Social accounting and organisational change: an exploration of the sustainability assessment model

Citation

Fraser, D.M. (2011), "Social accounting and organisational change: an exploration of the sustainability assessment model", Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, Vol. 7 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/jaoc.2011.31507baa.001

Social accounting and organisational change: an exploration of the sustainability assessment model

Article Type: Doctoral research abstract From: Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, Volume 7, Issue 2

Purpose – To explore the potential of the sustainability assessment model to foster more critically reflective organisational accounts in the pursuit of sustainability.Design/methodology/approach – The thesis builds on theoretical explorations of social accounting technologies and Freirian dialogics to evaluate the sustainability assessment model within two local authority organisational settings. In total, 47 individual and group semi-structured interviews were conducted over a three-year period. The resulting empirics provided the basis of an organisational narrative, structured according to Laughlin’s organisational change framework, and evaluated using a Freirian heuristic.Findings – Findings indicate that the sustainability assessment model did promote more critically reflective organisational accounts. The sustainability assessment model created a space which amplified the agency of operational managers and researchers to challenge dominant organisational beliefs typically held by senior staff. Beliefs, such as the organisational commitment to sustainability, were exposed, interrogated, and challenged. The process of applying the sustainability assessment model fostered the problematisation of organisational issues, broadened the perspectives of participants involved in decision making, and challenged existing notions of who might have legitimate “expert” knowledge. It also made visible differences among viewpoints, made visible the interrelationships among different elements in an account, and changed project decisions. However, on several occasions the use of sustainability assessment model was challenged and in one instance resulted in termination of the sustainability assessment model application.Research limitations/implications – The findings from this study note that disturbances (forces that work against stability) in the form of new appointments were influential across both case-study sites. However, this finding underspecifies the relationship between individual and organisational schemas that made such disturbances (and change) possible.Originality/value – This thesis responds to a lack of in-depth engagements of social accounting technologies at the organisational level. Such an in-depth engagement provided the basis to extend Laughlin’s organisational change framework and explicitly evaluate the (non)dialogic characteristics of a social accounting technology.

Keywords: Social accounting, Organizational change, Sustainable development

Research type – Case study

Discipline area – Social and Environmental Accounting

Awarded institution – Victoria University of Wellington

Supervisors – Professor Judy Brown (VUW), Professor Jan Bebbington (University of St Andrews), Dr Philip Colquhoun (VUW)

Contact e-mail – Michael.Fraser@vuw.ac.nz

Dr Michael FraserSchool of Accounting and Commercial Law,Victoria University of Wellington,Wellington, New Zealand