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1 – 10 of 60Ciaran Connolly, Noel Hyndman and Mariannunziata Liguori
This paper seeks to explore the way charity accountants understand, interpret and legitimate or delegitimate the introduction of accounting and reporting changes (embedded in the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to explore the way charity accountants understand, interpret and legitimate or delegitimate the introduction of accounting and reporting changes (embedded in the extant charity statement of recommended practice), before these are actually implemented.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on 21 semi-structured interviews with accountants in large UK and Republic of Ireland charities, the manner and extent to which forthcoming changes in charity accounting are legitimated (justified) or delegitimated (criticised) is explored.
Findings
Acceptance of accounting changes in the charity sector by formal regulation may not be necessary for future required adjustments to practice to be legitimated. Using interviews carried out before the implementation of required changes, the results suggest that other factors, such as national culture, identity and mimetic behaviours, may play a major role in the homogenisation and acceptance of accounting and reporting rules. In particular, it is argued that mimetic pressures can be much more influential than regulative pressures in legitimating change in the charity sector and are more likely to lead to the embedding of change.
Originality/value
The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, it explores rhetoric and legitimation strategies used before changes are actually implemented. Second, it contributes to filling a gap in charities’ research related to intra-organisational legitimation of managerial and accounting changes, illustrating institutional-field identity at work to preserve shared organisational values and ideas. Finally, the research illuminates the importance of particular contextual pressures and individual legitimation arguments during accounting-change processes.
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Noel Hyndman and Mariannunziata Liguori
The purpose of this paper is to focus on strategies and “spoken discourses” used to construct legitimation around change at the individual level. Comparing changes in financial…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on strategies and “spoken discourses” used to construct legitimation around change at the individual level. Comparing changes in financial accounting, budgeting and performance management at two government levels (Westminster and Scotland), it explores the use of legitimation strategies in the implementation of accounting change and its perceived outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on semi-structured interviews, six legitimation/delegitimation strategies are used to code the transcribed data. Patterns with the perceived outcomes of change are explored.
Findings
Changes introduced to enhance “rational” decision making are often received as pushed by some source of authority. Regardless of the interviewees’ background and level, the results suggest that for radical accounting change to embed, it is necessary for it to be perceived as rational, rather than merely driven by authorisation-based pressures. Conversely, incremental change is associated with modest legitimation via rationalisation and delegitimation based on pathos and rationalisation.
Research limitations/implications
The study deals with actors’ legitimation strategies and perceptions of change. These may not correspond to actual substantial change. Taken-for-granted ideas often remain “under the radar”, therefore care must be taken in interpreting the results. The focus of the empirical study is on the UK, therefore conclusions are restricted to this context.
Originality/value
Existing studies struggle to explain organisations’ heterogeneity and practice variation; this study sheds light on how individual legitimation, which may lead to different organisational results, occurs. Differences in how actors interpret changes may be based on their position (central vs devolved administration) and on their ownership of the changes.
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By adopting a decolonial critical standpoint, the scope of this paper is to discuss the concept of legitimacy in the international management (IM) field and conduct a critique of…
Abstract
Purpose
By adopting a decolonial critical standpoint, the scope of this paper is to discuss the concept of legitimacy in the international management (IM) field and conduct a critique of its epistemological limitations.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents the approach to legitimacy most commonly used in the IM field in order to understand its limitations in analyzing the historical development of Brazilian ethanol.
Findings
The historical analysis of the Brazilian case shows that the narrow perspective underpinning the concept of legitimacy in the IM literature overlooks broader political and power relations since the focus of analysis is conducted from the standpoint of multinational corporations operating abroad. Thus, coloniality, international impositions of trends and fashions, illegitimacy and delegitimations, and dominant colonial designs are particular examples of forms of power and politics that are not visible in analysis using legitimacy in IM.
Originality/value
IM has rarely used legitimacy in contrast with other areas of knowledge that work with the notion of international content. The paper generates insights that can foster other interpretations and uses for the concept of legitimacy and illegitimacy in IM.
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The purpose of this paper is to ascertain whether the deinstitutionalization of management accounting is better described using structuration theory (techniques are reproduced…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to ascertain whether the deinstitutionalization of management accounting is better described using structuration theory (techniques are reproduced until replaced) or sedimentation (layering of a new technique upon an earlier technique).
Design/methodology/approach
An archival study of management accounting at the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) between 1670 and 2005.
