Articlehybrid2023

Navigating management control change: pathways to the future of work

10 citations0/0 files storedAccounting Auditing & Accountability Journal

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Accounting and Organizational Management Auditing, Earnings Management, Governance Management and Organizational Studies

Abstract

Purpose COVID-19 has forced Big 4 firms to challenge existing management control arrangements and adapt their ways of working. Yet, we know little about how management control might be enacted in the future of the sustainable workplace. The objective of the study is to examine the patterns of management control change in the Big 4 accounting firms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach Adopting an exploratory qualitative research design, the authors draw on 42 interviews with directors and associates in the Big 4 professional services firms. Findings The findings reveal two pathways of management control change including alignment and displacement. The authors found that relatively minor adaptions to action and result controls were relied upon to respond to substantial cultural and personnel control changes. Originality/value The contributions are threefold: the authors take a temporal perspective to (1) unpack the changes to management control arrangements; (2) theorise the findings by developing a three-dimensional taxonomy of change pathways encompassing pace, scope and longevity of management control change and (3) contextualise management control arrangements in a hybrid work setting. Highlights COVID-19 has forced Big 4 firms to challenge existing management control arrangements. Literature has focused on traditional, onsite work settings and largely ignored change pathways. The authors take a temporal perspective to unpack changes to management control arrangements. Big 4 firms adapted to hybrid work with substantial changes to personnel and cultural controls. The authors theorise the findings by developing a three-dimensional taxonomy of change pathways.

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References

1999Institutional Logics and the Historical Contingency of Power in Organizations: Executive Succession in the Higher Education Publishing Industry, 1958– 1990 1996Understanding Radical Organizational Change: Bringing Together the Old and the New Institutionalism 2008Management control systems as a package—Opportunities, challenges and research directions 2009The design and use of performance management systems: An extended framework for analysis 2012From Practice to Field: A Multilevel Model of Practice-Driven Institutional Change 2016The contingency theory of management accounting and control: 1980–2014 2002INSTITUTIONAL TRANSFORMATION AND STATUS MOBILITY: THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF THE FIELD OF FINANCE.2020Achieving Rigor in Qualitative Analysis: The Role of Active Categorization in Theory Building

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