, 1994, Mouritsen and Dechow, 2001, Kajuter and Kulmala, 2005, Mouritsen and Hanse, 2006)

1.1  – how is MA implicated in mapping and conceptualising the network?

2.     What is the form, role, and use of MA within the network (Tomkins, 2001, Mouritsen et al. 2001, Cooper and Slagmulder, 2004, Hakansson and Lind, 2004, Kajuter and Kulmala, 2005,Hansen and Mouritsen, 2007, Caglio and Ditillo, 2008, 2012)

2.1  – what form does MA take – simplistic/sophisticated?

2.2  – how is it used – resisted and isolated/inclusive and integrated?

2.3  – what is its role – encouraging trust/sharing information/decision-making/conceptualisation/control/support/integration/alignment/approval?

2.4  – how is MA used to overlap accountabilities and promote alignment and incentives for interconnected and embedded actors within an intra-organisational network?

2.5  – how is MA used within the network at an executional level, how does this integrate to a structural level?

2.6  – how does MA include non-financial information and what effects does this have?

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[1] They could be, and have been, also described as ‘matrix’ (Galbraith, 2006, p. 13; Chenhall, 2008) or as ‘hybrid’ forms (ICAA, 1997, p. 40; Miller et al. 2008).

[2] Exploring the relationship between the factors explored below which contribute to organisations being classified as having undertaken the management innovation is out with the scope of this review, rather it takes for granted that at least some of these organisations exist in practice and calls for empirical research to explore the role of MA within these organisations.

[3] In their full adoption of the aforementioned characteristics rather than any tockenistic attempts to reap the benefits of lateral organisations for a hierarchical structure of majority stakeholders; such as tockenistic employee share ownership plans, flexi-time work, arbitrary titles such as ‘team leader’ etc.

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_co-operative_movement

[5] These are developed from; Schonenberger (1996), Ostroff (1999), Galbraith (2005), and Chenhall (2008). Further support, and some complimentary characteristics, is provided by Bennet (2002) and Mouritsen et al., (2005).

[6] Some laterality is considered with agency theory (mutual monitoring), however the two formal aspects outweigh this and give rise to the standardised and traditional role of the MA system.

[7] TIESSEN, P. & WATERHOUSE, J. H. 1983. Towards a descriptive theory of management accounting. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 8, 251-267, EZZAMEL, M. & HART, H. 1987. Advanced management accounting: an organisational emphasis, Cassell. both suggest that markets and hierarchies theory and agency theory are “complementary rather than competitive”.

[8] A simple example is within a game of chess; there is a finite number of moves that each player can make, but since the number of possibilities is so large, our rationality of decisions is limited by our cognitive ability – whilst theoretically possible, we can’t, in practice, work out the best move in response to the other player’s move by calculating all possible future moves and working backwards to ascertain the best current move!

[9] The shift to exploring the impact of contextual changes impacting on MA systems, rather than seeing the interim change periods as directing towards an equilibrium, is also reflected in the move away from neo-classic theory in other areas of research (e.g. MA change SCAPENS, R. W. 1984. Management Accounting: A Survey. In: SCAPENS, R. W., OTLEY, D. T. & LISTED, R. J. (eds.) Management accounting, organisational behaviour and capital budgeting. London: Palgrave Macmillan, MODELL, S. 2007. Managing accounting change, Prentice Hall.). 

[10] See section 5.

[11] For which they use a proxy spectrum from Ittner and Lacker (2001) – cost determination, planning and control, reduction of waste, value adding.

[12] Also reflected in calls for the organisational structure of tomorrow to be lateral (Ostroff, 1999 as cited by Chenhall, 2008 , ICAA, 1997, and Hamel and Breen, 2007), and further reflected even in many strictly hierarchical organisations’ move to build team structures and to title employees as ‘Associates’ or equivalently inclusive terms

[13] Observed from the work of Shank and Govindarajan (1993).

[14] Also supported by calls from Hansen and Mouritsen, 2007, p. 743.

[15] Further, an empirical study of this sort would assist in assessing whether MA change is significantly different to traditional accounting change under this more flexible, open, adaptive and supportive culture, and highlight potential interest for a future empirical study. Commenting on the aspects of this topic is out with the scope of this review.