Ian P. Herbert

Accounting professionals and CPD: attitudes and engagement—some survey evidence

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a major issue in post‐compulsory education at the start of the twenty‐first century. This paper reports the results of a recent survey of accountancy members which explored attitudes towards CPD in relation to employability, career success and professional identity. Attitudes to CPD are chiefly correlated with identification with, and commitment to, the profession, rather than the length of time in the profession, job status, age, qualification level, or gender. Implications of this research for post‐compulsory education include an enhanced understanding of the motivation to engage in CPD and the benefits professional accountants perceive as arising from this, together with which CPD activities they actually engage in. This research should help professional accounting bodies better understand some of the attitudinal factors in CPD participation, and thus improve the design and communication of their schemes.

Business transformation through empowerment and the implications for management control systems

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of employee empowerment, and the implications for management control systems (MCS), as the style of management changes from a hierarchical, top‐down, style to a more lateral, bottom‐up, orientation, in which workers assume greater responsibility for situated decision‐making and self‐monitoring.Design/methodology/approach – A longitudinal, multiple method, case study explores how empowerment is both understood and applied by management and workers. Simons “Levers of Control” framework is employed as a sensitising device to understand the implications for MCS.Findings – The transformation strategy is largely successful in changing the long‐standing, bureaucratic, public‐sector culture, to a more devolved style in which challenge and participation is encouraged, although actual adoption patterns are uneven and developments are not always linear. By the end of the study period, there is a move back towards centralised control but, significantly, th...

Shared service centres and the role of the finance function: Advancing the Iron Cage?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is: to explore the concept of finance shared service centres (SSCs) through an interpretive case study based on a structuration in organizational fields framework; to explore the implications for the finance function, in terms of how finance both drives change within the multi‐divisional organisation and also is affected by change; and to interpret the SSC phenomenon in the light of the Iron Cage analogy.Design/methodology/approach – A structuration in organization fields approach is used to interpret influences and actions in a longitudinal case study of a finance SSC.Findings – The SSC can be seen as an emergent strategic project. The paper argues that the new organisational form of the SSC, together with the finance functions reflexive and recursive position of driving change are influenced by changes in the economic and institutional influences in the organisational field but in a manner that is both evolutionary and nuanced. A further observation is that managemen...

Organizational Change and the Transformation of the Management Accounting Function

The role of the management accounting function has changed with the impact of new technology (especially ERP systems) and organizational change. The latter has seen new variants of the divisionalized corporation with shared service centres as well as the outsourcing of a range of business support services. Organizations are under pressure to manage complexity, reduce cost and utilise their finance professionals in areas where they can add most value. The management accounting function is expected to complete its transformation from a transaction-processing focus to a fully fledged ‘business partner’ with a high decision support capability (CIMA 2009a, 2009b). The chapter critically reviews the research that has focused on these developments and the way that the management accounting function has responded to the challenges. There are two main inter-related themes.

Exploring Career Anchors in Shared Service Centres

New ways of professional working associated with new organisational forms such as the shared service centre (SSC) are challenging the ways in which careers exist and are perceived by finance professionals. Schein’s original concept of career anchors has proved to be a helpful and robust framework for understanding career motivations over time, culture and context. Nonetheless, the theory is still largely based on career motivations and personal expectations prevailing in the 1970s and updated in 1990. Empirical testing of new anchors is rare and proposals for refreshing anchors tend to be conceptual. Using mixed methods this paper investigates the underlying constructs of career anchors for finance professionals in the contemporary SSC environment. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is used to explore a number of issues arising from interviews in a global multi-national organisation. The results suggest that a six-factor model, which blends traditional and new ideas about career motivations, can better represent career anchors in new organisational contexts than original theory.

A knowledge management perspective to shared service centers: a case study of a finance SSC

Abstract Purpose The chapter presents case evidence to argue that rather than comprising noncore, back-office business support services, shared service centers (SSCs), when viewed from a knowledge management perspective, can create both valuable and firm-specific resources and dynamic capabilities. Design/methodology/approach Literatures in strategic management, knowledge management, and business process sourcing are drawn on as a prelude to a longitudinal case study conducted by the authors in a large private sector utility company. Findings A knowledge management perspective demonstrates how the SSCs, as a hybrid organizational form, may help to redefine core versus noncore activities and thus, to play a role in the creation and protection of firm-specific resource and dynamic capabilities. Research limitations/implications The SSC model is an emerging phenomenon and the field work is restricted to a single case study. Further field research is suggested. Practical implications The findings should be useful to those organizations embarking on the reconfiguration of back-office support services which might gain from further consideration of what activities might be seen as constituting core enterprise architecture. The case study demonstrates that when the traditional core activities of the organization become commoditized over time, a core competence becomes the management and administration of a bundle of technical projects premised on the processes and information systems of the SSC. Originality/value Shared services is an emerging phenomena and scholar literature is nascent. The chapter explores potential benefits of the SSC model beyond the headline agenda of cost reduction through efficiency savings and labor arbitrage.