Findings
With the delegitimation of management accounting at the HBC, both structuration and sedimentation processes occurred. However, delegitimation did not mean all of the techniques within a set were eliminated. Several management accounting techniques often continued from one set to another (e.g. indents, outfits, standards of trade) reflecting continued reproduction of existing practices. Sometimes new techniques were added to allegedly make the set more effective, but these overlays did not always replace the former.
Research limitations/implications
The usual limitations of single firm study generalizations.
Practical implications
The research provides practitioners with insights into how management accounting practices change. With change some aspects of management accounting will remain the same.
Originality/value
This case study is based upon a unique primary archival. The HBC has made its accounting and other corporate records available to the public for the period 1670‐1970. The archival data set is supplemented by access to some of the Company's private (and more recent) corporate records, plus interviews with retired and existing senior managers about these changes to their management accounting techniques, up to 2005. Therefore, this study is based upon an extensive, unique and robust longitudinal data set.
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Silvia Masiero and Amit Prakash
While the potential of information and communication technology (ICT) for poverty reduction is widely recognised, limited knowledge exists on its use in the social protection…
Abstract
Purpose
While the potential of information and communication technology (ICT) for poverty reduction is widely recognised, limited knowledge exists on its use in the social protection schemes devised for the world’s poor. Drawing on the institutionalist vision of IS development and organisational change put forward by Avgerou (2000), the authors propose that computerisation of these schemes entails two processes, namely, the progressive affirmation of ICT innovation and a shift in the programmes' organisational structure, which moves from a subsidy-based model to one grounded on direct cash transfers. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the role of ICT in anti-poverty schemes results from concomitance of such processes.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on a study of the public distribution system (PDS), the main food security scheme in India, as it is being computerised in the state of Karnataka. Following an interpretive case study methodology, it investigates the ongoing computerisation of the Karnataka PDS through a combination of back-end and front-end technologies, based on biometric recognition of the programme’s users.
Findings
The data reveal that transformation of the PDS results from the simultaneous processes of institutionalisation of ICT innovation and deinstitutionalisation of the extant state-led subsidy scheme, in favour of a leaner social protection system centred on cash transfers to beneficiaries. This illustrates the point that ICT innovation is intertwined with the decline of an extant social welfare structure and the rise of a new one, based on the direct transfer of benefits.
Originality/value
The paper offers a new theoretical perspective to illuminate the computerisation of anti-poverty programmes, a phenomenon that affects the entitlements of millions of poor people on a global scale. In parallel, it draws practical implications for countries embarking on the digitalisation of their social protection schemes.
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Carmen Daniela Maier, Finn Frandsen and Winni Johansen
The aim of this paper is to study the development of a smoldering crisis over time. The focus is on a nationwide news media and online news communication related to a smoldering…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to study the development of a smoldering crisis over time. The focus is on a nationwide news media and online news communication related to a smoldering crisis running in the Danish healthcare system since 2016: the problematic implementation of a large-scale electronic health record (EHR), technology entitled Sundhedsplatformen (SP), in the hospitals of the capital region of Denmark.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on insights from crisis communication theories and in particular rhetorical arena theory (RAT), traces of SP smoldering crisis and patterns of discursive strategies are identified and explained from a longitudinal perspective to explain the communicative complexity that characterizes this smoldering crisis. To build an understanding of how this smoldering crisis is perceived, followed and kept alive, an analysis of (de)legitimation discursive strategies employed strategically by various actors and voices in news articles is conducted in relation to four communicative themes: issue identification, warnings, blame attribution and potential solutions.
Findings
It has been found that a legitimacy deficit emerges communicatively through specific (de)legitimation strategies during this smoldering crisis. New insights into RAT (Frandsen and Johansen, 2017) are also provided.
Practical implications
This study is not only of theoretical relevance, but it is also of practical relevance for public relation professionals who aim to identify characteristics of starting smoldering crises as well as to find strategic responses to the ongoing challenges and the developing over time of smoldering crises.
Originality/value
New insights into RAT (Frandsen and Johansen, 2017) are provided.
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Anne-Sophie Thelisson and Olivier Meier
The objective of the study is to explore legitimation dynamics in a public–private integration process and to gain insights on the specific role of CSR in triggering…
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of the study is to explore legitimation dynamics in a public–private integration process and to gain insights on the specific role of CSR in triggering public–private logics.
Design/methodology/approach
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is part of firms' strategy in gaining legitimacy from their stakeholders in a merger context. However, little is known about the role of CSR in triggering diverse dynamics from public or private logics during post-merger integration. This study aims at exploring the specific role of CSR in triggering such diverse logics. A qualitative research design based on a single case study of a public–private merger of two French listed companies in the urban planning sector was opted for. The analysis was pursued in real time from the signing of the agreement and then over two years.
