دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی مدیریت حسابداری به عنوان یک منبع سیاسی برای فعال کردن نمایندگی جاسازی شده - الزویر 2018

ABSTRACT

How actors embedded in institutions can change those institutions is known as the paradox of embedded agency. Although academic interest in embedded agency has increased in recent years, what enables actors to engage in embedded agency is still not well understood. One resource that may assist actors in realising embedded agency and overcoming political resistance by opponents to change is management accounting, as management accounting can—among other functions—serve as an important information resource for actors willing to engage in embedded agency. Although the existing literature may not explicitly refer to embedded agency, published research studies are likely to already contain some evidence of the role of management accounting as a resource in institutional work. Thus, this study seeks to survey and re-analyse the existing literature for evidence regarding how management accounting may be used as a political resource that enables embedded agency. For this purpose, the study uses systematic literature review methods and demonstrates why and how management accounting may serve as a political resource in institutional change. The study develops six roles concerning how management accounting may be used as a political resource in the identification of a need for and gaining others’ support for and the implementation of institutional change. It further shows that management accounting may be at interplay with other factors in enabling embedded agency. Finally, the review findings suggest that management accounting may be an important resource not only in legitimising institutional change ex post but also in identifying the need for change, gaining others’ support for change and implementing change.

5. Conclusions

Following calls for more research on factors that enable embedded agency (e.g., Battilana and D‘Aunno, 2009) and the role that management accounting may play in such agency (e.g., Englund and Gerdin, 2011), the present paper has sought to review the extant literature on why and how management accounting has been used as a political resource to enable embedded agency.

The paper adds to the literature by showing that power and politics are important—but, to date, somewhat overlooked—ingredients for furthering our understanding of the role of management accounting in embedded agency. To this end, the paper contributes to the literature by identifying six roles that management accounting may play as a political resource in identifying the need for and gaining others’ support for and the implementation of embedded agency. Therefore, the paper shows that measures and metrics such as management accounting practices may be used not only to legitimise institutional change ex post (Lockett et al., 2015) but also in the prior phases of institutional change. The paper also suggests that the organisational context may have important implications for how embedded agency may be realised.

At the same time, the paper presents evidence indicating that management accounting alone may not be sufficient to enable embedded agency. The paper shows that the political usage of management accounting practices is likely to act in interplay with other factors. By doing so, the paper adds to an increased understanding of the interplay between enabling conditions of embedded agency—as called for in the embedded agency literature (Battilana and D‘Aunno, 2009).