Kerry Jacobs

Organisational Resistance Strategies to Unwanted Accounting and Finance Changes: The Case of General Medical Practice in the UK

This paper explores the resistance strategies of organisations to unwanted changes. It is concerned with the way satellite organisations are created to provide a counter force to environmental disturbances such as changes introduced in the context of what has come to be called New Public Management. Its particular focus is with the attempt to develop and institutionalize external, “public” forms of resistance rather than undertake more internal, “private” forms. The specific empirical focus is general medical practice in the UK, where commissioning groups were formed as an alternative to GP fundholding. To help analyse this empirical detail we draw insights from Habermas’s model of society, organisational change theory and institutional theory. In the process the paper not only amplifies the empirical reactions of GP practices in the UK but also uses this empirical detail to develop the nature of this theoretical base by adding new dimensions concerning organisational resistance.

The sacred and the secular: examining the role of accounting in the religious context

Purpose – This paper explores the role of accounting in a religious setting and evaluates the sacred‐secular divide developed by Laughlin and Booth who suggested that accounting is antithetical to religious values, embodying the secular as opposed to the sacred. Yet Christian thinkers such as Wesley and Neibuhr reject this position and indicate the accounting and financial issues do not necessarily conflict with religious values.Design/methodology/approach – This paper explores narratives drawn from the Church of Scotland, the life and practices of Charles Wesley and the Christian doctrine of stewardship as a way of determining the verisimilitude of the “accounting as secular” claim.Findings – These accounts and individual perceptions drawn from the Church of Scotland were more consistent with the concept of a jurisdictional conflict between accountants and clergy than a sacred‐secular divide. The life of John Wesley and the doctrine of stewardship show that accounting can be part of practices of spiritua...

Care pathways: the road to better health services?

This paper describes the development and implementation of care pathways in two orthopaedic units in Scotland. Although originally developed as a tool of project management, care pathways have been promoted internationally as a response to concerns for patient safety, variability in care and increasing costs. Generally, care pathways can be seen as an example of clinician led rather than management led reform. However, it does reflect a wider shift towards process and away from hierarchical approaches to management. Within the UK care pathways have been promoted as a response to the modernization initiative of the Labour Government. While the initiative was a success in both units it was more difficult to implement care pathways in a trauma rather than an elective unit. In conclusion, it is questionable whether care pathways are a universal response to the requirement for modernization and service redesign in the NHS.

CLASS REPRODUCTION IN PROFESSIONAL RECRUITMENT: EXAMINING THE ACCOUNTING PROFESSION

Abstract This paper argues that the application forms of the ‘big-five’ accounting firms discriminate against applicants from working-class communities. While issues of discrimination in relation to race and gender have been considered in the accounting literature, discrimination and class in a contemporary setting is relatively under-explored. A historical analysis of the formation of the accounting profession in Scotland serves to illustrate the historical importance of class in controlling entry to the profession. During this period professions such as accounting came to play an increasingly important role in the reproduction of class from one generation to the next. However, in a contemporary setting processes of class reproduction are subtler. Initially access to university education was a key way of controlling access to professions. However, with the growth of a mass education system other strategies of reproduction have emerged. These are commonly based on an emphasis of charismatic qualities, also known as generic or transferable skills. This paper presents an analysis of the application forms of the big-five accounting firms and argues that the selection of future employees on the basis of these forms will favour applicants from the middle-class.

Career progression among female academics: A comparative study of Australia and Mauritius

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the career experiences of female academics in a Western and in an Indian cultural setting in order to gain an in‐depth understanding of the factors contributing to their career progression. The paper also examines the factors such as national culture, gender stereotypes and leadership, work and family conflict, mentoring and informal networks that impact on the career progression of women academics in two different cultural settings, namely Mauritius and Australia.Design/methodology/approach – Thirty in‐depth interviews from two universities were used.Findings – The findings illustrate that the barriers to progression are remarkably similar to women from both universities despite their different cultural background. Women in the Mauritian context face a considerably more conservative cultural climate that may negatively impact on their career progression. Women from both cultural settings face significant barriers to career progression in their academic roles.Origi...