Findings
The results show that public–private legitimation is a process that proceeds in stages. The authors emphasize the key factors that characterize it: align on external concerns: reflecting societal and institutional pressures (public legitimation); readapt to make sense internally in relation to the merger through managerial innovation (private legitimation) and CSR as a form of corporate self-storying: combining the social and societal aspects of CSR within the organization (hybrid legitimation). Three major actions were identified in activating a CSR legitimation strategy: identifying and responding to local needs; building a unified brand, culture, and employee commitment to the organization; and creating sustainable programs.
Research limitations/implications
The first major contribution is linked to triggers influencing legitimation dynamics and in particular the role of CSR operating as a legitimation strategy in the merger integration process. A second theoretical contribution is linked to the evolutionary nature of the post-merger integration process. The processual study shows how stakeholder legitimacy demands can escalate and change over time.
Practical implications
First, three major actions were identified as key steps in activating a CSR legitimation strategy (identifying and responding to local needs; building a unified brand, culture, and employee commitment to the organization; and creating sustainable programs). These missions can be understood as key steps for managers in implementing CSR within an organization in a post-merger integration context. Second, this study increases our comprehension of legitimation as a dynamic micro-process. The different stages described in the study can be considered by the managers involved in the merger process as learning experiences to understand the complex phenomenon that is the integration process.
Originality/value
This study enriches the legitimacy-as-process perspective in providing insights on the specific role of CSR in triggering public–private logics.
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Larry D. Terry and Maxine G. Levin
This essay focuses on institutional leadership in complex public organizations. Using an expanded version of James A. Stever’s organizational scepticism framework, an argument is…
Abstract
This essay focuses on institutional leadership in complex public organizations. Using an expanded version of James A. Stever’s organizational scepticism framework, an argument is presented that the concept new occupies a privileged and unique position in the modern conception of leadership. The concept’s status is due, in part, to its intimate relationship with other favorable concepts, most notably progress and radical change. It is argued that the modern fixation with new, progress and radical change is troublesome. The scholarly community is encouraged to commit more intellectual resources to developing alternative models of leadership that recognize the usefulness of, but are not limited by, the underlying values and assumptions of modernity. The model of administrative conservatorship is offered as one such model.
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Katja Rinne-Koski and Merja Lähdesmäki
Municipalities seek new opportunities for co-producing services in rural areas. One potential partner is community-based social enterprises (CBSEs). However, whilst service…
Abstract
Purpose
Municipalities seek new opportunities for co-producing services in rural areas. One potential partner is community-based social enterprises (CBSEs). However, whilst service co-production through CBSEs obscures the traditional roles of actors, it may lead to a legitimation crisis in local service provision. In this paper, the ways CBSEs are legitimised as service providers in rural areas are addressed from the CBSE and municipality perspectives.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical data combine interviews with CBSE representatives and open-ended national survey responses from municipality decision-makers. The data analysis is based on a qualitative content analysis to examine legitimation arguments.
Findings
Results show that unestablished legitimacy and un-institutionalised support structures for co-production models build mistrust between CBSEs and municipalities, which prevents the parties from seeing the benefits of cooperation in service production.
Research limitations/implications
The research focusses on the legitimation of CBSEs in service co-production in rural areas. As legitimation seems to be a context-specific process, future research is needed regarding other contexts.
Practical implications
Municipalities interested in the co-production of services might benefit from establishing a collaborative and responsive (rural) service policy forum that would institutionalise new models of co-production and enable better design and governance of service provision.
Originality/value
Results will give new theoretical and practical insights into the importance of legitimacy in the development of service co-production relationships.
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The purpose of this paper is to argue that the current economic crisis offers an opportunity to rethink the role of the business school and how business schools can reinvent what…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to argue that the current economic crisis offers an opportunity to rethink the role of the business school and how business schools can reinvent what they do by an engagement with history and the design sciences.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on an ongoing research project into the role of the business school. It provides an historical analysis of the business school's evolving role.
Findings
Debates about the nature of the business school fall into two camps, one that argues that the business school is a professional school, and another that says the business school needs to be a better social science school. This paper suggests an alternative perspective, more geared to a view of management as an art, rather than a science, offering less economics, more humanities and history.
Originality/value
The paper aligns itself with a growing call for business school reform and suggests how alternative disciplines might help shape its future.
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