What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

The paper’s aim is to examine the role of accounting in shaping corporate strategy. Our inquiry is built on a case-based ethnography. Drawing on Michel Callon’s generic notion of performativity, we show how accounting shapes the strategic options and the external economic conditions of the corporation. The analysis reveals how accounting devices rejects, defends, and changes corporate strategy by mobilizing lay people and concerned groups. We summarize our findings by emphasizing the active role of accounting in relation to strategy formulation, the configuration of the identity of the key strategic actor, and in constituting strategy and strategic change.

The role of accounting devices in performing corporate strategy

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2Fjibs.1994.11.pdf

Prices, Quality and Trust: Inter-Firm Relations in Britain and Japan

Představte si zdravotnickeho odbornika v kterekoli evropske zemi, který usnul v roce 1960 a probudil se ve zdravotnickem zařizeni v roce 2019. Hodně z toho, co by pozorovatel viděl, by bylo uplně jine. Bylo by mnohem vice pacientů, kteři přežili do staři diky pokrokům v terapii. Mnoho z osetřeni, ktere dostavali, by bylo mnohem složitějsi, zahrnovalo radikalně nove techniky, jako je laparoskopicka nebo dokonce roboticka chirurgie, a byl by ohromen pokrokem v diagnostickem rozsahu. Přesto by se v mnoha zdravotnických systemech některe věci změnily jen velmi malo. Mezi nimi by byly tradicni role různých typů zdravotnických pracovniků, přicemž odpovědnost za urcitý ukol by byla vyhrazena těm, kteři maji zvlastni kvalifikaci založenou spise na zvyklostech a praxi než na důkazech. Toto stanovisko tvrdi, že se tato situace musi změnit. Nyni existuje impozantni soubor důkazů, že věci lze casto dělat jinak. To neznamena, že by měli být jinak dělany. Změna je vhodna pouze tam, kde pomaha dosahovat cilů zdravotnickeho systemu a umožňuje ji poskytovat lepsi peci způsoby, ktere lepe reaguji na potřeby uživatelů. Ukoly lze převadět ze zdravotnických pracovniků na pacienty a jejich pecovatele, na stroje a dalsi zdravotnicke pracovniky. Tam, kde byly tyto posuny vyhodnoceny, jsou casto, ale ne vždy, spojeny s výsledky, ktere jsou stejně dobre nebo dokonce lepsi než za soucasneho stavu. Výsledky jsou vsak casto zavisle na kontextu a nelze předpokladat, že to, co funguje v jedne situaci, se bude vztahovat stejně na jine. Důležitý je důkaz spise než tradicni, ale casto zastarala pravidla. Pokud zdravotni system může zajistit, že osoby, ktere jsou pro ně nejvhodnějsi, plni spravně alokovane ukoly, zlepsi se pece o pacienty. Změna je vsak casto obtižna. Zucastněne strany musi být přesvědceny o důvodech změny a musi být podporovany při jejich provaděni. Musi uznat, že každa změna roli bude mit dopad na jejich stav, a tedy na existujici hierarchie. Může být take třeba změnit zastarale legislativni nebo regulacni překažky. Nakonec je nezbytne, aby byly změny vyhodnoceny, výsledky zdokumentovany a vedly k ponauceni, co funguje a za jakých okolnosti. Posun ukolů, cinnosti a kompetenci, pokud je založen na spolehlivých důkazech a je ucinně provaděn, může významně přispět k lepsim výsledkům v oblasti zdravi a k udržitelnosti zdravotnich systemů. Nejedna se vsak o vselek na vsechny výzvy, kterým zdravotnicke systemy celi.

Task Shifting and Health System Design: Report of the Expert Panel on effective ways of investing in Health (EXPH)

In the literature on construction projects, the role of project managers in maintaining control over tasks and activities has been theorized comprehensively, placing a firm focus on vertica...

/pdf/tension-between-leadership-archetypes-systematic-review-to-30r1zp82q0.pdf

Tension between Leadership Archetypes: Systematic Review to Inform Construction Research and Practice

Purpose




Succession in family firms may determine the survival or the failure of the business itself. Management accounting literature has added little to this issue, mainly focusing on the process of succession and change (Songini et al., 2013; Giovannoni and Maraghini, 2013; Giovannoni et al., 2011). This study aims to deal with new management accounting (MA) practices that the junior generation may introduce during the process of succession. The aim of the study is to show that the introduction of new MA practices can contribute to constructing the leadership profile of the junior generation.




Design/methodology/approach




Drawing on the perspective of actor-reality construction (ARC), the authors conducted a case study at a small-sized family firm producing solar shading systems. The authors examined how the construction of the successor’s leadership derives from the integration of four dimensions of reality: facts, possibilities, values and communication. Such an integration is facilitated by the introduction of a new accounting information system and cost reporting.




Findings




The case evidence highlights that the construction of the new generation leadership may emerge as a consequence of the introduction of new MA practices. Moreover, the field evidence highlights that the construction of a new generation leadership is a process that integrates the four dimensions of reality.




