Management accounting and power: A contested relationship

João A. Ribeiro () and Robert W. Scapens ()
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João A. Ribeiro: CETE, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto
Robert W. Scapens: Manchester Business School

CEF.UP Working Papers from Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto

Abstract: This paper is structured in two parts. In the first part we undertake a brief discussion on the concept of power and we explore the way this concept has been regarded in several strands of literature on management accounting – the conventional, the contingency, the pluralist, the interpretive, the critical and the post-structuralist. Some of these strands – for instance, the pluralist, the critical and the post-structuralist – explicitly recognise the importance of (some conception of) power in their approach to management accounting in society and organisations. Other approaches are less explicit in that recognition or simply overlook/reject it. The second part of the paper takes sides, departing from the idea that there is a relationship between management accounting and power and proposes a framework for conceptualising that relationship. This framework attempts to bring together different dimensions/conceptions of power, and is proposed as a way to study management accounting and its change within organisations.

Keywords: power; management accounting; change; circuits of power (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2006-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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