PhD students are invited to attend the course ”Researching Accounting Change – Qualitative Approaches” equivalent to 7.5 ECTS points. The course is organized by Trondheim Business School in co-operation with Copenhagen Business School.

Course objective

To introduce to the various strands of accounting research that applies qualitative approaches, like case studies and ethnographies to study the role of accounting to management control, to strategy and organizational change processes using a variety of theoretical approaches, like behavioral accounting, organizational culture and politics, symbolic interactionism, New Institutionalism, governmentality and with an emphasis on Actor-Network Theory. 
 

Expected learning outcomes

Knowledge 

After the course, students will have 
- Knowledge of the most seminal qualitative approaches in accounting research
- Means to distinguish between various theoretical approaches to qualitative work.

Skills

After the course, students will have skills to
- Critically assess and discuss the different qualitative approaches and their theories
- To dectect underlying theoretical assumptions of the presented theories and in particular Actor-Network-Theory.
- Relate own research to a qualitative approach and presented theories.

Competence

After the course, students will be able to
- To position their own research to the accounting literature
- Communicate and debate their own research findings both in writing and by oral discussions.
- Be able to communicate, discuss and be critical to accounting change research

Course content

Behavioral accounting which marks the beginning of qualitative approaches in accounting research is introduced with by providing seminal texts that introduce to human relations that as theory is concerned with how to study and improve motivational effects of accounting. It introduces to key concepts like leadership styles in accounting evaluation, budget participation and some of the dysfunctionalities of accounting and budgeting. It applies a processual approach to budgeting.

New-Institutional theory has been widely adopted in accounting research and uses key concepts like homogenization, decoupling, window dressing, institutions, etc. The theory has been used to show how accounting practices may be decoupled from their programmatic ideals of rationalism.

Cultural approaches in accounting research seek to show how accounting is culture and creates culture within organizations. It draws upon anthropology to help us study accounting cultures within organizations and how culture can be linked to politics. It frequently shows how accounting practices can meet resistance in organizations with strong (professional) cultures.

Symbolic interactionism is not that common in accounting research, but has recently gained renewed interest especially in terms of the work by Erving Goffman. It portrays everyday life interactions between people as role playing, like between a CEO and a CFO. It uses notions like impression management, performance, backstage/frontstage, etc. to help study ‘strips of interaction’, i.e. organizational processes like when a CFO and a CEO call to press conference presenting the annual report.

Governmentality is a theoretical approach that developed in the late 1980s based on the French sociologist Michel Foucault. It is basically used to show how various accounting programs can disseminate in or across countries to improve management and effectiveness of organizations. Key concepts would be program, problematization and identity to show how programs can develop or change accounting practices and the people involved with them.

Actor-Network-Theory is a more recent theory and methodological approach used widely in accounting research to increase our understanding of the dynamics of accounting change. Accounting text books have taught students and practitioners on how to do things; however, frequently accounting practices turn out very different from many of the nice ideals and end up in technological controversies. Key concepts would be problematization, interessement, enrolment, framing, overflowing and performativity to in high detail understand accounting and organizational transformations and developments.

Study activities and learning methods 

There will be introductory lecturers just as participants will be assigned the task of presenting and discussing the various papers in the course.

Course literature:

Baxter, J. and Chua, W. F. Alternative accounting research, Accounting, Organizations and Society, 2003.

MacIntosh, N. Human Relations and Budgeting Systems, kapitel 2 i “The Social Software of Accounting and Information Systems”. 1985.

Birnberg et al. The Organizational Context of Accounting. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 1983.

March, J.G. (1987), Ambiguity and accounting: the elusive link between information and 
decision-making”, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 12, pp. 153-68.

Granlund, M & Lukka, K. It’s a Small World of Management Accounting Practices, in Journal of Management Accounting Research, 1998

DiMaggio, P. J. & Powell, W. W. The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields, In; Powell & DiMaggio (red.) The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991

Skærbæk, P. Annual reports as interaction devices: The hidden constructions of mediated communication. Financial Accountability and Management, 2005.

Rose, N. and Miller, P. Political power beyond the state: Problematics of government. British Journal of Sociology, 43, 173-205.

Miller, P. and O’Leary, T. 1991. Rethinking the factory: Caterpillar Inc. Cultural Values.

Callon, M. Some elements of sociology of translation: domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St. Brieuc Bay, In; J. Law, ed., Power, Action and Belief: a new Sociology of Knowledge? Sociological Review Monograph: 32, (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul), 1986, pp. 196-233.

Latour, B. Technology is society made durable, 1991. In Sociology of monsters, Ed. John Law.

Callon, M. An essay On Framing and Overflowing: Economic externalities revisited by sociology," in The Laws of the Market, M. Callon, ed., Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, pp. 244-269, 1998.

Skærbæk, P. and Thorbjørnsen, S. The commodification of the Danish Defence and the troubled identities of its officers, Financial Accountability and Management, Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 243-268, 2007.

Christensen, M. and Skærbæk, P. Consultancy outputs and the purification of accounting technologies. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 2010.

Skærbæk, P. and Tryggestad, K. The role of accounting devices in performing corporate strategy, Accounting, Organizations and Society, 2010.

Skærbæk, P. Public sector auditor identities in making efficiency auditable: The National Audit Office of Denmark as independent auditor and modernizer. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 2009.

Skærbæk, P. and Christensen, M. Auditing and the Purification of Blame. Contemporary Accounting Research. Forthcoming.

Callon, M. Civilizing markets: Carbon trading between in vitro and in vivo experiments, Accounting, Organizations and Society. 2009.

Georg, S. and Tryggestad, K. 2009. On the emergence of roles in construction: The qualculative role of project management. Construction Management and Economics, 27 (10), 969–981.

Tryggestad, K.; Justesen, L.; and Mouritsen, J. 2013. Project temporalities: how frogs can become stakeholders. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 6 (1), 69–87.

Christensen, M., Skærbæk, P. and Tryggestad, K. Calculating outsourcing strategies and a trials of strength – Time-space dynamics of the program and its projects. Working Paper 2014.

Form of assessment – individual term paper
In the final paper (approximately 7000 words) each individual student should relate their own research project to the course contents. That can be done either in terms of conducting a literature review of the course literature related to the participant’ PhD-study itself, or be an application (or sketch) of one or two of the theories taught in the course to the empirics gathered for the participants’ own study. Each participant should provide a 10-15 page summary of their project and present to the other participants. The paper should also include an analysis of the probability of meeting the scientific criteria of the chosen theoretical strand. The paper will be evaluated by the course lectures. Certificate of completion will be sent to those successfully completing all requirements, including full attendance and submission of required assignments.

Paper deadline: 31 January 2015. Please submit your paper to Peter Skærbæk. 

Examination/Grading scale

Active participation through presentations and discussions in the seminars is required. This may take the form of discussions of papers, in-class presentations. Participants should obtain a passing grade on the final paper relating their own research project to the course literature and hereby demonstrate sound judgment and high degree of independent thinking.

Use of examiners

All examination will be conducted by the lectures responsible for teaching the course.

Requirements for re-sit examinations and improving grades. Opportunity according to HiST rules.

Lectures

Peter Skærbæk, Copenhagen Business School and Trondheim Business School
Kjell Tryggestad, Copenhagen Business School

The course is conducted in English.

Meetings – Time schedule

The course meetings are scheduled during the fall 2014.

First meeting:

Second meeting:

The first meeting focuses on presenting and debating the articles on the reading list ending up in preparing for the intermediate paper writing. At the last meeting the papers are presented/commented on and further depth is provided to the articles on the reading list.