Originality/value




From the emergent perspective of ARC, the paper highlights how new MA practices play an active role in constructing the new generation leadership.

Management accounting and leadership construction in family firms

Over recent decades, contributions in management accounting have investigated the form of controls that are suited to situations of strategic alliances with suppliers, analyzing the role of accounting tools, such as accounting information system (AIS), in supplier selection. On this field, we focus on the role played by AIS innovation in selecting suppliers and how it is performed (produced, modified and accepted). In our interpretation, AIS is seen as a process of translation not just an accounting tool because it both represents and also explains reality. More specifically, we consider AIS as a boundary object which enables alliances between actors helping them to highlight their own interests and to solve controversies. In this sense, AIS is interpreted as an actor contributing to the creation of an accounting space where all the actors’ interests meet and are put into act in reality. Drawing on actor network theory (ANT) as a proper method theory, we attempt to study the dynamics between actors (human and non-human) directly involved and their interactions in the AIS innovation process. In doing so, we carry out a longitudinal case-study at a manufacturing firm located in the south of Italy, where we examine the role of AIS innovation in the supplier selection. We use the ANT lens to provide an understanding of the role played by AIS innovation as a boundary object.

Accounting information system innovation in interfirm relationships

In recent years, studies in management accounting have focused on family firm businesses while investigating the role of management accounting tools and calling for more research in this field This paper attempts to analyse how the institutionalization of management accounting tools promoted by professionals comes about and how it is facilitated or hindered by convergence or divergence between the institutional logics that characterize the family firm context In particular, drawing on Burns and Scapens’ (Manag Account Res 11(1):3–25, 2000) framework, we carry out a longitudinal case study in a small-sized family firm characterized by both the introduction of management accounting tools by professionals and the co-presence of three different institutional logics: family, business and community The case evidence shows how institutionalization of management accounting tools happens when family, business and community logics converge Episodes of logics divergence occurred in enacting and reproducing routines related to some of the new tools These divergences were due to the refusal of members to accept institutional practices promoted by the professionals The institutionalization took place when the competing logics found a compromise This paper contributes to the family business literature by offering more evidence on the use of management accounting tools accomplished when the competing logics are aligned with following a family firm’s purposes

The institutionalization of management accounting tools in family firms: the relevance of multiple logics

Purpose




The purpose of this paper is to highlight how the variety of the actors involved in a performance measurement system (PMS) innovation are spread out in time and space. Healthcare contests are examined, where such an innovation is influenced by present and past systems and practices (spread out in time), and by managerial and health-professional actors (spread out in space).




Design/methodology/approach




Drawing on Callon’s actor network theory, the authors describe PMS innovations as processes of translation, and distinguish between incremental and radical innovations. The theoretical arguments are used to explain the evidence drawn from a longitudinal case study carried out in an Italian public teaching hospital, referring to the period from 1998 up to 2003.




Findings




The conceptual framework shows how the translation moments lead to a recognition of the different actants involved in a PMS innovation, how their interests are interrelated and mobilized. Moreover, it shows how the interaction among the actants involved in the process is related to the type of PMS innovation, i.e. radical vs incremental. The case evidence offers detailed insights into the phenomenon, testing the explanatory power of the framework, and highlights how the failure of one of the translation moments can compromise the success of a PMS innovation.




Originality/value




This study differs from the extant accounting literature on PMS innovations as it highlights how the introduction of a new PMS can be affected by some elements of the previous systems “package,” which are relevant for the mobilization of the actants through the new project.

Performance measurement system innovations in hospitals as translation processes

Purpose – In the last decades, Italian healthcare organisations have been subject to important normative changes, aimed at increasing their efficiency. As a response, performance measurement and evaluation (PME) systems have been introduced. The present study attempts to examine PME system changes as institutional processes. In studying such processes the healthcare literature acknowledges the presence of two logics: managerial and professional, as peculiar to healthcare settings, whose convergence or divergence can explain the success of any institutional process.

Design/methodology/approach – We adopt Busco et al.'s (2007) framework as an approach for unbundling PME system change into four relevant coordinates, namely: (1) the object (PME system), (2) the subjects (institutional forces), (3) the place and time of change (the managerial and professional logics) and (4) the how and why change happens (change as an institutional process). We conducted a longitudinal case study at a large teaching hospital in Southern Italy, directed to interpret PME system changes during the period from 1998 until 2009.

Findings – Our observation distinguishes episodes of successful institutional processes, where the introduced innovations are transformed into objectivated practices, from episodes of missed institutionalisation, where new procedures were rapidly abandoned.

Research and social implications – This theoretical framework can be useful for interpreting the PME system changes in different institutional contexts.

Originality – The Busco et al.'s framework allows us to understand PME system changes by integrating the perspectives from Neo-Institutional Sociology, representing healthcare organisational responses to external institutional pressures, and Old-Institutional Economics, conceptualising PME system changes as an institutionalisation process.

Changes in Performance Measurement and Evaluation Systems as Institutional Processes: The Case of an Italian Teaching Hospital

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