Making Sense of Social Practice: Theoretical Pluralism in Public Sector Accounting Research: MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL PRACTICE

This paper is a reply to Modells (2013) comment on Jacobs (2012). The aim of the paper is to further explore the issue of theorisation in accounting research. The primary goal of Jacobs (2012) was to map the use of theory in public sector accounting research. Therefore, the danger, as highlighted by Modell (2013), is to read this descriptive analysis as a normative defence. I would echo Modells concern that authors take care with their ‘ontological underpinnings’ when blending different theoretical approaches. However, I argue that the more substantive problems are that authors do not establish an accounting ‘problem’ to motivate their paper, they confuse their case study for their research problem, the theory used is not related to their accounting issue (theorisation) and they theorise the case not their problem. I conclude my response by abandoning my defence for theoretical promiscuity and arguing instead for theoretical serial‐monogamy. We should do our best to construct our research arguments to be clear and coherent. However, we should be willing to change our theoretical stance when they do not make sense and show a far higher level of reflexitivity in research design and presentation.

Exploring accounting presence and absence: case studies from Bangladesh

This paper explores accounting presences and absences in the daily life of three Bangladeshi small traders. By exploring the margins of accounting it is possible to better understand why we do and do not do accounting. Two different ideas are explored. Based on the work of Boden it is suggested that the presence or absence of accounting can be explained by the influence of key social and state institutions. Some support was found for this idea, as there was no “external” demand for accounting. The second factor that was explored was the idea that the presence or absence of accounting could be explained by literacy. Again, there was some support for this as two of the cases studied started to keep debtors records once they learnt to read and write. However, we suggest that levels of social capital, defined as norms of reciprocity and trust, could also play an important role in understanding accounting absence in this case, an idea which might be applicable to a wider context.

Evaluating accountability: finding a place for the Treaty of Waitangi in the New Zealand public sector

Examines the development of accountability for the Treaty of Waitangi in the New Zealand public sector. Considers how the nature of the accountability obligations arising from the Treaty have developed and how these differ from those that have developed generally in the New Zealand public sector. These obligations were made auditable through two accountability/review mechanisms: the reviews of service delivery to M \¯curr aori produced by Te Puni K \¯curr okiri and the “Delivering effective outputs for M \¯curr aori” review from the Office of the Auditor‐General. It was found that these accountability mechanisms gave increased visibility to M \¯curr aori concerns and perspectives within government departments. However, while there was a clearly developed obligation of departments to answer for their practices in relation to M \¯curr aori, there was no satisfactory accountability mechanism for Parliament to account to M \¯curr aori.

Policy Transfer and Policy Learning: A Study of the 1991 NewZealand Health Services Taskforce

Research into policy transfer and lesson drawing has been criticized asfew authors have convincingly shown how cross-national policy learning actually influences policy formation in a particular jurisdiction. This article addresses this gap by presenting a study of the development of the 1991 health policy in New Zealand. By studying the process of policy development, rather than just a policy document, it was possible to disaggregate different aspects of the policy and to identify sources and influences. This article finds that the ‘conspiracy’ model of policy formation does not fit this case as it presents an overly simplistic view, which allows little space for policy learning. This case illustrates the subtle and multifaceted influence of different jurisdictions, different institutions, and different individuals on a given policy.

The Decentralisation Debate and Accounting Controls in the New Zealand Public Sector

Miah and Mia (MM) (1996) suggest that increased decentralisation in New Zealand government departments is associated with a greater use of accounting control systems which, in turn, is associated with improved performance in these agencies. This paper provides a fuller description of the forms that decentralisation took in New Zealand, explains their significance for government departments and provides an analysis of how the accounting control systems which were introduced differed from those suggested by MM.