IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/euract/v10y2001i3p561-581.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Implementing management accounting reforms in the public sector: the difficult journey from intentions to effects

Author

Listed:
  • Inger Johanne Pettersen

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to gain more insight into the link between management accounting reforms and organizational learning and change in the hospital sector. In particular, the focus is put on the processes of defining and interpreting accounting information in this complex setting of public sector management. In 1997 the Norwegian government made a radical change in the hospitals' payment system. The hospitals' adjustments to these different systems of budget constraints are analysed by data from the county of Nordland and a case study in a university hospital clinic. The studies show that the hospitals adjusted to the frame budget system from 1991-7 by systematically creating budget deficits, which are identified as budget drivers during this period. The case study shows that the leaders at the clinical level made a different conceptualization of the new funding model than that of the government. Owing to these diverse conceptualizations and concrete experiences at different institutional levels, more ambiguity will occur in controlling hospital activity and cost under the new per-case funding system.

Suggested Citation

  • Inger Johanne Pettersen, 2001. "Implementing management accounting reforms in the public sector: the difficult journey from intentions to effects," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 561-581.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:euract:v:10:y:2001:i:3:p:561-581
    DOI: 10.1080/713764632
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/713764632
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/713764632?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roberts, John & Scapens, Robert, 1985. "Accounting systems and systems of accountability -- understanding accounting practices in their organisational contexts," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 443-456, October.
    2. Preston, Alistair M. & Cooper, David J. & Coombs, Rod W., 1992. "Fabricating budgets: A study of the production of management budgeting in the national health service," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 561-593, August.
    3. Pettersen, Inger Johanne, 2001. "Hesitation and rapid action: the new public management reforms in the Norwegian hospital sector," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 19-39, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marco Tieghi & Rebecca L. Orelli & Emanuele Padovani, 2018. "Accounting Reform in Italian Universities. Internal Response to Accounting Change," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2018(1), pages 117-138.
    2. 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.
    3. Marco Giovanni Rizzo, 2014. "La relazione tra il livello di coinvolgimento nel processo di budget, il commitment verso gli obiettivi, la soddisfazione lavorativa e i relativi risvolti sulla performance manageriale. I risultati di," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(1), pages 9-34.
    4. Christophe Maurel, 2006. "Étude d’un changement organisationnel dans de grandes collectivités territoriales:l’évolution de la fonction contrôle de gestion," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 9(3), pages 105-134, September.
    5. Mutiganda, Jean Claude, 2013. "Budgetary governance and accountability in public sector organisations: An institutional and critical realism approach," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(7), pages 518-531.
    6. J. Christiaens & V. Van Peteghem, 2004. "Governmental Accounting Reform: Evolution Of The Implementation In Flemish Municipalities," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 04/256, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    7. Hyndman, Noel & Liguori, Mariannunziata & Meyer, Renate E. & Polzer, Tobias & Rota, Silvia & Seiwald, Johann, 2014. "The translation and sedimentation of accounting reforms. A comparison of the UK, Austrian and Italian experiences," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 388-408.
    8. Maik Lachmann & Rouven Trapp & Felix Wenger, 2016. "Performance Measurement and Compensation Practices in Hospitals: An Empirical Analysis in Consideration of Ownership Types," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(4), pages 661-686, October.
    9. Aleksander Aristovnik & Eva Murko & Dejan Ravšelj, 2022. "From Neo-Weberian to Hybrid Governance Models in Public Administration: Differences between State and Local Self-Government," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, February.
    10. Macinati, Manuela S. & Rizzo, Marco G., 2014. "Budget goal commitment, clinical managers’ use of budget information and performance," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(2), pages 228-238.
    11. Malmmose, Margit, 2015. "Management accounting versus medical profession discourse: Hegemony in a public health care debate – A case from Denmark," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 144-159.
    12. Stamatiadis, Filippos & Eriotis, Nikolaos, 2011. "Evolution of the Governmental Accounting Reform implementation in Greek Public Hospitals: Testing the institutional framework," MPRA Paper 28816, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomas Carrington & Gustav Johed, 2007. "The construction of top management as a good steward," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(5), pages 702-728, September.
    2. Ahrens, Thomas & Mollona, Massimiliano, 2007. "Organisational control as cultural practice--A shop floor ethnography of a Sheffield steel mill," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(4-5), pages 305-331.
    3. Constable, Philip & Kuasirikun, Nooch, 2020. "From cosmological to commercial form: A Buddhist theory of ‘form’, ‘space’ and ‘stream of re-becoming’ in mid-19th century Thai accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    4. Abdesamad Zouine, 2018. "Contrôle de gestion et progiciels de gestion intégrés: vers une nouvelle approche analytique des facteurs clés de succès," Post-Print hal-01907836, HAL.
    5. Bertrand Masquefa & Pierre Teller, 2011. "The effects of uncertainty, trust, structure and resistance to change in the diffusion of management accounting innovations: an agent based modeling approach," Working Papers hal-00583488, HAL.
    6. Kurunmaki, Liisa, 1999. "Professional vs financial capital in the field of health care--struggles for the redistribution of power and control," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 95-124, April.
    7. Lise Justesen & Jan Mouritsen, 2011. "Effects of actor‐network theory in accounting research," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(2), pages 161-193, February.
    8. Dominique Bessire, 2002. "Recherches " Critiques " En Controle De Gestion : Une Typologie," Post-Print halshs-00584444, HAL.
    9. Vassili Joannides & N. Berland, 2008. "Grounded theory: quels usages dans les recherches en contrôle de gestion?," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) hal-00676580, HAL.
    10. Diab, Ahmed A., 2021. "The appearance of community logics in management accounting and control: Evidence from an Egyptian sugar beet village," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. Robbins, Geraldine & Lapsley, Irvine, 2015. "From secrecy to transparency: Accounting and the transition from religious charity to publicly-owned hospital," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 19-32.
    12. Jensen, Mads Langballe & Agyemang, Gloria & Lehman, Cheryl R., 2021. "Accountabilities, invisibilities and silences in a Danish slave trading company on the Gold Coast in the early 18th century," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    13. Power, Michael, 2015. "How accounting begins: Object formation and the accretion of infrastructure," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 43-55.
    14. David Emsley, 2008. "Different interpretations of a “fixed” concept," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(3), pages 375-397, March.
    15. Mutiganda, Jean Claude, 2013. "Budgetary governance and accountability in public sector organisations: An institutional and critical realism approach," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(7), pages 518-531.
    16. Vijaya Murthy & Jim Rooney, 2018. "The Role of Management Accounting in Ancient India: Evidence from the Arthasastra," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(2), pages 323-341, October.
    17. Bay, Charlotta, 2018. "Makeover accounting: Investigating the meaning-making practices of financial accounts," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 44-54.
    18. Rina Sandhu & Jane Baxter & David Emsley, 2008. "The Balanced Scorecard and its Possibilities: The Initial Experiences of a Singaporean Firm," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 18(1), pages 16-24, March.
    19. Harvey, Charles & Maclean, Mairi & Price, Michael, 2020. "Executive remuneration and the limits of disclosure as an instrument of corporate governance," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    20. Amanda Curry, 2019. "Across the great divide: a literature review of management accounting and operations management at the shop floor," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 69(1), pages 75-119, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:euract:v:10:y:2001:i:3:p:561-581. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REAR20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.