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A light‐hearted “dictionary” of management styles is presented which encapsulates a modern, new, expanded, tell‐it‐like‐it‐is summary of management philosophies for the 1980s.

A light‐hearted and humorous look at fad labelling is presented in this article. A fad is a “transient enthusiasm”. When used as a protective measure, fads can help kill bad ideas early. However, new and creative good ideas are also at risk of becoming fads. In order to gain acceptance, new ideas must be built into the reward system of organisations – and any association with fads must be prevented.

Some bosses are difficult — dufficult as people, difficult with subordinates, difficult in terms of the particular organisation. Suggestions to help deal with this situation are offered.

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study designed to understand how involved controllers are in management decision processes, what causes more or less involvement in those processes, and whether involvement is significantly associate with performance.

To test the research propositions developed from a review of prior literature, data were collected from large Italian corporations using a questionnaire survey.

The results show that most of the controllers are at least somewhat involved in management decision processes, and some are highly involved. A complex set of factors determine the extent and breadth of controller involvement. Controller involvement in either strategic decisions, operating decisions, or both types of decisions is positively related to some situational variables, including capital intensity, operating interdependency, line managers' financial competence, formalization of strategic planning and budgeting processes. It is negatively related to the use of controller positions as training for line roles. Overall, controller involvement was found to be positively associated with performance.

This study provides support for some prior research findings and some extension of prior theory. Some findings were not consistent with expectations. This study was based on a small sample – 17 organizations; it used some crude measures and scales; and the findings can be generalized reliably only to the population studied here – large Italian industrial firms. More research is needed for further tests and explorations of these findings.

This research supports modern advice given to involve controllers highly in management decision‐making processes, but it also refines that advice by showing where high involvement is more (or less) desirable.

These results provide some useful support of prior findings and some modifications and extensions that further our understanding in this area of importance both to researchers and practitioners.

The need to change budgeting has been frequently debated. Drawing on the literature on management accounting and budgeting change, this study aims to explore changes in budgeting and whether experienced success of budgeting varied with time and budget type. Changes in the use of the following budget types were investigated: fixed, revised, rolling, flexible and hybrid budgets.

This study uses a mixed research methodology. Survey data was collected from the same business units of large Finnish manufacturing firms in 2004 (Time 1) and 2016/2017 (Time 2) (N = 28). In addition, some of the respondents of the latter survey were interviewed in 2023 (Time 3).

Almost all business units were found to have remained loyal to budgeting. However, changes in budget types were not uncommon and varied considerably. Overall, the use of fixed budgets continued strongly, the use of revised and hybrid budgets declined, and the use of rolling budgets increased over time. Moreover, the joint use of budgets declined. The perceived success of budgetary processes was, initially, weakened by the use of fixed budgets and, later, by the use of revised budgets. The interview data further illustrates some of the patterns of, and reasons behind, the changes.

Longitudinal analysis of change in the same business units was useful in revealing the patterns of change in budgeting and on relationships between the variables analysed over time. Further research could be carried out using more extensive case studies in companies or sector-focused surveys longitudinally.