Learning and the loosely coupled elements of control
| Autor: | Sinikka Moilanen |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Předmět: |
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
Conceptualization business.industry Strategy and Management Control (management) Subsidiary Accounting Loose coupling Accounting information system Organizational structure Parent company Business General Economics Econometrics and Finance Management control system |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change. 8:136-159 |
| ISSN: | 1832-5912 |
| DOI: | 10.1108/18325911211230344 |
| Popis: | PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how a parent company ensures reliable accounting information from its subsidiaries located in a significantly different environment, analyzing the process and its outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs the conceptualization of management control as a loosely‐coupled system to explore the integration of accounting‐related work between a parent company and subsidiaries. Three Western firms and their subsidiaries in the territory of the former Soviet Union are studied, focusing on the couplings between different elements of control and their outcomes, and taking accounting as an object and element of control.FindingsThe results show how other elements of control can steer accounting‐related work. As the organizational structures made possible personnel controls in the form of informal training in accounting, results controls were responsive to these personnel controls. This constructed common models of thinking, meaning that cultural controls were responsive to results controls. The responsiveness also supports generative learning, since accounting‐related training includes and introduces Western business thinking.Originality/valueThe findings show that loose couplings within management control systems may lead to generative learning due to the rules imposed by the parent company. Elaborating the dual role of accounting as an object and element of control illustrates a relationship different from the earlier view that loose coupling between parent's rules and what is locally done tends to foster local stability based on preservation of existing ways of thinking, i.e. adaptation instead of adaptability. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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