Article Abstract:
The relationship between managerialreliance on accounting-based performance measures and subordinates' job satisfaction is examined. Data from Singapore and Australia are used to analyzeworker behavior in the context of national cultural dimensions according to Geert Hofstede' classification. The results indicate that in Singapore, which is characterized by high power distance and low individualism, high supervisor reliance on such perfomance measures results in subordinates' lower tension andhigher job statisfaction. In contrast, favorable subordinate behavior results from low managerial reliance on these measures in Australia, which is a low power distance, high individualism society. However, the hypothesized effect ofsupervisor personality on job satisfaction is not supported. These results are useful in the construction of management accounting systems.
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Article Abstract:
Accounts may describe the ties between collaborators within companies rather than the activity of the companies themselves. Such relationships are basically ritualistic, in that they are outward manifestations of somewhat complex realities. The ritual and its underlying 'theology' are anthropocentric rationalizations which may not fully obtain the essence of the reality which they are supposed to demonstrate. Discrepancy between accounting theory and a more holistic, modern world perspective may make such problems especially likely at this juncture. Conflicts tend to be avoided rather than resolved by devices which are fully irrational. The purpose of financial and accounting professionals is both to create new rituals to deal with new circumstances and to accommodate them within the orthodox canon.
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Article Abstract:
A case example is presented of health service resource allocation as a way of studying how participants learn to understand the significance and implications of accounting changes within an organization. The significance of a new calculative process is described which emerges over time, when accounting both molds and is molded by corporate reality. The interplay between accounting rhetoric and reality is discussed. Also reviewed are the ways in which accounting offers a language for discussion, regulations for guiding action, and a way of setting up legitimacy in institutional organizations.
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