To read this content please select one of the options below:

Making sense of cost-consciousness in social work

Per Nikolaj Bukh (Aalborg University Business School, Aalborg University, Aalborg Øst, Denmark)
Karina Skovvang Christensen (Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark)
Anne Kirstine Svanholt (Aalborg University Business School, Aalborg University, Aalborg Øst, Denmark)

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management

ISSN: 1176-6093

Article publication date: 9 December 2020

Issue publication date: 22 January 2021

430

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore how the introduction of new accounting information influences the understandings of cost-consciousness. Furthermore, the paper explores how managers use accounting information to shape organizational members’ understanding of changes, and how focusing on cost-consciousness influence professional culture within social services.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on a case study, drawing on sensemaking as a theoretical lens. Top management, middle management and staff specialists at a medium-sized Danish municipality are interviewed.

Findings

The paper demonstrates how accounting metaphors can be effective in linking cost information and cost-consciousness to operational decisions in daily work practices. Further, the study elucidates how professionalism may be strengthened based on the use of accounting information.

Research limitations/implications

The study is context specific, and the role of accounting in professional work varies on the basis of the specific techniques involved.

Practical implications

The paper shows how managers influence how professionals interpret and use accounting information. It shows how cost-consciousness can be integrated with social work practices to improve service quality.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the literature on how accounting information influences social work. To date, only a few papers have focused on how cost-consciousness can be understood in practice and how it influences professional culture. Further, the study expands the limited accounting metaphor research.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

When collecting the data, Anne Kirstine Svanholt was an industrial Ph.D. student. The project was funded by Innovation Fund Denmark, KMD, COK and the Association of Municipality CFOs. None of the funders had any influence on the selection of research site, or the research process. We wish to thank the participants from the municipality for participating in this research project.

We are grateful for the helpful comments from two anonymous reviewers. Further, we are especially grateful to the editor Lukas Goretzki for his advice in the revision of the paper.

Citation

Bukh, P.N., Christensen, K.S. and Svanholt, A.K. (2021), "Making sense of cost-consciousness in social work", Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 102-126. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRAM-10-2019-0105

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles