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1 – 10 of 10Gustaf Kastberg and Sven Siverbo
One of the latest trends within public administration and healthcare organizations (HCOs) is process orientation, often in the shape of Lean management. The purpose of this study…
Abstract
Purpose
One of the latest trends within public administration and healthcare organizations (HCOs) is process orientation, often in the shape of Lean management. The purpose of this study is to expand our understanding of process orientation of HCOs and the more specific aim is to investigate what measures are taken to re-frame the HCOs to include the process dimension.
Design/methodology/approach
This empirical study is based on 67 interviews and 20 meeting observations.
Findings
The main observation in this study is that introducing process-oriented management solutions is about disconnecting and cutting-off existing links. The authors see how attempts are made to cut-off links to the logic of functional specialization, the autonomy of the professional worker, equal treatment of patients and other objectives.
Originality/value
This study adds to and expands previous studies that have problematized the use of Lean-inspired ways of organizing in the public sector.
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Gustaf Kastberg and Cristian Lagström
The problematization indicates the need for enhancing the understanding of hybrid settings as potentially dynamic, changing and fragile. The purpose of this paper is to generate…
Abstract
Purpose
The problematization indicates the need for enhancing the understanding of hybrid settings as potentially dynamic, changing and fragile. The purpose of this paper is to generate the knowledge through a conceptualization of the relationship between hybrid organizing and object, helping us understand how and why hybridization takes place or de-hybridizing occurs.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a longitudinal qualitative case study of an attempt to introduce cost-benefit calculations as a management initiative in the social sector. In total, 18 observations of meetings and 48 interviews were done.
Findings
The main contribution is the empirically detailed description of how hybridizing must be understood in connection to a complex task at hand. A core observation is how complexity is escaped by either an intensive framing or compartmentalization – the former either leading to a disciplined hybrid allowing efficient action or to a hot and contested situation characterized by inertia. The latter, compartmentalization, presupposes less complexity with the potential of full de-hybridization into single-purpose organizing, failing to deal with the complex task at hand.
Research limitations/implications
A limitation is the one case approach and further research could focus on other settings.
Practical implications
The paper provides concepts useful for analysis of specific cooperative arrangements.
Social implications
The authors believe that the findings can bring useful insights to professionals, policy makers and others who are engaging in and addressing complex societal issues, not least within the public sector, a matter all too often overlooked by the accounting research community.
Originality/value
The originality of the paper is the focus on the organization and control in relation to the task at hand.
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Gustaf Kastberg Weichselberger and Cristian Lagström
The authors argue that the mainstream scholarly discourse on hybridity and accounting is thus far primarily interested in the use and effects of accounting “in” hybrid…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors argue that the mainstream scholarly discourse on hybridity and accounting is thus far primarily interested in the use and effects of accounting “in” hybrid organizations. Consequently, the literature has to a lesser extent explored how accounting mediates hybrid settings (while also being mediated), and the role of disentanglements in such processes. In hybrid settings, objects are difficult to define, and measures and tools difficult to agree upon. However, the literature on hybrid accounting is inconclusive and indicates that accounting can potentially both stabilize and de-stabilize relations in a hybrid setting. The authors address the research question of how accounting emerges and manifests itself in a process of entangling and disentangling in a heterogeneous emerging hybrid setting.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a longitudinal qualitative case study of the implementation of social investments, a public sector calculative framework based on the logic of measuring long term and social and economic impact of prevention. Methodologically, the study was guided by actor-network theory. In total, 18 observations and 48 interviews were conducted.
Findings
The observation the authors make in their case study is that much effort was spent on both keeping things apart and tying elements together. What the authors add to the literature is an illumination of how the interplay between entanglements and disentanglements facilitated the design idea of social investments to be enacted as multiple semi-integrated and purified hybridizations. The authors describe different translation points, each representing a specific hybridization where elements were added, recombined and disentangled. Still, the translation points were not completely compartmentalized, but rather semi-integrated where associations were facilitated through active mediation, likeness and productiveness for each other.
Research limitations/implications
One limitation is the single case approach. A second limitation arises from the ANT approach to hybridity.
Practical implications
A practical implication of this paper is that in hybrid settings, the semi-integrated character may be interpreted as a strength because it allows the mobilization of heterogenous actors. However, this may also come at the cost of governability and raises further questions of managerial practices in hybrid settings.
Social implications
The paper suggests the potentially productive role of disentanglements in allowing multiple hybridizations to evolve in hybrid accounting settings.
Originality/value
The paper suggests the potentially productive role of disentanglements in allowing multiple stabilized hybridizations to evolve in hybrid accounting settings.
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Within the strategy as practice field several studies have recently paid attention to organizational arenas like meetings, workshops and away‐days. There has, however, been a…
Abstract
Purpose
Within the strategy as practice field several studies have recently paid attention to organizational arenas like meetings, workshops and away‐days. There has, however, been a tendency to focus on what happens “inside” separated organizational arenas. The aim of the paper is to contribute to the understanding of the relationship between the separated organizational arenas and other organizational activities in the strategizing process.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is conceptual. The framework rests on Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory and draws on recent empirical studies.
Findings
The main contribution of the article is the presentation of a theoretically well‐founded framework that further specifies and problematizes the relationships of separated organizational arenas. By focusing and conceptualizing the conditions for separation and reconnection, a foundation for analyzing the interconnectedness between different arenas is provided.
Practical implications
The paper contributes to our understanding of phenomena like meetings and work‐shops in the strategic process.
Originality/value
The framework is in line with, and expands the theorizing that Hendry and Seidl (2003) initiated about strategic episodes and the theorizing about first and second order observations in strategic processes initiated by Schreyögg and Kliesch‐Eberl (2007).
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Gustaf Kastberg and Sven Siverbo
In the last decade, greater attention has been paid to the role of management accounting and control (MAC) in making professional organizations more horizontal. The authors argue…
Abstract
Purpose
In the last decade, greater attention has been paid to the role of management accounting and control (MAC) in making professional organizations more horizontal. The authors argue that earlier research has not shown how the interrelatedness between professional identities and MAC influences attempts to make organizations more horizontal. In this paper the authors respond to the call for more research on the relationship between horizontalization and accounting and control. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the emerging literature on the relationship between accountability arrangements and professional identities.
Design/methodology/approach
Theoretically the authors have an actor-network theory (ANT) approach. Empirically, the authors followed two episodes where actors at top management levels in two Swedish health care organizations introduced horizontalization.
Findings
The two episodes support the view that the role of MAC when making professional organizations more horizontal is limited. Professionals dominate what happens at the operational level and they do not act on MAC rules and performance targets in opposition of their professional identity. However, in alliance with other interessement devices MAC may have a role in creating overflows, that is, pointing out imperfections in the existing frame. The authors noticed no signs that professionals developed hybrid identities as in previous research.
Originality/value
The authors apply ANT to move beyond the commonly used contingency and new institutional sociology perspectives.
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Stefan Hellman, Gustaf Kastberg and Sven Siverbo
In order to improve cooperation and collaboration between units, clinics and departments, many health care organizations (HCOs) have introduced process orientation. Several…
Abstract
Purpose
In order to improve cooperation and collaboration between units, clinics and departments, many health care organizations (HCOs) have introduced process orientation. Several studies indicate problems in realizing these ambitions. The purpose of this paper is to explain and understand the success and failure of process orientation in HCOs.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted three case studies and applied Actor-Network Theory as an analytic lens.
Findings
The realization of process orientation is hindered by neglect or resistance from physicians, who find the process targets to be of low medical priority. However, the authors also see that medical priorities are no stable entities but are susceptible to negotiations. Over time, process organization, process mapping, process measurement activities and the acting of enroled actors may have impact on medical priorities.
Originality/value
Contrary to previous research, the findings indicate that New Public Management may not be the main obstacle against processes, that accounting figures may not be hard to disregard and that the role of leadership is not paramount.
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Giuseppe Grossi, Kirsi-Mari Kallio, Massimo Sargiacomo and Matti Skoog
The purpose of this paper is to synthesize insights from previous accounting, performance measurement (PM) and accountability research into the rapidly emerging field of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to synthesize insights from previous accounting, performance measurement (PM) and accountability research into the rapidly emerging field of knowledge-intensive public organizations (KIPOs). In so doing, it draws upon insights from previous literature and other papers included in this special issue of Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews academic analysis and insights provided in the academic literature on accounting, PM and accountability changes in KIPOs, such as universities and healthcare organizations, and paves the way for future research in this area.
Findings
The literature review shows that a growing number of studies are focusing on the hybridization of different KIPOs, not only in terms of accounting tools (e.g. performance indicators, budgeting and reporting) but also in relation to individual actors (e.g. professionals and managers) that may have divergent values and thus act according to multiple logics. It highlights many areas in which further robust academic research is needed to guide developments of hybrid organizations in policy and practice.
Research limitations/implications
This paper provides academics, regulators and decision makers with relevant insights into issues and aspects of accounting, PM and accountability in hybrid organizations that need further theoretical development and empirical evidence to help inform improvements in policy and practice.
Originality/value
The paper provides the growing number of academic researchers in this emerging area with a literature review and agenda upon which they can build their research.
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This study aims to explore the calculations and valuations that unfold in everyday practices within social care settings. Specifically, the paper concerns the role of accounting…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the calculations and valuations that unfold in everyday practices within social care settings. Specifically, the paper concerns the role of accounting in dealing with multiple calculable and non-calculable spaces within the case management process. The study sheds light on the multiplicity produced in constructing the client as an object through the calculations and valuations embedded in the costing and caring practices in social work.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a qualitative case study in a Swedish social care organisation, with a specific focus on the calculations and valuations within the case management process. The data have been gathered from 20 interviews with social workers, team leaders, managers and a management accountant, along with more than 36 h of on-site observations and internal organisational documents, including policy documents, guidelines and procedural lists.
Findings
The case management process involves interconnected practices in constructing the client as an object. While monetary calculations and those associated with worth are embedded in costing and caring practices, they interact and proliferate in various ways. Three elements are found: transforming service units into centres of calculation, constructing the accounts of calculation and establishing the cost-value calculations. Calculations and valuations are actuated in these elements in describing the need, matching the case with the unit and caseworker and deciding on the measure. The objectification of the client entails the construction of accounts, for example, ongoing qualifications, categorisations and groupings of units, juridical frameworks, case types, needs and measures. As an object multiple, the client becomes different objects at different stages, challenging the establishment accounts, and thus producing a range of calculations and valuations. Such diversity in calculations concomitantly produces more calculations to represent the present and absent multiple facets of the client, resulting in a multiplicity of costing and caring.
Practical implications
The study might flag up for practitioners the possible risks and unintended consequences of depending too much on fixed guidelines and (performance) indicators since social work involves object multiples, which are always in diversity and changeable in situ. Considering the multiple dimensions within the specific contexts could thus be helpful to mitigate such risks in the evaluation of social care processes and the design of (performance) metrics.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on accountingisation by extending the concept as a part of ongoing organisational practices, materialised within the calculations of money and worth in everyday social care. Besides demonstrating their reconsolidation, this study shows a multiplicity of costing and caring practices depending on the way the client is constructed, resulting in the proliferation of accounting(s) and ultimately accountingisation of social work.
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