How management accountants exert influence on managers – a micro-level analysis of management accountants’ influence tactics in budgetary control meetings

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to examine how remote (i.e. global, regional or divisional) management accountants communicate in interpersonal contacts with operational managers when trying to exert influence on them. Design/methodology/approach An ethnographic field study focusing on budgetary control meetings between regional management accountants and operational managers is used as the basis for a micro-level analysis of situated face-to-face interactions and communicative influence tactics. Findings Remote management accountants mainly use soft rather than hard influence tactics. They, furthermore, employ what is referred to as “panoramic knowledge” gained explicitly from their structurally as well as physically removed “meta-positioning” to suggest certain measures to operational managers that have proved successful in other units and – by doing so – try to exert influence on these managers. Moreover, they use information that they gain in their position in between senior and operational managers by acting as “double agents” – that is, informing operational managers about senior managers’ focus as well as making transparent to operational managers that they will inform senior management about specific operational matters. By doing so, they try to prompt operational managers to address these issues. Additionally, strengthening their verbally articulated suggestions, as “minute takers” they are able to document their suggestions by moving from spoken to a more binding written text. Through these purposeful and rather unobtrusive tactics, remote management accountants try to take influence on operational managers without generating their resistance. Originality/value The paper shows how remote management accountants (as staff members) can skillfully turn their apparently powerless position within the organization into a source of strength to exert influence on operational managers.

Meeting up for management control: bracketing interaction in innovation development

“…Face-to-face interactions and meetings are part of managers' "practices of informing" and analyzing events in the organization (Preston, 1986). Much of the discussion on accounting reports and figures in ambiguous and uncertain contexts can take place in meetings (Goretzki and Messner, 2016;Mack and Goretzki, 2017;Vaivio, 2006).…”

Symbolic categories and the shaping of identity

“…The business partner discourse rests on the idea that management accountants' usefulness will increase with their business orientation, which means that they need to be accepted by managers as trustworthy partners. This is lost if they act as 'double agents' and 'informants' of senior management (Mack & Goretzki, 2017). This is also lost if they become reluctant to 'support' management and prefer to 'challenge' them (Goretzki & Messner, 2018).…”

“…In the case Morales and Lambert (2013) study, management accountants do not claim to be business partners but portray such an identity as an ideal and reject other, less appealing identities. In particular, they criticise a 'deviant' accountant whose ideal identity resembles that described by both Mack and Goretzki (2017) and Goretzki and Messner (2018). In turn, the ideal identity described by Morales and Lambert (2013) is comparable to that of a 'support' function criticised by those management accountants interviewed by Goretzki and Messner (2018).…”

“…Management accountants are very active in the introduction of new or changing categories in their organisations (Dent, 1991;Oakes et al, 1998). Management accountants influence operational managers through discussion (Ahrens, 1997), negotiation (Ahrens & Chapman, 2002) and persuasion (Dent, 1991;Mack & Goretzki, 2017) that all work through the introduction of new categories or through a renegotiation of the meaning of existing categories. Here, however, I am more interested in how they produce symbolic categories as a way to secure a positive sense of self and build what Anderson (1983) called an 'imagined community'.…”

Multi-User Position Based on Trajectories-Aware Handover Strategy for Base Station Selection with Multi-Agent Learning

“…Ahrens, 1997;Carlsson-Wall, Kraus, Lund, et al, 2016;Fauré & Rouleau, 2011;Hall, 2010). Our study adds to prior studies that have considered "talk" in a particular situation such as budgeting (Fauré & Rouleau, 2011;Mack & Goretzki, 2017), performance management (Englund & Gerdin, 2015;Goretzki et al, 2018) or organisational change (Carlsson-Wall, Kraus, Lund, et al, 2016;Jönsson & Solli, 1993). We explore the key themes that are common across accountants' various communication partners and topics, providing a broader appreciation of accountants' perceptions of their everyday communication.…”