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Marginalizing the customer: Customer orientation, quality and accounting performance

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  • Mouritsen, Jan

Abstract

Customer orientation is often presented as a modus operandi whereby customers get from companies what they need and want, as it is a company strategy to address the customers' specific requirements. To support this strategy, companies have to align their resources laterally rather than hierarchically and empower employees to cooperate with one another to attend to the details of their customers' requirements. In this scenario, management accounting is rolled back and the consideration of quality is stressed. But this is not always a viable possibility. With the help of a case study this paper argues that customer orientation and quality may under certain organizational conditions reinforce, and perhaps even generate, their antithesis as hierarchical and budget-focused financial accountability. Customer orientation and quality programmes may marginalize the customer and weaken, if not destroy, relationships between employees.

Suggested Citation

  • Mouritsen, Jan, 1997. "Marginalizing the customer: Customer orientation, quality and accounting performance," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 5-18, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:scaman:v:13:y:1997:i:1:p:5-18
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Mouritsen, Jan, 1999. "The flexible firm: strategies for a subcontractor's management control," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 31-55, January.
    2. Suresh Cuganesan, 2006. "The role of functional specialists in shaping controls within supply networks," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 19(4), pages 465-492, July.
    3. Pflueger, Dane, 2016. "Knowing patients: The customer survey and the changing margins of accounting in healthcare," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 17-33.
    4. Vaivio, Juhani, 1999. "Examining "The quantified customer"," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 24(8), pages 689-715, November.
    5. Suresh Cuganesan, 2008. "Calculating customer intimacy: accounting numbers in a sales and marketing department," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(1), pages 78-103, January.
    6. Lind, Johnny & Stromsten, Torkel, 2006. "When do firms use different types of customer accounting?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(12), pages 1257-1266, November.
    7. Suresh Cuganesan, 2005. "A Case Study on Organisational Performance Measurement Systems for Customer Intimacy," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 15(35), pages 52-61, March.

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