With respect to planning and budgeting, consistency
seems to be less of an issue. This could simply reflect the
fact that in financial accounting systems plans and budgets
as provided for management control purposes do not
play a significant role. Communication with shareholders
on future developments is rather based on forecast data
derived from the existing financial reports, which once
again would support the relevance of an integrated reporting.
As in a financially-oriented management control system
at least part of the short-term variable compensation is
based on accounting data, the lack of impact of integration
within performance measurement, i.e., executive compensation
issues, on controllership effectiveness is more difficult
to explain. We tentatively conclude that one reason could
be the design of the overall compensation package, which
typically includes other non-accounting based variable elements
like operating targets or stock options. Another
suggestion would be that the need for consistency in this
field is crowded out by management’s desire to adjust
financial performance measures for uncontrollable events.
It will be a matter of future research to analyze in depth
the detailed effects of MAS integration on controllership
effectiveness.