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The strategic competence of accountants and middle managers in budget making

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  • Fauré, Bertrand
  • Rouleau, Linda

Abstract

This paper aims to advance the notion of the "situated functionality of numbers" (Ahrens & Chapman, 2007) by investigating the practical knowledge of strategy which shapes the calculations performed by accountants and middle managers when they are making a budget. It proposes an in-depth investigation of the budgeting conversations collected during an extensive field study in a large construction firm that had undertaken a new partnership strategy. Drawing on a conversation analytical approach, it identifies three micro-practices of calculation constitutive of the accountants' and middle managers' strategic competence: invoking the usefulness of numbers to activate local projects; constructing the acceptability of numbers to report them to external partners; authorising the plausibility of numbers to reconcile local contingencies and global coherence. The paper then explores how accountants and middle managers come to a mutual understanding of their respective accountabilities when they perform their strategic competence. It ends by discussing the unintended consequences of these transformations in their professional roles.

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  • Fauré, Bertrand & Rouleau, Linda, 2011. "The strategic competence of accountants and middle managers in budget making," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 167-182, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:36:y:2011:i:3:p:167-182
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    Cited by:

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    3. Valérie-Inés de la Ville & Eléonore Mounoud, 2015. "A Narrative Approach to Strategy as Practice," Post-Print hal-01377985, HAL.
    4. Staci A. Kenno & Michelle C. Lau & Barbara J. Sainty, 2018. "In Search of a Theory of Budgeting: A Literature Review," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), pages 507-553, December.
    5. Valérie-Inès de La Ville & Eléonore Mounoud, 2015. "A Narrative to Approach to Strategy as Practice: strategy making from texts and narratives," Post-Print halshs-01390100, HAL.
    6. Christian Daumoser & Bernhard Hirsch & Matthias Sohn, 2018. "Honesty in budgeting: a review of morality and control aspects in the budgetary slack literature," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 115-159, August.
    7. Burström, Thommie & Wilson, Timothy L. & Wincent, Joakim, 2020. "Dynamics of after-sales managers’ strategizing work: What, why and how," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 119-131.
    8. Lepori, Benedetto & Montauti, Martina, 2020. "Bringing the organization back in: Flexing structural responses to competing logics in budgeting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    9. Tamim Elbasha & Alex Wright, 2017. "Reconciling structure and agency in strategy -as-practice research: Towards a strong- structuration theory approach," Post-Print hal-01557268, HAL.
    10. Lukas Goretzki & Kari Lukka & Martin Messner, 2018. "Controllers’ use of informational tactics," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(6), pages 700-726, September.
    11. Clotilde Coron, 2020. "Equal pay index for men and women: The performative power of quantification conventions," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 1418-1437, November.
    12. Melissa Mazmanian & Christine M. Beckman, 2018. "“Making” Your Numbers: Engendering Organizational Control Through a Ritual of Quantification," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 357-379, June.
    13. Frémeaux, Sandrine & Puyou, François-Régis & Michelson, Grant, 2020. "Beyond accountants as technocrats: A common good perspective," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 67.
    14. Lise Gastaldi & Cathy Krohmer & Claude Paraponaris, 2017. "Activités et collectifs. Approches cognitives et organisationnelles. Introduction," Post-Print halshs-01579857, HAL.
    15. Julia Balogun & Claus Jacobs & Paula Jarzabkowski & Saku Mantere & Eero Vaara, 2014. "Placing Strategy Discourse in Context: Sociomateriality, Sensemaking, and Power," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 175-201, March.
    16. Daff, Lyn & Parker, Lee D., 2021. "A conceptual model of accountants' communication inside not-for-profit organisations," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(3).
    17. Klein Jr., Vitor Hugo & Reilley, Jacob T., 2024. "The temporal dynamics of enterprise risk management," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    18. Mueller, Frank, 2018. "Taking Goffman seriously: Developing Strategy-as-Practice," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 16-30.
    19. Fasshauer, Ingrid, 2012. "Les interactions entre contrôle et stratégie : redéfinition du rôle des cadres intermédiaires et du levier interactif de contrôle," Economics Thesis from University Paris Dauphine, Paris Dauphine University, number 123456789/11150 edited by Berland, Nicolas.
    20. Natalie Buckmaster, 2018. "The crafting of budgets by accountants with users for enhanced acceptance in public healthcare," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 43(2), pages 183-202, May.
    21. Laura Girella & Roberto Tizzano & Elisa Rita Ferrari, 2019. "Concepts travelling across disciplinary fields: the case of the business model," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 23(2), pages 373-402, June.
    22. Jérôme Méric & Christophe Godowski, 2014. "Le Changement A L'Echelle Des Pratiques De Controle : Le Cas D'Une Universite Française," Post-Print hal-01899176, HAL.
    23. Englund, Hans & Gerdin, Jonas & Burns, John, 2020. "A structuration theory perspective on the interplay between strategy and accounting: Unpacking social continuity and transformation," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    24. Morgane Le Breton & Franck Aggeri, 2018. "Counting before acting? The performativity of carbon accounting called into question - Calculation acts and dispositifs in a big French construction company," Post-Print hal-01866971, HAL.
    25. McLean, Tom & McGovern, Tom, 2017. "Costing for strategy development and analysis in an emerging industry: The Newcastle Upon Tyne Electric Supply Company, 1889–1914," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 294-315.

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