Actors’ reflexivity and engagement in the formation of new accounting tools during university hybridization
Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management
ISSN: 1176-6093
Article publication date: 3 February 2020
Issue publication date: 12 March 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the unfolding dynamics and evolving processes relating to the formation of accounting tools by university actors. It answers the research questions: How do individual actors engage in the formation of new accounting tools during university hybridisation? Specifically, what forms of reflexivity do these actors display in various phases of university hybridisation?
Design/methodology/approach
This is a longitudinal case study of the development of new accounting tools in one Russian technical university from 2010 to 2016. It is based on an institutional work perspective, involving 29 interviews, documentary analysis, and observations of internal meetings relating to new accounting tools’ formation.
Findings
The findings show that academics themselves were gradually engaged in the marginalisation of academic demands in university governance in favour of managerialism via accounting. Nevertheless, the role of accounting morphed over time from a dysfunctional and negative carrier of managerial ideology and its domination, to what could arguably be considered a mediation device between academic and managerial demands. These dynamic processes and the role of accounting within them are explained by the constant challenge stemming from the involvement of several groups of actors in institutional work, which is often unpredictable and fluid due to the intricate play of plural reflexivities and actors’ identities during university hybridisation.
Originality/value
This paper advances the field by showing that the engagement and reflexivity of academics in the formation of accounting tools is not a “panacea” to deal with hybridisation within universities. The results highlight several obstacles, including variation in the reflexive capacities of actors within the university, leading to a reflexivity lag and reflexivity trap.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank two anonymous reviewers, guest editors of the special issue, scholars of APIRA network and Kozminski QRAMJ-workshop (2018) for the encouraging and insightful comments on the previous version of the paper. This paper is a result of the international research project “BUDRUS: Local government budgeting reforms in Russia: implications and tensions”, funded by the Research Council of Norway under NORRUS program. The author is very grateful to project partners for valuable insights and expertise that greatly assisted the research.
Citation
Aleksandrov, E. (2020), "Actors’ reflexivity and engagement in the formation of new accounting tools during university hybridization", Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 51-81. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRAM-01-2019-0008
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited